Essential Guide for Coffee Beginners: How to Create Beautiful Latte Art with Illustrated Techniques

Are you someone who has experienced this moment: "Watching other baristas pour latte art as silky smooth as Dove chocolate, but when it's your turn, it's a completely different story!" Even though your milk foam is silky smooth and your espresso crema is just right, you get stuck when it comes to latte art... This situation might be caused by uneven fusion between your milk and coffee.

(With proper fusion, even a basin-sized latte art is possible)

The "Fusion" of Milk and Coffee

The "fusion" step not only affects the creation of latte art patterns but also influences the overall taste of the entire latte. Imagine if milk and espresso weren't properly fused—when you start sipping, the foam's taste would have a very "layered" quality. (Suddenly bitter, then suddenly mild...) And because this step appears so simple, many people overlook its importance, casually swirling a few circles and calling it fusion.

(Left: Even fusion Right: Uneven fusion)

What Counts as "Even Fusion"

When milk and coffee are evenly fused, the coffee surface shows uniform color (a soft golden yellow), the milk foam texture is fine, and there are no obvious bubbles around the latte art pattern. FrontStreet Coffee calls this ring of coffee the "golden circle."

Even Fusion Isn't Difficult!

Quickly grab a notebook and jot down these tips~

/ Moderate Espresso Crema Thickness

Espresso crema isn't better the thicker/richer it is, as this increases the difficulty of achieving even fusion between milk and coffee crema. Of course, the crema can't be too thin either—thin crema can't stabilize the foam's movement, and you might experience unexpected "drifting" during latte art.

The ideal crema thickness for making lattes should be around 0.7cm—viscous and rich while maintaining fluidity. Overly fresh espresso beans contain large amounts of carbon dioxide, resulting in relatively thick crema; stale espresso beans lack sufficient carbon dioxide, so they can't produce enough crema and appear thin.

(Science fact: Espresso crema is produced because espresso extraction requires high-pressure rapid extraction. At 9Bar pressure in a sealed environment, carbon dioxide and water exist in a supersaturated state. Meanwhile, coffee oils are emulsified and encapsulate carbon dioxide, extracting together with the coffee liquid. Since oils are lighter than water, the extracted coffee gradually separates, causing the golden crema to float to the surface.)

/ Milk Foam Thickness & Fineness

The ideal milk foam thickness for lattes is 1cm. When frothing milk, we can stop aerating after hearing 4-5 hissing sounds and then tilt the milk pitcher to 45 degrees to create a vortex that removes large bubbles. The properly frothed milk should appear fine and smooth.

/ Shake the Pitcher Before Fusion to Prevent Foam Separation

After milk stops being frothed, foam and milk will begin to separate. If you don't immediately proceed with fusion and latte art after frothing, you'll need to find a pivot point on the table surface, then use wrist strength to shake the pitcher clockwise, ensuring even fusion of foam and milk. If you attempt fusion while separated, only milk will enter the coffee, while the foam floats above the milk. At this time, you'll find that the foam enters the coffee in clumps rather than fusing with the coffee as smoothly as Dove chocolate.

/ Direction of Circular Fusion

That's right! The direction of your circular motion also matters. The typical fusion technique involves stirring clockwise—holding the coffee cup with your left hand and the latte art pitcher with your right, starting to circle from the 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock position. When circling, you can choose to move either the pitcher or the cup, but remember not to rotate both simultaneously! If you don't control the rhythm well and milk and coffee "fight," you'll end up with a latte full of large bubbles.

/ Height of Milk Pour

When pouring milk for fusion, the height should generally be around 5-8cm (you can make minor adjustments based on your actual situation). Pouring from too low will cause大量 foam to float on the surface, resulting in uneven fusion. Pouring from too high will create impact force that generates bubbles of various sizes.

/ Milk Pour Speed

During fusion, the pour speed is generally slightly finer than during the pattern creation stage. The goal is to ensure thorough fusion of milk foam and coffee without disrupting the cleanliness and color of the crema. When we start creating patterns, we adjust the pour speed appropriately based on the desired design to allow the milk foam to flow and form patterns.

/ Amount of Milk for Fusion

The amount of milk used for fusion depends on the complexity of the pattern you're creating. If you're just making basic patterns like hearts or leaves, we can fuse until the cup is 7/10 full before lowering the pitcher to begin pattern creation.

/ Size of Circles

When we circle for fusion, we need to hold the cup at a 45-degree angle and then pour milk in an elliptical motion. The size of the circles depends on the diameter of the coffee surface. FrontStreet Coffee suggests making the largest possible circles without touching the cup walls.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473