Different Coffee Cup Latte Art Techniques and Effects_Best Coffee Beans for Latte Art Recommendations

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What kind of latte art coffee beans are suitable for coffee latte art?

Different coffee cups require different techniques and will produce different latte art effects.

Tall Cups:

Tall cups and thick milk foam are a perfect match. Using tall cups gives you enough time for proper integration. Adequate integration makes the coffee taste better and also strengthens the pattern formation during latte art, creating clear latte art patterns. However, the prerequisite is that there must be enough milk foam. Some people will only pour hot milk into the cup before forming the pattern and save the milk foam for last use in latte art. This is incorrect - the crema gets dispersed, and the milk foam and coffee cannot integrate properly, resulting in poor taste.

Short Cups with Flat Bottoms:

Cups with flat bottoms have a larger bottom area, which will create two phenomena:

1. The crema is relatively thin.

2. Turbulence is easily created when pouring milk foam.

Therefore, people generally tilt the cup, lay down the milk foam first, then gradually level the cup to perform the latte art action (tilting the cup has another purpose - pay attention to future sections, and you observant readers will surely find it).

Short Cups with Round Bottoms:

This type is relatively easy to master, and latte art patterns appear more easily, but because the cup body is shorter, the latte art time is relatively shorter compared to tall cups.

Cup Opening Diameter:

Large cup opening diameter = more time for latte art after laying down milk foam.

Picture

V = h * pi * r²

Of course, this is just approximate - the cup opening has a slight slope, so calculating the exact volume requires calculus.

But do you see that a larger cup opening diameter means a larger volume of milk can be injected during latte art? Do you see that you have more time for latte art?

A large cup opening also means you have more space to create patterns, so this type of cup is suitable for complex patterns. However, you should also note that when the area increases, the milk foam will become thinner, and the mouthfeel will be slightly worse.

TIPS:

1. Beginners are advised to first practice latte art with short, round-bottomed, large-diameter coffee cups, and then try other types of cups after mastering the technique to feel the difference.

2. The material of the cup is also very important. Choose ones with good heat preservation, which are quite useful for preserving crema and maintaining the temperature of the finished product.

3. Can't find a short, round-bottomed, large-diameter coffee cup to practice with? Check your kitchen - do your rice bowls fit these descriptions? However, note that general rice bowls don't have very good heat preservation, so just use them as practice tools. When tasting coffee, find a better coffee cup.

The Science Behind Latte Art

Let me briefly explain the principle of latte art formation first, which will make the following explanation easier to understand. Simply put, to make a good latte art latte: high-quality espresso and dense milk foam are indispensable.

Coffee beans, under high temperature and pressure, will emulsify the insoluble oils in the coffee powder, while a large amount of carbon dioxide will be dissolved into the liquid. At this time, to stabilize these small bubbles, coffee uses "melanoidins" to make these bubbles stable and elastic - this is what we commonly call crema. And how to obtain high-quality crema? First, fresh coffee beans are most crucial. Using fresh coffee beans during the extraction process can make the crema lasting, sufficient, and rich. Next, the correct grind size is an important reason for extracting high-quality crema. Incorrect grind size will cause the coffee flow to be too fast or too slow, thus preventing the crema from reaching its optimal state.

Another important key is the formation of milk foam. The difference between milk and milk foam lies in the fact that during the milk foam frothing process, the addition of steam causes milk proteins to form many dense, fine bubbles under surface tension. High fat content can make the milk foam structure more stable and lasting, so skim milk is not easy to froth.

When we have prepared a shot of espresso and frothed a cup of milk foam, we need to understand what kind of cups are suitable for making coffee that looks good and tastes good.

Choosing the Right Cup for Latte Art

1. Cups with large surface areas are favorable for latte art

With the same capacity, a larger cup opening is more conducive to pattern formation. As mentioned earlier, latte art is formed by the integration of coffee crema and milk foam, and it is precisely the relative movement between these two that allows latte art patterns to be well presented. Therefore, cups with large openings make the entire pattern more extended and full. But does that mean the larger the opening, the better? Actually, not necessarily. Latte art patterns need to be supported by crema of a certain thickness. Excessively large cup openings make the crema thinner, so an appropriately large opening is key to cup selection. Generally, choosing a coffee cup with an opening diameter of about 11cm is better.

2. Small capacity? Large capacity!

In addition to advantages in surface area or cup opening diameter, large-capacity coffee cups can also better integrate milk and coffee during the milk pouring process to obtain a milk coffee with harmonious mouthfeel. Additionally, large-capacity coffee cups allow baristas to better control their rhythm and more skillfully control the milk flow rate during pouring. In contrast, small-capacity coffee cups require consistently controlling fine flow rates during production, otherwise the flow will be too fast, making it impossible to create latte art patterns. Therefore, in terms of fault tolerance, large-capacity coffee cups have the upper hand in latte art.

3. Short cups are better for pattern formation than tall cups

I believe many barista friends have discovered this problem - they can always create beautiful latte art when making coffee for customers in the shop, but sometimes in to-go cups, latte art seems less easy. This is because the taller the cup, the greater the gravitational potential energy of milk injection, making it easier to disperse the crema on the coffee surface. Not only that, when you carefully observe baristas making latte art, you'll find they try to keep the milk pitcher close to the liquid surface, minimizing the angle between the pitcher and coffee liquid to facilitate smooth milk foam flow. But when using to-go cups for latte art, this undoubtedly increases the difficulty.

4. Cups with curved bottoms are easier for pattern formation

In many coffee shops, we can see this type of mug on the left. This type of mug often gives people a "substantial" feeling.

But wanting to use this type of mug for latte art is truly not easy, because the bottom of the mug is relatively flat. When we tilt the coffee cup, the angle ∠ABC is smaller than the angle ∠DEF. This structure makes the surface area of crema in ABC smaller, while the area of crema in angle ∠DEF is larger. At the same time, when we inject milk at point E偏向 point F position (blue area), because the slope is relatively gentle, it's not easy for the milk to rebound to the surface. Therefore, coffee cups with curved bottoms are easier for making latte art.

5. Cup thickness is crucial

Some coffee shops like to use beautiful cups as their coffee serving cups. Beautiful cups can indeed meet customers' purchase expectations, but thin-walled coffee cups are first not good at heat preservation, and second are really not suitable for latte art. Generally common latte cups have wall thicknesses of about 3-5mm, while these beautiful coffee cups often have wall thicknesses of only 1-2mm. During the latte art process, to ensure the stability of the coffee cup, the correct posture is to wrap the entire coffee cup in the palm. When the milk is completely frothed to the optimal latte art temperature, about 60-65 degrees, as the milk is injected, this temperature often makes baristas "unable to handle it."

Recommended Latte Art Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted latte art coffee beans - commercial blended espresso coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the cost-performance ratio is extremely high. A half-pound 454-gram package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculated at 10 grams of coffee powder per espresso shot, one package can make 45 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 1.5 yuan. Compared to coffee shop prices that often sell for twenty or thirty yuan per cup, this is an extremely high cost-performance ratio.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473