Latte Art Basics: How to Create the Classic White Heart Pattern

Recently, more and more people have been consulting FrontStreet Coffee about latte art, which shows that countless fresh talents are entering the coffee field! Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has decided to relaunch its latte art class, and today's lesson begins now! Today, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share the most fundamental pattern in latte art—the "Big White Heart."

Of course, learning latte art requires certain prerequisites—that is, being able to froth qualified milk foam suitable for latte art! You wouldn't expect the milk to automatically froth itself into latte-art-worthy foam, would you? So, for those who don't have the basics of milk frothing, you can first check out FrontStreet Coffee's article "How to Froth Fine Milk Foam?" for detailed instructions; for friends who don't have a coffee machine steam wand to froth milk, you can move on to the article "How to Froth Milk Without a Steam Wand?" ~

Truth be told, although the Big White Heart is a basic pattern, that's only for beginners! When you diligently practice and become a latte art master, you'll find that you can no longer make the Big White Heart pattern! Every time you want to create a heart pattern, your hands can't help but tremble a few times, turning the white heart into a thousand-layer heart. So roughly speaking, the Big White Heart is also equivalent to an advanced pattern! So, let's dive into FrontStreet Coffee's Big White Heart making tutorial~ Let's start with its key production points!

Milk Foam Requirements

Many patterns have high requirements for milk foam. If the thickness of the foam doesn't meet the standard, it will be difficult to create the corresponding pattern. However, the Big White Heart is quite tolerant of milk foam requirements—it only needs to be fine and flowable~ The thickness doesn't have many limitations; whether it's the extremely thin foam of a flat white or the thick foam of a cappuccino, both can create a white heart (the thinner, the harder)~ Therefore, it's a relatively friendly pattern for beginners and friends who don't have steam wands at home to froth milk.

Milk Integration Volume

Integration is the most important step before creating a pattern! The quality of integration directly affects the cleanliness of the latte art pattern and the difficulty of the design! However, since FrontStreet Coffee is sharing a Big White Heart latte art tutorial today, friends who want to understand how integration affects cleanliness can check out the article "The Importance of Latte Art Integration"~

For the Big White Heart, the key point to focus on during integration is the "integration milk volume"! The more you integrate, the higher the milk level, and the weaker the convection current during latte art; the less you integrate, the lower the milk level, and the stronger the convection current during latte art! Different patterns have different requirements for convection during latte art. Patterns like leaves and swans that require slight etching need stronger convection to冲击 out the texture, while patterns like wheat ears that need to reduce convection to stabilize the design require increasing the integration milk volume! For the Big White Heart, you need a certain amount of convection (stronger), but not too much—we only need to integrate until the cup is 6/10 full~ Too much integration will make the white heart too small, while too little integration will make the white heart too large or prone to displacement. This is something to note~

Pattern Starting Point

The Big White Heart emphasizes symmetry, which refers not only to the shape but also to the position distribution of the white heart in the cup! So, if you want to get a beautiful white heart pattern, it needs not only left-right symmetry but also to be located exactly in the center of the cup!

Therefore, when you've integrated to 6/10 of the cup's capacity, it's best to inject milk foam from the quarter point next to the center of the cup (marked in the image below), combined with the impact of convection, so that the white heart will be in the exact center when the cup is full!

Practical Pattern Creation

Just like the water flow in pour-over coffee, latte art also emphasizes the flow rate of milk injection! The greater the amount of milk poured, the fuller the pattern! The Big White Heart is a relatively full pattern, so we need to use a larger milk volume for injection! While injecting, we also need to do two things simultaneously! One is to push the latte art point, gradually moving from the original quarter point toward the center; the other is that the right hand holding the coffee cup needs to control the cup to gradually stabilize to avoid coffee overflow!

Finally, there's the finishing move! This action is crucial. Many friends will turn what should have been a beautiful pattern into something unrecognizable due to mistakes in this action! Therefore, when the latte art process reaches 9/10 full, we need to start preparing to finish! Reduce the milk injection while raising the height of the milk pitcher, and finally go straight to the bottom of the peach heart along the center line, decisively cutting off the flow. At this point, the Big White Heart is complete! Let's watch the complete production process of the white heart once!

It's that simple~ Have you learned it~

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FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)
No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473