How is Coffee Latte Art Made? Why Are Coffee Latte Art Patterns Too Small? How to Froth Milk for Italian Latte Art?

Although latte art doesn't emphasize beauty through size, a full, rich pattern clearly possesses more visual impact. Therefore, when many bloggers teach latte art, in addition to emphasizing that the pattern should be centered, they also stress that the latte art pattern should be as large as possible—that is, full and饱满.

And this is a challenge that many beginners often encounter—being unable to create large latte art patterns. Either no pattern appears at all, or it comes out so small that it looks somewhat "underdeveloped." So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share what causes latte art patterns to turn out small, and how we can improve this problem!

The Prerequisite for Latte Art

Before creating latte art, we absolutely must achieve one prerequisite: having quality milk foam! When the milk foam doesn't meet the requirements for latte art, let alone controlling the pattern size, even creating a pattern becomes quite difficult. For example, when the foam is too thick, because its overall fluidity is low, we cannot easily swing to create delicate patterns; when the foam is too thin, because its overall fluidity is too high, the pattern tends to shift during creation or develop jagged, sawtooth-like patterns.

Therefore, the prerequisite for latte art is learning to prepare quality milk foam first. As for how to froth milk foam, you can check this article for detailed instructions→"How to Froth Milk Foam?"~ Once we learn to prepare quality milk foam, we can begin to understand why patterns don't appear or why created patterns are too small. In fact, this is mainly caused by two factors: distance and flow rate.

1. Distance

Distance refers to the distance between the pitcher spout and the liquid surface! The reason milk foam can form patterns on the coffee surface is because it floats above the coffee liquid, allowing us to see the white streaks. To achieve this, we need to minimize the distance between the latte art pitcher spout and the coffee liquid surface.

Because when the distance is too large, the milk foam will have relatively strong impact force. This force will push the milk foam into the coffee liquid, causing it to float beneath the coffee crema, making it invisible. Therefore, we need to bring the spout as close as possible to the liquid surface, so that the poured milk foam lacks impact force and can float on the surface. When creating latte art, we can control two factors to minimize the distance between the pitcher spout and the liquid surface: one is the blend. The blend is a preparatory step before formal latte art, where we stir milk into the coffee liquid to achieve more comprehensive integration between the two, while also raising the liquid surface.

The more we blend, the higher the liquid level, so the latte art pitcher doesn't need to be tilted excessively to bring the spout close to the liquid surface. This is a small technique to reduce the distance between the two. But if we need to create some complex patterns and must leave enough space for drawing, making excessive blending impossible, then we can choose the second method: controlling the amount of milk in the latte art pitcher.

When there's less milk in the latte art pitcher, the pitcher can be tilted at a greater angle. As long as we control the milk in the pitcher to the minimum amount needed to make one latte, the pitcher can achieve maximum tilt on this basis. We often see some coffee shop baristas use two pitchers for latte art production, one small and one large. The small-capacity pitcher is used for frothing milk foam, and after frothing is complete, it's poured into the large-capacity pitcher for latte art. This combines the best advantages of both pitchers—the small-capacity pitcher's advantage lies in its small size, where a small amount of milk can reach the height needed to contact the steam wand for frothing; while the large-capacity pitcher's advantage lies in its large capacity, where the same small amount of milk occupies a smaller proportion in the large pitcher, allowing for more tilt during latte art.

2. Flow Rate

Besides distance, another reason is that the flow rate is too small. Here, flow rate refers to the rate at which we pour milk when creating latte art patterns. Many friends, due to lack of experience, don't dare to freely create patterns. They worry that if the pouring flow rate is too large, it will cause the coffee liquid to overflow from the cup, or fill the cup too quickly.

But as mentioned earlier, latte art patterns rely on milk foam to be "carved out." When the flow rate during pattern creation is too small, not only is it difficult to pour out the milk foam, but it also causes the milk to lack pushing force, unable to push the latte art pattern. The resulting pattern will either be very small or not appear at all. This situation is easily resolved by increasing the flow rate during latte art. And distance and flow rate are both indispensable, so we need to simultaneously minimize the distance between the pitcher spout and liquid surface while increasing the poured milk flow rate. Only then can we ensure that the created latte art pattern has a full, rich appearance.

It should be noted that what FrontStreet Coffee shares here only refers to making patterns fuller and more complete, not necessarily creating beautiful latte art patterns! Although creating beautiful latte art patterns requires no fewer techniques, more importantly, all friends need diligent practice and skill development through repetition to create them~

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