Coffee Latte Art Tips Sharing: Simple Heart Coffee Latte Art Tutorial for Beginners

For many coffee enthusiasts, latte art holds a special allure. It might seem simple at first glance—just a gentle pour creates hearts, tulips, and other designs. However, when you try it yourself, you'll find yourself wondering: why does the milk come out in clumps? Forget about creating rosettas or small swans—sometimes even a basic heart seems impossible! Don't worry though. FrontStreet Coffee is here today to share some latte art tips with you.

1. Flowable Milk Foam

Before we can create latte art, we need a pitcher of suitable milk foam. The milk foam we use for latte art should be of medium thickness—neither too thin nor too thick. Otherwise, it will just float on top of the coffee when poured. So how do we achieve the perfect milk foam?

Finding the Right Steam Wand Position

Generally, the steam wand should be positioned at approximately the 2-3 o'clock or 9-10 o'clock direction relative to the milk pitcher, with the pitcher's spout at 12 o'clock. This is because when we froth milk, we use steam to make it rotate quickly and form a small vortex, which can incorporate larger air bubbles into the milk, resulting in a smooth, velvety texture after frothing.

Once we've found the right position, we need to determine the proper depth. It's not necessarily better to place it deeper—after all, milk frothing mainly involves incorporating air into the milk. If the steam wand is too deep, how can it contact air? Of course, placing it too shallow isn't ideal either, because if it's too close to the surface, the milk might splatter when steam is applied, or the steam might be too strong, creating excessive foam.

We generally use about 1cm depth as a baseline. If the espresso machine's steam is too strong, creating an overly large vortex or turbulent flow, you can position the steam wand deeper (such as 1.5cm). If the machine's steam isn't strong enough, you can place the steam wand at a shallower position (such as 0.5cm or even less). This allows the milk to form a small vortex quickly without rotating too violently or creating turbulent flow.

Suitable Milk Foam

When frothing milk, we should hear a hissing sound. If you don't hear it, it might be because the steam wand is too deep, in which case you can raise the pitcher slightly. If there's no hissing or sound at all, it means the frothing process isn't happening. When the milk expands to about 80% full, tilt the steam wand toward the center-right side of the steel pitcher, near the rim, allowing the milk foam to roll in a vortex pattern. This mixes the foam and milk well while helping to refine the foam consistency.

Temperature

It's also important to ensure the milk isn't too hot, though it shouldn't be too cold either. We generally recommend a temperature between 60-65°C. If the temperature is too high, it can easily cause burns and the foam becomes unstable. Additionally, if the milk temperature is too high, the proteins inside will change, affecting the taste quality.

2. Integration

Before creating latte art, there's another crucial step: integration. Many people might think integration isn't that important—isn't it just casually pouring milk foam in a few circles?

But integration actually lays the foundation for latte art, and the quality of integration determines the mouthfeel of the coffee. Integration is typically done with a relatively fine flow of milk. A well-integrated milk coffee should have good flowability. The scope of integration is closely related to the thickness of your milk foam—the thicker the foam, the poorer the flowability, requiring a wider range of motion during integration to ensure the coffee surface maintains flowability.

Before practicing with milk, you should practice with water. Try tilting the coffee cup at a 45-degree angle and pour a consistent stream of water into the cup. Start by pouring at a fixed point, then try pouring at different heights and in circular motions at a consistent speed. Finally, combine height variation with circular motion. The hand holding the cup should gradually straighten as you pour. Remember that the pouring stream should not be interrupted before beginning the latte art design.

3. Holding the Pitcher and Cup

The way you hold the cup during latte art also matters. Do you hold it from the bottom, side, or handle? Regardless of your method, the most important thing is that it feels comfortable and flexible in your hand; otherwise, creating patterns might feel awkward later. We typically hold the cup with the handle facing us, so when we serve it to the customer, the design will face them directly.

When creating latte art, you should tilt the cup appropriately to bring the pitcher closer to the coffee. Otherwise, if the cup is too upright and too far from the pitcher, it becomes difficult to control.

There are two common ways to hold the latte art pitcher: one is gripping the pitcher's handle, and the other is pinching the handle. Gripping the handle allows you to use wrist strength for broader movements, creating more spectacular patterns; pinching the handle enables fine adjustments with your fingers for more delicate designs.

Additionally, the pitcher's spout should maintain a vertical relationship with the cup. Otherwise, the resulting pattern will easily lean to one side, lacking symmetry.

4. Practice!

No amount of technique is useful without practice! As the saying goes, "Talk is cheap, practice makes perfect." If milk coffee is too expensive for practice, you can use dish soap and soy sauce! After all, these are skills that become perfect through practice—there's no such thing as cloud-based practice!

Of course, it's not just about mindlessly pouring countless times. It's best to summarize the experience from each cup after practice, then pour it back and start over. Only by善于总结 (being good at summarizing) will you make significant progress.

Important Notice :

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