The secret of drawing milk in coffee - the most easily overlooked knowledge point for latte art beginners

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The dense milk foam produced by hot steam is injected into the espresso base. The crema on the espresso is used to support the delicate milk foam composed of tiny bubbles. Combined with the barista's latte art skills, a beautiful pattern is finally drawn on the surface of the latte.

The key to drawing with milk in coffee is:

1. A good quality espresso base

2. Even and fine milk foam

This does not mean that the barista's shaking technique or the choice of other coffee equipment is not important. Of course, if we explore it in detail, we can extend it to the influence of the mouth of the latte art cup and the shape and surface area of ​​the bottom of the coffee cup. Going deeper, we must consider the pattern to be made and then decide the degree to which the steam will push air into the milk to whip it. All of the above will affect the composition of the latte art.

The editor believes that the truly important key factors are none other than these two.

In order to make a beautiful latte art, you need to be able to make dense milk foam and extract the espresso base suitable for latte art. Without these two key points, it is difficult to make a good latte art even with great skills. This may be the most easily overlooked point for beginners who are just starting to learn latte art.

Today, I will share my experience with you on how to draw coffee latte art:

– How to extract the best espresso for latte art?

– How to make dense and uniform milk foam?

– Master the timing of concentrated extraction and milk foam production

Before we get into latte art, let’s first talk about the extraction of espresso.

To make latte art, you must first learn espresso. This is almost a cliché, but the espresso base used for making latte art and the espresso that is drunk directly actually have slightly different requirements. The espresso base that looks best for latte art may not taste good when drunk directly, and the espresso with the most perfect flavor and taste may not be suitable for latte art.

First of all, no matter whether your coffee machine is fully automatic or semi-automatic, and whether the grinder and espresso machine are combined or separate, in theory, you should be able to adjust the coarseness of the coffee beans ground into powder.

The scale of each grinder is different, so you need to adjust it according to the situation. In fact, you don’t need to be scared by these data. All parameters may vary according to your tools, but we can basically use the flow rate results of the extraction to make a preliminary judgment on the quality of this cup of espresso:

A. The flow rate is too fast, possible reasons:

– Grinding too coarsely

– Too little powder filling

– The surface of the powder is uneven

– The pressed powder is not strong enough

B. Moderate flow rate (slightly faster)

C. The flow rate is slightly slow, possible reasons:

– Slightly finer grinding

- Too much powder filling

You may often see the extraction result of A in the fully automatic coffee machine of convenience stores or companies. The flow rate is too fast to really squeeze out good coffee oil. From the color change, it can be seen that it quickly changes from dark brown to light brown. The time for water to pass through the coffee powder cake is too short and too fast, so the extracted espresso base will be very watery, and the bubbles floating on the surface will be light and thick. When making latte art, it will affect the advancement of the milk foam, and the bitterness will be more obvious when drinking.

The extraction result of B is closer to the generally acceptable drinking quality. It should provide a basic foundation for making latte art. At the beginning, you can try to practice with the extraction result of B. The color change can be stopped before it turns light brown.

Although the extraction of C seems a bit slow, as if the front part is soaked for a little longer, the extracted coffee oil is richer. When the milk foam is injected, the fluidity of the milk foam and coffee oil fusion and forward movement is particularly good. Players who want to make convection patterns for latte art may prefer this extraction speed, and at the end they will get a front part concentrate with a relatively high oil content.

Of course, there is a lot of knowledge about espresso extraction. There are many baristas who use scientific data and have very advanced cupping skills. They must have more rigorous ways to judge the quality of a cup of espresso. The level and principle of coffee machine equipment will also affect the stability of extraction, and thus affect the quality of espresso.

Let me make it clear here: parameters and flow rates do not represent the quality. This is just to share a relatively basic concept with friends who simply want to participate in the art of latte art, so that beginners who are not so familiar with extraction parameters can also use an intuitive way to judge whether the espresso extracted this time is suitable for making a cup of good latte art.

This time I would like to add a few points of my own experience in condensing:

For a 58mm filter cup, the recommended size for the filter cup is 20g-22g of coffee powder. It is best to use a 12oz (about 350ml) coffee cup to receive about 30ml of espresso, which is more than double the amount of espresso.

The concentrated oil filtered out under this condition is rich and most suitable for latte art. The reason is: use double the amount of concentrated coffee powder to extract the first 30ml to finish.

So if I just want a single shot of espresso, can I not have latte art?! ?

Can!

But I have to be honest, after trying to extract 30ml of 7-10 grams of single espresso in a smaller coffee cup (about 240ml or 300ml), I personally think that the fat content in the front part is really not enough. It may be okay to pull a normal onion heart. If you want the milk foam to slide around in the espresso, the editor suggests starting with double espresso extraction. Remember that it will be easier to use with medium-dark roasted beans.

Steam & Milk Frothing –

If you have a home steam machine with strong enough steam, in order to steam fine and dense milk foam, you may start to study the shape of the mouth of the steam nozzle, because this will affect:

1. Steam intensity

2. Speed ​​of heating milk

3. This will affect your practice of making milk foam

– Multi-hole nozzle: for example, 3 holes or 4 holes

For general household machines, since the overall steam volume is evenly dispersed to each hole, the steam intensity for making milk foam visually or actually seems weaker than that of a single-hole steam nozzle.

But in fact, people who have used the single-hole steam nozzle that comes with the original factory know that although the steam from a single hole is strong, it is difficult to control the steam that is ejected, and it also gives people a feeling that the steam is "too strong". The steam from the single-hole nozzle is too strong and too chaotic, and no matter how you beat the milk, the resulting milk foam is extremely coarse.

Although the multi-hole nozzle disperses the steam intensity, it can provide a more stable and evenly dispersed steam flow. It is a more suitable choice than the single-hole nozzle when you first practice making milk foam. The only thing to note is that due to the evenly dispersed heating of the multi-hole nozzle, the temperature of the milk rises very quickly. If you are not careful, the milk foam is still being whipped, and the steel cup will be overheated (over 70℃), so your hand will not be able to hold the steel cup.

There is also a straight-line nozzle on the market, commonly known as the samurai sword steam nozzle.

– Straight (Samurai Sword) nozzle:

1. The steam is sprayed in a straight line, with concentrated intensity but not limited to a single point.

2. The direction is single and the steam is strong, causing a milk vortex to form quickly.

3. As the vortex stirs quickly, it is suitable for whipping and beating at the same time.

The amount of milk used to make milk foam is also important. For example, a 600ml latte art cup should be filled with at least half of its volume of milk (320-350ml).

If the steam pipe of the home machine is on the left, hold it against the lower right corner of the latte cup and keep it steady. First, completely immerse the steam nozzle in the milk liquid. After turning on the steam, slowly move the latte cup downward with both hands to make the steam pipe slightly exposed above the liquid surface. When you hear the sound of air pouring into the milk, adjust the degree of contact between the liquid surface and the steam nozzle (this step requires multiple practice and is the most difficult part to practice). When the temperature of the cup reaches about 60℃, turn off the steam and stop.

After the milk foam is made, the liquid level should expand by at least 20-30%. If it does not expand at all, it means that the milk has just been reheated with a steam tube. If the liquid level rises too much, the milk foam may expand too much and become rough and hard in texture.

If the milk does not form a vortex at all, it is likely that the milk foam will not be fine enough. There are probably several reasons for this:

1. The steam from household machines is weak and cannot drive the formation of a vortex.

2. The steam pipe is unstable and the direction is messed up.

The formation of a vortex has several benefits. Whether you make milk foam by whipping it first and then frothing it, or whipping it and frothing it at the same time, the vortex's stirring can make the upper and lower layers mix more evenly, which helps to form dense milk foam. (Dense milk foam should have a smooth, shiny, and reflective surface)

Finally, don’t rush to shake the cup to compose the latte art before making it. Instead, try to observe with your naked eyes how the milk foam blends with the espresso.

If it moves smoothly all the time, it means the quality of the milk foam is good!

If the whole milk foam seems to be able to fall down without any sense of fusion, it means that the milk foam is too much or too hard (it can be drunk as cappuccino).

If nothing white floats on the condensed milk, it means you are just heating the milk.

Master the timing of espresso extraction and milk foam making –

When you first start practicing latte art, you probably have a question: Should I make the espresso first or the milk foam first?

The general intuitive reaction should be: should we make espresso first? Because the milk foam will separate if it is left for a long time.

When I first started making latte art, I did the same thing. I first made espresso, put it aside, and then started making milk foam. But you should have noticed that the longer the espresso is left, the crema on it will gradually disappear. Especially when you use a home machine to make milk foam, the steam is usually not as strong as that of a commercial machine, and the time to make milk foam will be longer, and the state of the espresso is not as good at this time.

The best condition for making latte art is when the espresso has just been extracted and the milk foam has just been made (even and delicate). Both are in their best condition.

To avoid the situation where the espresso is waiting for the milk foam or the milk foam is waiting for the espresso, try to make the two productions close to the same time. Of course, this sometimes depends on the limitations of the machine equipment. Usually, a machine with two boilers can do both at the same time. After all, the temperature range of the extraction and concentration is 90-95 degrees Celsius, and the temperature of the boiler that sprays steam must exceed 100 degrees.

If the espresso cannot be foamed together with the milk, you can shake the espresso that has been sitting for a while. This also works for harder espresso, which will make it more fluid.

That’s all for today’s sharing. Thank you for reading. Let’s continue to make progress in coffee latte art together!

【Recommended reading】：

【Latte Art】A brief talk on coffee latte art techniques - milk foam & latte art

Tips for making steam milk froth with a coffee machine | How should you make milk froth?

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