Learn Latte Art Like a True Hipster


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Even though latte art seems complex due to its aesthetic appeal, learning how to make beautiful designs with your speciality beverages is relatively easy. After familiarizing yourself with the basics of foam art, your potential is limitless. Success lies in fundamental knowledge, substantial practice, and extreme creativity.

What is latte art?

latte art

Latte art is a method of preparing specialty coffee beverages with the goal of producing a unique design or pattern on the top. These beverages need to contain at least espresso and milk; therefore any drink with the basic components of espresso, frothymilk, and milk foam qualifies no matter the quantity of each, able to be enhanced with latte art.

latte art

While these characteristics define latte art, an individual may use various techniques in order to achieve these beautiful and creative patterns. One of the main techniques is the free pour method.
This method involves pouring steamed milk from a pitcher into a cup of espresso. Wrist movement and control determine what pattern results. The two most popular designs created from the free pour method are the Heart and the Rosetta, pictured to the left and above, respectively.

Etching latte art can be tricky at times, but the perfect tools create the perfect latte art. There are many different tools you an buy online or in stores, and there are many different alternatives if you do not have the ability to go out and get them. Toothpicks work great, and so do unused bobby pins. Anything small enough to be able to separate the milk on top of the latte works perfect. You can make art in the way you tilt the cup and the way your wrist is facing when you pour the milk into the latte itself. Etching tools can be found almost anywhere online including amazon and eBay as well as any coffee website. Etching is very common in cafes and coffee shops and you may ask them where they found their etching tool. Look at the picture below to see what an etching tool looks like.

There are many videos you can watch to perfect your latte art and we suggest that you practice as much as possible and try out different designs and tools in order for your skill to be heightened greatly. These simple and inexpensive tools will be a life savor while trying to master this art.

How to Make Latte Art

You can do this, you have every reason to believe that you can do this everyday! Once you learn, you’ll be unstoppable. This is a skill that everyone will be so jealous of and no one else will understand just how you do it. It’s all in the wrist, and all in the self control and wrist control. If you are looking into latte art, then you have to be a fan of drinking them too. The only bad thing about these drinks is the price when you are out and about. Learn how to make these from home and learn how to perfect it.

First off, you want to keep it clean. There are a few things you need before you are able to do this from home though. Below you will find a bullet point list of things you will need to own before you try.

  • Espresso Machine
  • Commercial grade milk steaming wand
  • Milk frothing pitcher
  • Milk
  • Rounded cup

If you have the following things along with a utensil to help make the art, then you should be perfect!

Clean your steaming wand after every use, and make sure it is cleaned well every time. Any extra particles in the cup will result in extra particles in the latte art which results in latte art that is imperfect and choppy. As long as you just rinse it out and clean it after wards and before, then you should be splendid. Make sure to angle the top of the steaming wand away from you because the water vapor can get very hot at times.

Source: http://makezine.com/2016/01/03/skill-builder-steam-milk/

Next, fill the little cup with milk about to the bottom of the spout. The milk does not need to be either hot or cold, it can be whatever kind of milk you want as well.  Keep the wand in the milk as shown in the image above. Turn the wand on and keep it on. Next you want to raise up the wand to where you hear a couple of hisses and noises.

How to know when you’ve raised the wand too far: When it starts violently making a hiccup noise, you have raised it too far. You do not want it to bubble. Bubbling is another way of knowing that you’ve gone too far.

To see if the milk is doing the right thing and working properly you can tilt the pitcher into you and look at the milk inside. The milk should be swirling evenly, not chunky at all.

When the milk reaches about 140-180 degrees, turn off the wand. You will be able to tell by the sound it starts to make.

Alright now were ready to get started. All the prep work is done. Give the pitcher a tap on the counter, but be careful that none spills from your hands because it will be fairly hot. If you do not put the wand in the whole way, then it will make the latte art more difficult to do.

Pour the coffee or espresso into the rounded cup, then pour the steamed milk into the cup and swirl away using your tools!

The hard part is making the milk perfect for the latte, and the easy part is experimenting with the art work on top. you can make hearts, animals, all sorts of things with the right techniques. The artwork is all in the way you

If these guidelines fail to make the process of latte art clear and you benefit from visual instruction, you may find tutorials on YouTube helpful. Thanks to the recent popularity of this practice, the internet is flooded with endless techniques and designs.

Latte Art Designs

Once you master the basics of latte art, the world is at your fingertips! You can devise your own designs, manipulate ones with which you have had success, or scour the web for more complex ideas. Here are some suggestions, in order of increasing difficultly, which will spark your creativity and challenge your foam art skills.

Explaining latte art over text is difficult to follow, so you will benefit greatly from watching video tutorials and trying it out yourself on a pot of coffee at home. You can look things up on youtube and you will be able to find just about anything.

This video is a 45 second tutorial on one of the easiest ways to make latte art. Follow this one first, which is suggested to try before trying a hard design with any tools. Latte art is basically just painting on coffee.

This video is only ONE minute long, and shows you another basic way of creating latte art. You will benefit more from watching the videos than from reading any article about how to make the designs.

Go to youtube and type in the search bar anything you want to design and almost anything will come up right away, even something as crazy as a dog or a kangaroo.

AMATEUR LATTE ARTIST:

These amateur latte designs would be perfect for people who don’t have very much experience.

Visit http://www.home-barista.com to see how other amateurs design their art work and how they get a good handle on it.

Source: https://coffeeinfo.wordpress.com/a-guide-to-latte-art-free-pour/

As you can see in the image above, this specific latte art looks very easy to do for people who are not looking to be professionals in this part of art. You just need to move the cup back and forth in order to make this design.

Source: https://baristahustle.com/does-latte-art-make-coffee-taste-worse/

Experiment with these cool tools and designs at home. If you play around with it first, you might discover something new and unique to your taste and personality.

SEASONED LATTE ARTIST:

Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304547704579562562114201786

This latte art is perfect for halloween! Seasonal latte art is very common in cafes and coffee shops in large cities and small towns. The ones for fall and spring are the most common ones, because of the pretty leaves and flowers that can be done on the latte top. People love when leaves are on their coffee and adore fall themed things.

EXPERT LATTE ARTIST:

These expert latte designs will become possible as you continue your practice in latte art over the years. As you see in the picture below, this is a very high class design, probably one of the best ones out there due to its difficulty and opposite design, having the dark part of the art work be the main part. This is very unique and rare in the latte art world to see such a design in casual living, but with extensive training and practicing it can be achieved.

latte art

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