How to Create Perfect Coffee Latte Art with Milk Beginner's Guide to Heart Latte Art Techniques What Milk is Best for Latte Art

Is Latte Art Really That Important?

A latte with beautiful latte art can indeed enhance customers' impression of a coffee shop, increase customer satisfaction, and showcase the barista's technical skills.

Although it may seem complex, with the right milk that creates properly thick, fine, and flowable microfoam, and an espresso extraction with perfect crema, making latte art at home isn't actually difficult! Follow FrontStreet Coffee to learn how to create the simplest heart-shaped latte art.

Perfect Latte Art Requirements

The perfect presentation of latte art requires these conditions: stable and fine microfoam, even integration of milk and espresso, and properly extracted espresso.

What Milk is Best for Latte Art?

First, we need to choose milk rich in milk fat, protein, and lactose to create a latte with rich flavor and full, smooth texture. FrontStreet Coffee recommends choosing fresh milk that requires refrigeration.

The stability of microfoam is affected by casein micelles and whey protein in milk. The presence of casein micelles creates surface tension on the milk. When steam hits the milk surface, it forms many bubbles of varying sizes. Then, adjusting the steam wand position creates a vortex in the milk that "breaks up" larger bubbles, resulting in fine microfoam as smooth as silk.

The lactose content determines the milk's sweetness. The ideal temperature for milk frothing is between 55-65°C, never exceeding 70°C. In these temperature ranges, 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 tastes sweet both in aroma and flavor, even without adding sugar.

How to Extract Espresso for Latte

After preparing suitable fresh milk, we need to use a dedicated espresso machine to extract espresso. For beautiful latte art, the espresso crema is very important, and for a delicious latte, the flavor of the espresso itself is crucial.

To extract espresso with rich, appropriate crema, balanced flavor, and sufficient intensity, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using fresh medium-dark roast espresso blend beans, which will prepare you well for latte art. FrontStreet Coffee currently sells 4 types of espresso blend beans, including the "Premium Blend Coffee Beans" made of 70% Brazilian coffee beans + 30% Colombian coffee beans, which is very suitable for home/commercial use. Besides its nut, caramel, roasted peanut, and cream aromas, it can easily extract dense golden espresso crema and offers excellent value for money.

The formation of espresso crema occurs when carbon dioxide in coffee beans becomes saturated in a vacuum-pressurized environment and mixes with water and coffee soluble substances as they are extracted together, thus forming fine golden foam. The fresher the coffee beans, the more carbon dioxide they contain, the thicker the espresso crema will be, affecting the liquid's flowability.

All coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are sent out within 5 days after roasting. According to FrontStreet Coffee's actual experience, espresso extracted from espresso beans between 7-30 days after the roasting date is very suitable for latte making, both in terms of crema and flavor. Therefore, after receiving the coffee beans, you can check the roasting date on the back label to decide when to use them.

The entire espresso extraction process is very fast, with espresso typically completing extraction in 25-30 seconds. However, since every espresso machine and grinder has different performance characteristics, there isn't a specific parameter reference for espresso extraction.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee can only provide everyone with an initial parameter, and you can adjust it based on the final espresso flavor: use 20g of coffee grounds at a 1:2 ratio + 9bar pressure + 94°C hot water to extract 40g of coffee liquid, with extraction time between 25-30 seconds. Then judge whether the espresso meets your requirements through tasting.

How to Froth Milk for Latte Art?

Espresso machines are equipped with steam wands responsible for heating milk and creating microfoam. Before frothing milk each time, please purge the steam first until no water sprays from the wand. Steam with water will create large bubbles when frothing milk.

Then tilt the milk pitcher at a 45-degree angle (in the 2-3 o'clock or 9-10 o'clock direction), and place the steam wand 0.8-1cm below the liquid surface. Frothing milk at this angle allows the milk to quickly form a small vortex. The appearance of the vortex can "roll" coarser foam into the liquid surface. If the steam wand is placed too deep, the steam holes cannot contact air to create a vortex. If too shallow, steam impacts the liquid surface, creating rough bubbles and causing milk to splash.

The thickness of microfoam depends on the foam produced when steam properly contacts the liquid surface, which we call the aeration process. The longer the aeration time, the more foam produced, and the thicker the microfoam will be. Adjust the steam tip depth to 0.3cm and turn on the steam switch, and you'll hear a "hiss—hiss" sound.

This is the aeration stage. For latte art, we need microfoam thickness of 1cm, so we don't need excessive aeration. After hearing the hissing sound 4-5 times, adjust the steam wand depth back to 0.8-1cm, maintain the 45-degree angle to create a vortex that eliminates large bubbles and heats to the appropriate temperature.

How to Create Heart-Shaped Latte Art?

Prepare the espresso and pour it into a latte cup. Prepare hot milk with fine microfoam and shake the milk pitcher at a fixed point until the foam surface is smooth and layered, then tilt the cup and pour in a circular motion to fully mix the milk and coffee until the cup is 70% full.

Then start pouring from a point about one-quarter from the side of the latte art pitcher. This way, the entire heart will be centered.

To let the microfoam flow above the coffee surface, after creating the convection flow, we just need to slowly straighten the cup. The pouring point gradually moves from the one-quarter position toward the center, while the left hand slowly returns the cup to upright, and the right hand slowly raises the pitcher spout to prepare for finishing.

The finishing motion is very important - many people ruin their latte art at this stage. When the cup reaches 90% full, prepare to finish. During finishing, you need to reduce the flow rate, raise the pitcher spout, move along the axis to the bottom of the heart, and decisively cut the flow. This will create a short tail.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473