An Important Detail in Coffee Latte Art You Can't Ignore! How to Handle Over-Thick or Layered Milk Foam?

Are you new to latte art and often encounter this situation:

Or this situation:

When your materials are ready and you begin pouring latte art, the milk foam always ends up being poured into the cup as a "clump," unable to blend with the coffee and unable to create beautiful patterns. Clearly, the foam was perfectly fine during frothing, so why does it clump up when you start pouring?

Why Does Milk Foam Become Clumpy?

The clumpy state described here doesn't refer to the overly thick foam like that of a cappuccino, but rather to milk foam being poured in an independent state during the latte art process, rather than as one unified whole with the milk.

There's only one explanation for this state: "layering." The foam and milk, originally one integrated substance, separate into two independent materials. So the question arises: what causes this to happen?

1. Incorrect Milk Frothing Technique

The frothing process consists of three steps: aeration, refining, and integration. The first step involves using the steam wand to inject air into the milk surface, creating large bubbles wrapped in protein. Then, immerse the steam wand into the milk to cut these large bubbles into numerous tiny bubbles. Finally, create a vortex to integrate the foam and milk until it reaches the appropriate temperature, and the frothing is complete! (Refining and integration happen simultaneously)

The problem lies in the refining step. Once we immerse the steam wand too deeply, although it can create a vortex, it becomes difficult to cut the large bubbles floating on the surface. Inability to cut the bubbles means the foam cannot subsequently integrate with the milk. Then, during the subsequent integration and heating phase, the steam wand is only heating the milk, while the foam separates due to temperature differences from the milk!

The solution is quite simple: don't immerse the steam wand too deeply—just enough so the milk barely covers the steam holes! The foam produced this way will not only be very fine and dense but will also prevent layering!

2. Sitting for Too Long

This is a major culprit causing foam layering! Some beginners, worried that the espresso might lose its flavor if left sitting for too long, choose to froth the milk first and then extract the espresso, or they prioritize cleaning the machine after frothing, delaying the latte art process! Both practices lead to the foam sitting for extended periods, separating from the milk.

FrontStreet Coffee suggests avoiding this through synchronized preparation. Take making a standard latte as an example: espresso extraction typically takes about 30 seconds, while milk frothing time varies depending on the machine's steam power, usually around 15-20 seconds. Let's assume it's 20 seconds. If we want to prepare them simultaneously, we need to control their respective timing!

Start extracting the espresso first, and begin frothing the milk around the 11-second mark of espresso extraction. This way, when the espresso extraction is complete, the milk foam will be perfectly frothed as well! (For some espresso machines without automatic extraction, friends can allow 1-2 seconds of time difference to stagger when pressing the extraction stop button~)

If, due to special circumstances, the foam still sits for an extended period after frothing, we can use another method to mitigate the consequences of layering: "pouring into another pitcher"!

This action helps eliminate some of the original large bubbles while allowing the milk and foam to reintegrate through inversion, reducing some thickness. Therefore, if the foam layering isn't caused by technical issues, we can alleviate the negative effects of layering by pouring into another pitcher. (Remember to gently swirl the pitcher clockwise after pouring to effectively increase the integration of milk and foam~)

FrontStreet Coffee

10 Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473