This website has a lot of talk about local coffee shops. But I want to take a week to dedicate time to speaking about one of my favorite parts of coffee: latte art. From the first day of my time as a barista, I had big dreams of becoming a latte artist. To me, there is nothing better than ordering a cappuccino that has awesome art on top.
I remember the first time I experienced latte art was in high school at a local coffee shop, Brewhemia, in my hometown. It was around Halloween time, and I ordered a hot latte. When the cup was brought to me, there was a pumpkin smiling back at me. Latte art is not common at chain coffee shops like Starbucks or Dunkin. Local coffee shop baristas are the Picasso’s of the coffee world. Let me give you some pointers on how to make the perfect design for your at-home lattes.
- Milk consistency is everything. You want to make sure you are frothing your milk well! The best consistency to get you that perfect pour looks like wet paint when you move it around. You don’t want any bubbles on top, so if you see any, pat your cup a few times on the counter to get rid of those bubbles. You want to kiss your milk on your frother 3 or 4 times to get the perfect amount of air, creating that wet paint look. If you don’t have good milk, you don’t have good latte art.
- When you are getting ready to pour, make sure you create a solid base in your cup. Hold the pitcher away from the cup and make a couple of circles for your perfect base. Once you are about halfway up the cup, the fun part begins.
- Get super close to the center of the cup, almost touching the base coffee you’ve made. Use your hand and create a very gentle swivel motion with your hand. You’ll see a base of white foam forming to create the art. When you have a decent-sized circle, life up and do the same motion. Repeat this! When you have all the circles you want, pour a line through the middle of these circles. There you have it! LATTE ART.