「Coffee Latte Art Technique」What are the common mistakes made by beginners of latte art?

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Latte art has always been a skill that many coffee lovers want to master. More and more lovers have already mastered this skill. Even if they don’t work in a coffee shop, many people want to get into the field of latte art. But many people have never been able to grasp the essentials and give up halfway. Today, based on my experience, I would like to provide some of my views that I think are important for beginners to learn latte art, hoping to bring you some inspiration.

To learn latte art, you can first divide it into the "espresso part", "milk frothing part" and "latte art part". Whether the espresso is done well (flavor, contrast) and the milk froth is done well (fusion, density) will indeed affect the effect of the latte art later. The importance of espresso and milk froth and related production techniques have been talked about many times by the editor. So let's assume that you have no problem with the "espresso part" and "milk frothing part", and the fusion of the milk froth is also OK. Today, let's directly cut into the "latte art" part.

First, let's pick out the common mistakes made by beginners:

1. Before you can walk, learn to run

Most beginners are disrupted by the words "pull" and "flower". Before they have mastered the basic skills, they only think about "pull" and "flower". After several attempts, they pour out one cup after another. Their confidence is also stripped away piece by piece. Occasionally, when they make a cup of coffee with grains, they don't know why it is formed.

Beginners of latte art must first understand where the "flowers" come from through the action of "pulling". When the milk jug is raised, the white milk foam falls from a height and pierces the fat on the surface of the coffee. The milk foam first sinks to the bottom and mixes with the coffee. This is "pulling". When the milk jug is lowered, the milk foam does not have enough impact to pierce the fat foam on the surface of the coffee, and naturally floats on the surface to form "flowers".

2. From simple to complex, the essence remains unchanged

Don't try to imitate leaves and tulips right away. First of all, I suggest that you only practice making the "snow-white lines" appear, without any "latte art" movements, and don't even force a heart shape. Really, this is very important. This will help you understand the principle of the pattern, and your confidence will be built from then on. As long as this ripple is made, the flower (leaf) shape in the future will all be evolved from this ripple. As long as the injection point is different, the tilt of the coffee cup, the number of shakes and the timing... there will be a lot of changes. But no matter how many changes there are, they all remain the same, and they really can't get away from this "shaking" to create "patterns".

3. The movements are slow and not neat enough

Next, beginners often slow down the speed and amount of milk to make a beautiful latte with more lines in order to have more "time". I heard that when the latte is about 60% full, start shaking the latte pitcher. As a result, a cup of coffee is poured out, which is full but still nothing. Little do they know that the battle is over in about five seconds.

It doesn't mean that latte art should be done quickly, but it means that it should be done in one go, with smooth movements, and it should be done after careful planning. Before you actually start to "draw", you should first think about the movements, steps, and pattern structure. If you draw too slowly, the milk foam in the cup or tank will separate, which will not only make the drawn pattern look ugly, but also taste bad.

4. Can’t bear to give up milk

In order to save milk, use insufficient amount of milk to make a cup of milk foam that is not fine enough, or practice with a small-capacity latte art pot and cup, of course, the leaf shape and texture are not easy to form. Be more generous, use a larger latte art pot, make more, and scrape off the coarse milk foam without saying anything (you don’t have to throw it away when practicing, you can recycle it, but don’t use the recycled milk for customers when you are doing business) and put it in a large container, and put it in the refrigerator for further use after it cools down.

There have always been many controversies about scraping milk foam. But I think no beginner would first practice "making milk foam" and practice until it is really fine and smooth, and the blending is appropriate before practicing "making latte art". So, in the beginner stage, when the milk foam is too thick (much better than not being able to make milk foam at all) or there are too many coarse foams and not fine enough, it is not necessarily impossible to use a spoon to scrape away the excess and coarse milk foam on the surface.

The following is a brief description of the formation of the "flower" pattern:

Beginner's "flower" pattern formation (pour the latte art cup close to the coffee cup, fix the coffee cup of about 200cc with your left hand, and lightly hold the latte art cup with your right hand):

1. Pour out a mouthful of the blended (*1) milk foam (you will find that this mouthful feels like chopping off the dry surface), then pour it in generously with some force, keeping the height at 5-10 cm, as if you are penetrating the surface of the coffee, and inject the milk foam into the center of the coffee liquid. (At this point, you must feel that the dense white milk foam in the latte art jar is like an unbroken white line that keeps flowing into the coffee cup).

2. When the cup is about half full, move the latte art cup back to the edge of the cup (do not break the milk column, lower the latte art cylinder, keep the cylinder mouth close to the coffee liquid surface, and lower the pressure as much as possible). After the point is fixed, start shaking the latte art cup "in place". Remember to just "shake", don't worry about "pulling" or "flowers". At this time, I think your smile has gradually appeared. Because the "white pattern" has appeared.

3. When the cup is almost full, stop shaking and "close the cup" and put away the latte art cup. Closing the cup should be done neatly. For the heart shape, you should push forward while lifting the latte art cup, so that the "pointy" will look good. For leaves, tulips, etc., you should first lift the latte art cup in place, close it to the thinnest milk column, and then press forward to "close" the pattern.

＊1: Do you often see people shaking the latte art pitcher a few seconds before making latte art? This action is to blend the milk foam. If you look at the milk foam from a perspective. The bottom layer is the most "liquid" milk, which is too thin. The top layer is too coarse and difficult to form fine lines. The dense milk foam in the middle is exactly what we need. Shaking is to blend these three layers. Are there other ways to blend? Yes, just take a spoon (a large round spoon) and dip it into the milk foam and stir it gently two or three times, but it is not "cool" enough. Have you ever seen people knocking the latte art pitcher on the table? That is to force the coarse foam that sinks to the bottom to float up, and secondly, to break the big bubbles. Because the big bubbles not only break the beauty of the flower shape, but also affect the taste when tasting.

Beginners of latte art must understand that latte art may not necessarily make the coffee taste better, and sometimes the taste may be affected by the lack of dense milk foam. But it is undeniable that visual beauty definitely adds points to the taster's impression of the craftsmanship of the maker. It is important to build up confidence first, practice the basic skills of "flower" pattern formation, and make other changes after each cup has a flower pattern.

Finally, I still want to say that the reason why most beginners fail in latte art is not because of the action of "latte art", but because of the preparation beforehand:

The extraction of espresso is the key point: the amount of powder affects the flow rate and time, different recipes of beans will affect the fluidity of latte art, the oil in espresso will affect the adsorption of milk foam, the amount of concentration in the cup will cause differences in the graph, and the extraction of convection graph and combination graph has its own analysis...

The texture of milk foam is also key: thickness and temperature affect the fluidity of drawing, different brands of milk have different foaming standards, whether the minimum difference in foaming temperature and thickness can be controlled, the fusion of milk and condensed milk is the final key to latte art, different foaming methods have different drawing standards...

I know many people have read books, watched live performances, watched teaching videos, and even attended cram schools, but they still fail again and again. I hope this article can really help you. I also hope that it will shorten your novice period and increase your confidence.

‍【Recommended reading】：

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

Tips for making milk foam | A must-learn for beginners: how to make dense and fluffy milk foam

The Soul of Italian Coffee! Five Factors Affecting Espresso Extraction

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