Italian Coffee Latte Art Swan Pattern Tutorial: Step-by-Step Guide to Swan Latte Art

Learning Swan Latte Art After Mastering the Leaf Pattern

Previously, FrontStreet Coffee shared the method for creating leaf latte art—it was quite simple, wasn't it? If you've already mastered the leaf pattern, then you can now learn the "swan" latte art method with FrontStreet Coffee.

The "swan" pattern is actually created by modifying the final steps of the "leaf" pattern. Therefore, when you've learned the leaf pattern, you're already halfway to success with the swan pattern.

First, let's look at which steps overlap between the leaf and swan patterns. From the integration, the starting point, all the way to the even backward swinging motion—the steps are identical. The difference is that after reaching this step, the leaf pattern simply moves forward from the center to finish, while the swan pattern is only half complete. The remaining steps include: wing finishing, neck formation, and head creation. (Therefore, if you haven't mastered the leaf pattern yet, you can start here first)

For those who have mastered the leaf pattern, you can watch this video⬇️, duration 00:14

Swan Wing Finishing

First, let's discuss the swan wing finishing. From here on, this is where the leaf and swan patterns diverge. When we're evenly swinging backward and approaching the edge of the cup, during the finishing move, pull back toward the "leaf" side, as shown in the image below:

Unlike the leaf pattern, when the swan pattern reaches the final stage of even swinging, "there's no need to form a heart shape at a fixed point"—simply pull back immediately along the direction of the blue arrow. If you don't want a white line to appear, you need to appropriately raise the pitcher spout while pulling back.

Creating the Swan Neck

Next is creating the swan neck. This method differs significantly from previous techniques. To be precise, it's drawn (dragged) out. After finishing the swan wings, drag out a line from the final point of the wings. This step is somewhat challenging for those who haven't tried it before.

There are generally two situations where people fail to create it properly. The first is when the milk foam is too thin or severely separated. Since the swan neck is essentially drawn with milk foam, and by the time you reach the neck-creating step, there's very little milk left in the pitcher. Although the foam might be sufficient to form lines during the etching process, there might not be enough foam when dragging out the line, resulting in a thin swan neck structure.

Foam layering can also result in either only pouring milk or a blob of foam, producing a swan neck that's either too thin or too thick, which isn't aesthetically pleasing. If this isn't due to the foam quality itself, then it might be because you're making significant direction changes with the pitcher during the latte art process. For example, after finishing the wings, you might pause and return the pitcher from a tilted position to an upright position, then tilt it again when creating the swan neck, which causes the foam layers to separate.

The second situation is not knowing how to drag out the line. You can first try practicing drawing straight lines on a liquid surface that's 90% integrated. Lower the pitcher spout, and when white dots appear on the surface, quickly drag in one direction. Repeated practice will help you develop the feel for it.

The problem with this image is that the hand was trembling when finishing the wings, and when drawing the swan neck, the movement wasn't decisive enough, causing the hand to shake, resulting in distorted lines.

Creating the Swan Head

Finally, there's the swan head, which is essentially a variation of a small heart shape. After drawing the swan neck, don't break the flow—continue to position at a point on the neck, allowing more foam to be released. Then perform a simple, quick heart-shaped finish. You can finish along the center of the heart, but generally for better appearance, you would finish at an angle slightly to the right of the heart's center.

If you finish too hastily without releasing enough foam when creating the swan head, the entire head will appear very small.

Important Notice :

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