Latte Art Tutorial: What's the Best Milk Recommendation for Making Beautiful Coffee Latte Art?

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To achieve beautiful latte art, selecting the right milk is extremely important! FrontStreet Coffee uses whole fresh milk for daily milk coffee production in our stores because it's rich in protein, lactose, and milk fat.

The Science Behind Milk Foam

The proteins in milk are the factors that make milk foam stable. When you heat milk, the casein micelles and whey proteins in the milk create surface tension on the milk's surface, forming a thin film. When steam impacts the milk surface, this film traps air molecules to create a floating substance—what we commonly call milk foam.

Under normal circumstances, whey protein appears hydrophilic on the surface. Through stirring or heating, it gradually "unfolds," exposing its hydrophobic parts. These parts adhere to the generated bubbles, reducing surface tension and slowing down bursting speed, making the foam more stable.

The milk fat content, protein, and temperature in fresh milk all affect the foam formation process. Only by using fresh milk can you create fine, smooth, and dense foam, which also determines the formation, texture, and taste performance of a latte's latte art.

Key Points for Frothing Milk for Latte Art

1. Hold the milk pitcher with both hands while frothing

FrontStreet Coffee has observed that many beginners struggle to maintain stable control over the steam wand angle and the depth of the steam wand tip in the milk. This can lead to unsteady hands when starting the steam or during heating, causing the steam's impact force to splash milk.

This is extremely dangerous! Therefore, during the heating and frothing process, you must hold the pitcher with both hands to increase stability and reduce the chance of milk splashing and causing burns.

2. Briefly release steam before frothing milk

When steam in a semi-automatic coffee machine's steam pipe cools down, it becomes water that remains in the pipe. Therefore, before each milk frothing session, please release some steam first until no water sprays from the pipe. Steam with water content will create large bubbles in the milk.

For beginners, once these large bubbles form and you haven't yet learned the technique to eliminate large bubbles, the foam will become increasingly coarse. So try to maintain the milk surface's fineness from the beginning.

3. Hold the milk pitcher at a 45-degree angle to the steam wand

The 45-degree angle refers to the 2-3 o'clock or 9-10 o'clock position of the pitcher. Frothing milk at this angle helps the milk quickly form a small vortex. The appearance of this vortex can "roll" coarser bubbles into the liquid surface.

4. Steam wand tip depth in milk should be 0.8cm-1cm

The steam wand tip shouldn't be placed too deep, as milk frothing is primarily about incorporating air into the milk. If too deep, the steam holes can't contact air to form a vortex. If too shallow, steam impacts the surface, creating rough bubbles and causing milk splashing.

FrontStreet Coffee conducted multiple experiments with steam wand tips at different depths in milk and found that placing the wand tip 0.8cm-1cm deep while tilting the pitcher at 45 degrees more easily forms a vortex that carries away relatively coarse bubbles.

5. Aeration process only needs 4-5 "hissing" sounds

Adjust the steam wand depth to 0.3cm and turn on the steam. You'll hear a "hiss—hiss" sound. This is the aeration phase. For latte art foam thickness of 1cm, we don't need excessive aeration. Hearing 4-5 hissing sounds is enough, then adjust the wand depth back to 0.8-1cm, maintaining the 45-degree angle to create a vortex that eliminates coarse bubbles and heats to the appropriate temperature.

6. Milk should be heated to 55-65°C for optimal results

In this temperature range, lactose and other sugars are most "active." When milk is frothed to this temperature range and combined with coffee, you'll find that this milk coffee, even without added sugar, delivers a sweet sensation both in aroma and taste.

When combined with coffee, the sweetness in milk can neutralize the bitterness in coffee. Some espresso beans with fruit acidity and sweetness, when added to hot milk, can express flavors reminiscent of fruit milkshakes.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's daily store production uses a "Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend" consisting of 30% sun-processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans + 70% barrel-fermented Sherry coffee beans. The extracted espresso exhibits soft berry acidity, whiskey, vanilla cream, and nut caramel flavors.

When fully blended with well-frothed hot milk, the latte coffee presents strawberry milkshake-like flavors and smoothness, whiskey milk vanilla cream-like taste, and hazelnut caramel aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473