Why isn't my coffee latte art foam flowing? What to do when latte foam is too thick?

Similar to pour-over coffee brewing, latte art possesses an extraordinary charm that attracts every coffee enthusiast. With a gentle shake and sway, an exquisite latte art pattern can appear on the surface of the cup. Many coffee newcomers are initially drawn to latte art, which then leads them to step into this world and become one of the coffee enthusiasts~

However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that many friends have encountered this situation when first learning latte art: although the milk foam is extremely fine and has high fluidity when first frothed, it becomes incredibly thick and has poor fluidity when it comes time to create the art. The resulting patterns often end up like this:

As you can see, this pattern is completely unformed. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned, the milk foam was very fine when first frothed, so the problem naturally cannot be in the frothing process. So where does the problem lie? It's quite simple—the problem is that the milk and foam have completely separated, which is what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as "layering," leading to this situation!

What Causes Milk Foam Layering?

As we all know, the milk frothing process mainly consists of three steps: aeration, texturing, and integration, with texturing and integration happening simultaneously. By using steam to create a vortex in the milk pitcher, the larger bubbles formed during aeration are drawn into the vortex and continuously broken down, becoming finer. As the bubbles become smaller, they also mix with the milk due to the vortex effect, so after frothing is complete, the foam wrapped in liquid has relatively high fluidity. Because of this, we can pour both milk and foam together when creating latte art.

However, if the milk foam sits unused for a long time after frothing, the bubbles will continuously rise and eventually separate completely from the milk, losing fluidity. If we then use this completely separated foam for latte art, there will likely be only two outcomes: either the pour flow is too small, allowing only milk to come out (which can't create patterns), while the foam remains in the pitcher; or the pour flow is too large, causing the entire mass of foam to be poured out at once, resulting in the situation shown in the cover image. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends that when making hot milk coffee, it's best to extract the espresso first and then froth the milk. This way, the foam won't separate due to waiting too long. For friends who already have some understanding of coffee extraction and milk frothing, you can time both processes to extract espresso and froth milk simultaneously. This allows both to be in their optimal state for creating latte art patterns, achieving better results.

Taking FrontStreet Coffee's extraction as an example, FrontStreet Coffee needs 30 seconds to extract one shot of espresso and 15 seconds to froth latte milk foam. So FrontStreet Coffee only needs to start frothing the milk when the espresso extraction reaches 16 seconds, allowing the milk foam to finish frothing after the espresso extraction completes, with both in their optimal states (if your coffee machine has manual switches like FrontStreet Coffee's, it's best to stagger the timing by 1-2 seconds). However, if something delays you and causes the foam to separate, don't worry—we have corresponding solutions~ Two movements to help your milk foam instantly "rejuvenate."

Two Techniques to Restore Your Milk Foam

Shake the pitcher: By shaking the milk pitcher, you can recreate a vortex with the milk and foam inside, achieving an effect similar to the integration during frothing, allowing the milk and foam to reintegrate. If small bubbles appear during this process, you can eliminate them by tapping the pitcher.

Pouring between pitchers: I believe everyone is already familiar with this technique—by pouring the milk from one pitcher into another, you can also reintegrate the milk and foam, restoring the foam's fluidity.

However, whether shaking the pitcher or pouring between pitchers, the foam from this second integration has the same drawback: it will separate again more quickly! Therefore, after we "re-froth" the foam, we need to use it for latte art as quickly as possible. Finally, FrontStreet Coffee wishes everyone a Happy New Year—may the new year bring new beginnings and may everything go smoothly~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473