Coffee Latte Art and Taste Experiment: Is Latte Art Delicious? How Long Does It Take to Learn Latte Art

Closing Your Eyes—Seeing Latte Art Through Your Taste Buds

"No matter how busy you are, make time for a cup of coffee." This saying not only reflects how busy and hardworking modern people are, with even their leisure time being compressed, but also emphasizes that drinking coffee is a beautiful moment that shouldn't be missed. Drinking coffee during business discussions adds a relaxed atmosphere to stiff conversations. Having coffee at work makes thoughts clearer and work more efficient. Meeting friends for coffee opens the conversation box of happiness and deepens friendships. Drinking alone allows you to enjoy a moment of leisure and quietly savor life! Coffee not only soothes the tense emotions of the entire day but its charming aroma also brings us joyful feelings!

Because coffee is so wonderful, you might have noticed that many more coffee shops and cafes have appeared around us, selling countless varieties of "Italian coffee." In broad terms, so-called "Italian coffee" refers to coffee extracted with a pressurized coffee machine. Among these, "espresso" plays the most important role. Its rich flavor makes it the base for most Italian coffees, with different proportions of ingredients added to create coffee drinks with various textures and tastes—like the commonly heard cappuccino and latte, which are made by adding different proportions of milk to espresso. Our topic this time is about latte art in cappuccino coffee.

Latte art is the technique of pouring frothed milk into espresso with skilled movements, creating patterns through the interweaving of coffee and milk. This is called coffee art. Latte art has received increasing attention in recent years. Many people use whether one can create latte art as a key indicator of a barista's experience and ability, causing baristas to prioritize latte art practice. Because if a coffee has beautiful latte art, customers will surely exclaim "wow" before even drinking it, marveling at your impressive skill. Indeed, who wouldn't want to make coffee look beautiful and provide visual aesthetic pleasure? But beyond looking good, are there other aspects we should pay attention to? Many people ask me whether you can still taste the quality of coffee after adding milk. I say, of course you can, though it becomes more challenging to discern the coffee's subtleties. However, judging the quality of coffee beans isn't difficult. I've seen some baristas, in order to create patterns, froth milk too thinly, losing texture; for the sake of beautiful latte art, they use over-roasted beans, saying the black and white contrast is clearer. Even more outrageous is when they tell me that customers can't tell the difference after adding milk, so looking good is all that matters! Are customers really unable to distinguish between good and bad coffee?

My coffee tasting experience tells me that if a coffee has a heavy texture that feels burdensome, it's not good coffee. Too strong, lingering bitterness, overly sharp acidity, strong astringency, or a burnt aftertaste in the mouth—none of these are characteristics of good coffee. If any of these appear, you can know this isn't a perfect cup of coffee. Of course, adding milk modifies many flavors, but as long as you don't drink too quickly and take time to savor it, the flaws will still be apparent and won't escape our tongue. If you drink slowly, you'll definitely be able to perceive these differences!

Does Latte Art Affect Coffee's Mouthfeel?

Some people ask: Does latte art really affect the coffee's mouthfeel? Isn't it just pouring milk into coffee—can it really make a difference?

I conducted a test to experience this together with everyone:

Conditions: Two 180cc glass cups; one pitcher of frothed fresh milk, with foam evenly distributed between two cups; two single shots of espresso extracted from the same batch.

Methods:

A: Thoroughly mix coffee, milk, and foam while performing "latte art" movements.

B: First block the foam, mix milk and coffee, then add the foam.

Taste Test Report:

Cup A Performance (With Latte Art)

Visual Appearance: Shows patterned presentation, good decorative quality, visually appealing, excellent presentation.

Aroma Performance: Chocolate aroma and creamy fragrance are prominent, can directly smell the crema on the foam. One can perceive the coffee aroma immediately upon smelling.

Foam Texture: Tastes smooth, with foam that dissolves easily in the mouth, but slightly more bitter. This texture comes from the interweaving of crema and foam during latte art formation.

Overall Performance: When Cup A enters the mouth, foam and crema first touch the lips together, sliding into the mouth with rich coffee aroma. The obvious bitterness combines with the lower layer of coffee milk, reducing significantly. Nutty milk aroma appears at this moment, and sweetness increases accordingly. However, there's a more serious issue: it's less rich and lacks body! (Latte art mainly uses the interweaving of foam and crema to form patterns, so during latte art, part of the espresso sits on the foam. Comparatively, the lower layer lacks body and richness.)

Cup B Performance (Without Latte Art)

Visual Appearance: No special patterns, more white areas, doesn't particularly draw attention.

Aroma Performance: Milky sugar aroma, nutty fragrance, milk flavor is heavier, while coffee aroma stably hides behind the milk scent, soft without strong flavors.

Foam Texture: Tastes sweet with high initial sweetness, foam has good bounce and texture. Bitterness is lower as foam directly contacts our mouth without too much crema bringing out that rich foam texture.

Overall Performance: Cup B initially presents foam sweetness to the taste buds, followed by richer flavors slowly filling the initially lighter sensation. Coffee texture increases, highlighting chocolate aroma. The original heavy milk flavor is smoothed out by the underlying coffee, and concentration also increases! (The upper layer has rich milk aroma, clean and delicate foam texture; the lower coffee layer has fuller coffee texture with long-lasting aroma and rich mouthfeel. As it slides into the mouth, it presents milk's delicacy and sweetness. When coffee follows, it pushes the rich coffee texture into our taste buds in waves, making it less likely to notice any textural burden.)

Understanding the Differences

Because of the mouthfeel differences described above, we understand—

If today we're making coffee for a beverage market that values presentation, for customers who want to take photos, we must choose to create latte art because it's visually beautiful. The naturally flowing lines are also a way to showcase a barista's skilled technique. Different patterns always create the urge to take a sip. If this is what you want to achieve, latte art coffee belongs to this category!

If you want to make a coffee that allows people to taste layers, providing a smooth mouthfeel experience, it might not have eye-catching presentation or gorgeous decoration, and of course, it lacks opportunities for the barista to show off skills. If tasting delicious coffee is what you value, then coffee without latte art belongs to this category!

That being said, what barista doesn't want to show off their skills? If a barista truly loves coffee, they will choose good coffee beans, extract espresso perfectly, and create delicate, fine foam. This has always been GEORGE HOUSE's unchanging principle—only pursuing good coffee, nothing else matters. If there's a way to have both benefits next time, please let me know.

After tasting these two coffees, the mouthfeel tells us that with exactly the same ingredients, different blending methods can produce surprisingly different results. Whether in appearance, aroma, or mouthfeel, they are truly different, which amazed the students who tried coffee with me. Similarly, it reminds us bar staff that coffee is a delicate beverage. Even if the coffee beans used are consistent, different preparation methods will still produce different mouthfeel results!

When you have time, I hope everyone can try making coffee themselves. If you have any questions, you're welcome to discuss them together.

Find time to visit FrontStreet Coffee to have coffee with us. After all..."No matter how busy you are, make time for a cup of coffee"!

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