What's your process for pouring 2 lattes from a single pitcher of milk? Do you re-swirl the pitcher before pouring the 2nd latte? Or do you pour them back-to-back without additional swirling? For some reason, my 1st latte always comes out perfect as expected, but on the 2nd pour the milk seems to flatten and lose its thick creamy micro-foam. I'm making them fairly quickly so I don't believe it's a speed issue. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot from here...

You could try milk sharing with a second pitcher...

Why do championships show Baristas using TWO pitchers for steaming?

That's what Dritan Alsela does in this video:

Wow, what a workflow!
That's funny, I have the opposite situation if I pour two cappas from the same pitcher, the first one I can't get any art on but the second is fine. I just do it to save washing another pitcher.

I share between pitchers as well, but nowhere near 50-50. If I pour over too much milk, the remainder has too little foam. For 2 cappas I use a 0.5 liter pitcher for steaming plus a 0.3 liter one to share. For 2 macchiatos I use the 0.3 liter plus a shotglass to share.

Using 2 pitchers is a no-go for me. That would over-complicate the issue when I'm just trying to get my wife and I a latte in the morning. I was hoping there was an error in my workflow that was preventing me from making 2 perfect lattes from a single pitcher / steaming-cycle.

caffeinatedjen wrote:Wow, what a workflow!
That's funny, I have the opposite situation if I pour two cappas from the same pitcher, the first one I can't get any art on but the second is fine. I just do it to save washing another pitcher.

I used to have this exact same problem when milk sharing until I watched the video linked in here. What I noticed was that Dritan actually pours the milk back and forth a couple times. At first I thought he was doing it just to give himself the "perfect" amount of milk in the pitcher. But I realized he does that to incorporate the milk throughout the pitcher better. If you only pour it from 1 pitcher to the second pitcher 1 time, you will never get good microfoam in both pitchers. Even if you swirl it around so it looks like wet paint, the majority of that microfoam is still in the top half of the pitcher.

I actually just had my first ever instance of good latte art from milk sharing 2 days ago.

Just have to move that milk around more!

My personal experience will be like this:



I use 350ml milk jug which has shorter spout (cheaper) to estimate my milk dosing at the beginning of my frothing preparation. I will prepare then another 350ml Motta style - long spout jug for latte-art pouring at the end of the game.



Begin by frothing the milk with the milk level just below the lower spout and end up with the same part covered up with microfoam. I tend to over-aerate the milk so I get thicker microfoam in between latte-art and cappuccino. After frothing I will try to move my jug in an angle to see how thick and sticky the foam is. When it is too foamy then I pour the milk into the motta jug, leaving the thick microfoam slightly behind.

Swirl polish my milk in the motta jug, then my milk will be totally incorporated and the success rate is higher than using single jug.

This method also works on preparing two caffe lattes with a single frothing session. You just need bigger jug to begin with (500ml is okay) then work your frothing like usual but at the end of the milk frothing try to incorporate and polish the milk first before you share half of the milk to the motta jug.

Cheers,


Kelvin

HB wrote:That's what Dritan Alsela does in this video:

mrfunkyjay wrote:Begin by frothing the milk with the milk level just below the lower spout and end up with the same part covered up with microfoam. I tend to over-aerate the milk so I get thicker microfoam in between latte-art and cappuccino. After frothing I will try to move my jug in an angle to see how thick and sticky the foam is. When it is too foamy then I pour the milk into the motta jug, leaving the thick microfoam slightly behind.

Swirl polish my milk in the motta jug, then my milk will be totally incorporated and the success rate is higher than using single jug.

Dan and Kelvin, thank you! I've just learnt something new!


I would always use just one small pitcher (enough for just one latte) to froth milk. After frothing was complete I would swirl the milk in the pitcher to mix it. Otherwise it tend to have a layer of thick foam on top, and much more liquid layer below it - no way to do any latte art.

Now I tried using two pitchers (I have a bigger pitcher that was included in my old Breville the Infuser, that was hanging around without much use). It is so much simpler to get great results!

So, I stretch milk in the smaller pitcher, then without any swirling pour it into the bigger one, and then back into the small. Done! Perfectly mixed and ready to go!

tonythewonderful wrote:Dan and Kelvin, thank you! I've just learnt something new!


I would always use just one small pitcher (enough for just one latte) to froth milk. After frothing was complete I would swirl the milk in the pitcher to mix it. Otherwise it tend to have a layer of thick foam on top, and much more liquid layer below it - no way to do any latte art.

Now I tried using two pitchers (I have a bigger pitcher that was included in my old Breville the Infuser, that was hanging around without much use). It is so much simpler to get great results!

So, I stretch milk in the smaller pitcher, then without any swirling pour it into the bigger one, and then back into the small. Done! Perfectly mixed and ready to go!

Hey Tony what a great news that was!! I was very happy to be able to share some experiences with you.

The worse thing about learning latte art is you never done the milk frothing correctly. You end up having microfoam but it is rather too thick or too thin, cannot do any art with those. By using the technique of avoiding microfoam separation by means of using multiple jugs, you can always have a frothed milk ready to do the art!!

Try minimizing your failure by getting your milk frothed perfectly from time to time, then you never need second jug.

Since latte art is an art you cannot redo at the first place, having a correct frothed milk is surely a very important thing to have.

Keep frothin'!!!