Fundamentals of Latte Art

I’ve come over from r/latteart to share some of my experience as a home latte artist (I know, I hate the term but don’t know what else to call it).

https://preview.redd.it/d47lx9zy6fqb1.jpg?width=3012&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cc08fdbcb11477c72984b7d7d061a7931e2c548

This guide will be focusing on the principles of pouring “[basic patterns](https://www.instagram.com/p/CqfpTMrhbFf/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)” that include hearts, tulips, rosettas, etc. (as opposed to “[drawn patterns](https://www.instagram.com/p/CsK2ApnhMEc/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)” that are more figural in their depiction of animals and other things). I’m writing specifically for the style of latte art that I practice (Asian fine line basic patterns). There will be differences in ideas between what I’ve written here and the pouring styles of Emilee Bryant or Lance Hedrick. It should be noted that everyone has their own way of thinking about latte art. Even people within a style will have differences in their pouring techniques and philosophies. I’m by no means a master though; I definitely don’t have the skill to hang with the people I just mentioned 💀.

>!Spoilered points are my opinions on more advanced pouring concepts that should be ignored until the basics are mastered. !<

Milk steaming

* The science: [James Hoffmann’s Milk Steaming Tutorial](https://youtu.be/oaKRBBpA4fw?si=L4SiUQqOvjF4qgQp&t=558)
* Technique breakdown: [Lance Hedrick’s technique](https://youtu.be/wJnMXLG_qR4?si=Mz0yY8zI-uxH1xvF)
* Start with a solid steaming technique and go from there. It’ll take practice to iron out all the bumps and learn to judge for yourself how steaming affects latte art.
* Really even milk texture makes latte art very easy, so if you’re struggling to form any patterns, work on achieving a very even texture first before attempting any patterns.
* Signs your milk isn’t even enough include: hazy patterns, no pattern showing up, patterns that float on top of the surface of your coffee, when your solid hearts aren’t round, when the crema and milk foam don’t mix as you’re integrating, when your draw through is a blob, patterns that aren’t symmetrical even though you keep your pitcher and cup in line with each other, lots of foam gets stuck in your pitcher after you’re done pouring, the pattern dissipates within 10 minutes of pouring, etc.
* You’ll know your milk is even enough when: the pattern is crisp and sharp without you really even trying, the milk wraps in on itself easily, the patterns expands on its own, the patterns are round, the draw through is sharp, you can ripple and the milk doesn’t go hazy, etc.
* Tips to evening out milk texture
* During steaming, maintain the angle of your pitcher and move in slow but determined motions. *Keep the relative position of the wand and pitcher as steady as possible.*
* You’ll want *distinct Stretching and Rolling phases* during steaming. Stretch only in the early stages of steaming, and maximize the time you have for rolling. Stretch as gently as quickly as you can, making small bubbles that are easier to break down.
* Play around with steam wand location. Your goal is to *achieve the most spin when you’re rolling the milk*. Some people may prefer have the pitcher more angled, letting the steam wand ride closer to the pitcher wall. I myself like pulling the wand out half a centimeter further than in Lance’s technique video, so the wand tip is a touch closer to me when I’m steaming.
* For latte art, keep the *milk temperature between 45 and 55C*. Milk at a cooler temperature is more flowy. >!With experience, if you accidentally stretch too little, you can make the milk hotter up to 60C to compensate for thinner texture. Works the same way vice versa: stretch too much, make the milk cooler.!<
* Make sure that when you’re grooming your milk (swirling the pitcher), you *swirl in the same direction you steamed your milk*. Sometimes the milk may still be moving in the pitcher after you finish steaming, and swirling in the opposite direction may cause the foam and milk to separate sooner. >!(this may be superstition)!<
* Tips for judging milk thickness
* There are two ways to judge thickness as you’re steaming
* Note the height of the milk in the pitcher as you aerate.
* Note the pitch of the sound the milk makes as you’re aerating. The pitch will shift downwards.
* Use both of these tools to learn how much you should aerate. Build up your intuition on aeration amount rather than relying on having the same amount of air each time. Different setups and different milks will need different amounts of air.
* Being precise about thickness is less important than evenness. There is a useable range of thicknesses that can vary depending on skill level, technique, machine, etc. >!IMO a commercial machine will tolerate more air injected into the milk than a home machine.!<

Pouring

* Fundamentals of pouring: [Sunergos Milk Training](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nOFirDRTo&t=791s)
* This video should be watched in its entirety. It’ll have specific tips for each pattern it introduces and will certainly be more helpful than what I can express only through text.
* **Watch this to learn the solid heart first.** Follow that with a rippled heart, then you’re off to the races.
* Integrating
* Before pouring a pattern, the espresso and milk must be mixed first to form a canvas on which to pour. As you pour milk into the cup, the microscopic bubbles of milk foam form a layer of coffee-dyed milk foam on the surface of the coffee, creating a *canvas with similar density to our milk foam* for our pattern to land on.
* When mixing, it’s important to have some distance between the pitcher and the cup, allowing the milk foam to sink bellow the surface, coloring it with coffee. More on pitcher and cup distance later in the Pitcher and cup distance section.
* Another reason why we integrate is to *evenly mix the crema* so that the *density of the canvas is as even as possible.* This means that different coffees may change our approach to mixing. In particular, with very stiff and thick crema (usually dark roasts), we have to swirl the coffee to break up the foam before integrating. A coffee will need swirling if you notice that when mixing with milk, the crema is stubborn and refuses to integrate. >!It begs the question why we don’t always swirl before mixing, but frankly I don’t have the answers to that. Maybe it’s superstition to not swirl?!<
* >!There are different schools of thought on technique for integrating. A common way is a more aggressive technique of shooting a single stream of milk straight into the bottom of the cup. My technique is to pour a thin stream and to mix side to side or in a circle, making sure to hit as much of the surface crema as I can before starting my pattern. !<
* How much to integrate
* Estimating the % fullness of the cup is an easy way to figure out when to stop integrating and to start the pattern.
* For simpler patterns like solid hearts and rippled hearts, you can probably start your pattern when the cup is 60-70% full.
* For patterns without stop-starts (ie: patterns that are poured in on stroke) like the classic rosetta or swan, I tend to aim for a 50% full cup before beginning my pattern.
* >!For complex stop-start patterns like winged tulips and more complex variations, I aim for 40% full cup or a little less as a starting point for the pattern. !<
* Cup and Pitcher recommendations
* Generally, if you want to pour more complex patterns, you’ll want cups that are bowl shaped. My preference is for origami’s 8oz latte bowls. You can definitely still pour nice patterns in proportionally taller cups like a Duralex, but latte bowls make life easier when you want to pour tulips and rosettas.
* Personally, I’m super partial to WPM 15oz/450ml round spout pitchers. Not sponsored (I wish), but they are very easy to learn with.
* If you want to pour 12oz drinks, check out the Vertex Latte Bowl and Rattleware 600ml pitcher or the Hario x Hiroshi 600ml pitcher.
* Matching Volumes
* These values are based off cup and pitcher companies product descriptions. They won’t be super precise but will get you in the ballpark.
* 4-6oz/120-180ml: 10-15oz/300-450ml pitcher
* 6-8oz/180-250ml cup: 15-17oz/450-500ml pitcher
* 10-12oz/300-350ml cup: 20oz/600ml pitcher
* You’ll have to do some trial and error to find out how much milk you need in your pitcher. Some pitchers have markings, while for others, you’ll have to rely on the base of the spout.
* Pitcher and cup distance
* Aside from good texture, getting good contrast in your patterns is about understanding distance between pitcher spout and the surface of the coffee. Earlier in the mixing section, we mentioned how we want to pour from a height during integration, allowing the milk foam to sink into the coffee and become dyed with color.
* As a rule of thumb, we should *integrate from about 2-3inches/6-9cm away from the surface of the coffee.*
* *To get a crisp pattern, we want our spout 0.25inch/0.75cm away from the surface of the coffee.*
* In order for our pitcher spout to reach the surface of the coffee, we’ll have to angle our cup towards the pitcher. More on this later in the Cup Rotation section.
* When the spout is not close enough to the surface of the coffee, the color of the pattern will be more hazy and washed out.
* When the spout is too close to the surface, it can catch the surface of the coffee as you pour, potentially pulling the pattern in unpredictable ways as you lift your pitcher up, creating divots in your shapes, or scooping up too much crema and creating a low density zone that becomes beige.
* Pitcher and cup alignment for symmetry
* For symmetrical patterns, the pitcher and the cup should always be [aligned](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhOvdG1CyE). As you gain more experience pouring, you’ll want to allot more attention to alignment in order to achieve the best symmetry you can.
* I feel like a common mistake is cup handle placement. You always want your cup handle perpendicular to the aim of your pitcher. That way when you hold the cup by the handle to drink, the pattern is facing your direction. Alternate as you wish for handedness.
* Water exercise for pitcher and cup alignment: fill your pitcher with water and pour into the cup. Move the pitcher forwards and backwards while keeping the pitcher completely aligned (aim, roll, tilt, x, y, z) with the cup. It’s a very complicated movement to get used to and cannot feasibly be trained through feel alone.
* Pitcher Tilt
* The flow rate of our pitcher is determined by our pitcher tilt. Greater forward tilt = higher flow rate; less forward tilt = lower flow rate.
* The tilt of the pitcher should be constantly changing to keep the flow rate of the pitcher constant. A common mistake is to start with a high flow rate but forget to continually tilt the pitcher forward as your pour. This has two consequences:
* As the flow rate diminishes, the loss of driving force keeps the pattern from expanding properly
* Since the pitcher is no longer adequately tilted forward, the pitcher spout to coffee surface distance will also increase, resulting in washed out colors.
* ***A neat way to approach flow rate is to just remind yourself to keep the spout of the pitcher 0.25inch/0.75cm from the surface of the coffee. The pitcher will naturally tilt forward and adjust the flow rate***\*\*.\*\*
* >!While pitcher tilt/flow rate does affect volume control for more advanced pours, my opinion is that being mindful of the fullness of the cup is a better way to practice volume control. Then all you need to do is to dial in the initial amount of milk.!<
* Pitcher movement
* Generally speaking, pitcher movement is used to determined the shape of a pattern.
* Forwards/pushing motions form rounded shapes like hearts and tulips
* The starting point of the pour with a pushed motion should be determined by where you want the top of your pour to be. ie: if you want the top of you heart to be at a certain height in the cup, then start your pattern there.
* How much movement occurs changes depending on the type of a pattern. For a heart, a gentle push is fine, just enough to reach the intersection point of the two half-circles of the top of the heart. For a tulip base, a harder push may be necessary in order to create a divot for the next part of the tulip.
* Backwards/pulling motions form triangular shapes like rosettas and swan wings.
* The simplest (no base) rosettas and swans wings can be poured entirely by moving backwards. These are quite good fun to pour early on and can be great rippling practice.
* How quickly you pull back can change the overall aesthetic of the design. For rosettas, they can be a desirable look with looser lines and more space between each ripple. Personally, I prefer a slower pull back for swans however, since I think a fuller wing better evokes the feathers of a wing.
* Rippling
* Don’t worry about rippling yet if your milk texture isn’t perfect. Focus on evenness of milk texture first, and rippling will eventually come easily.
* When you’re first starting, practice rippling with water before doing an actual pour. It’ll help build muscle memory and give you some warm ups before the real thing.
* Rippling should be a natural motion. Working too quickly will result in stray lines. (don’t force a wiggle, rely on the pendulum effect of the milk)
* >!Personally, I ripple narrower for bases than I do for rosettas and swans. I also try not to vary my ripple width too much for each of these techniques ie: I don’t narrow my rippling as I get closer to the bottom of a wing base or the top of a rosetta. I like rippling wider for rosettas and swans so the stem takes up more space in the cup. !<
* Cup Rotation
* Earlier in the pitcher and cup distance section, I mentioned that the cup needs to be angled towards the pitcher to allow our pitcher spout to get closer to the surface of the coffee. We will now discuss cup rotation in which I refer to the straightening of the cup from its tilted position.
* As we are pouring, the cup should be rotated to prevent spilling of the coffee. I like to rotate as slowly as possible, keeping the edge of the coffee very close to the edge of the cup. This helps keep the spout-coffee distance in check. A small spill is fine anyhow; just needs to be wiped properly.
* *Cup rotation helps with pattern expansion*: For bowl shaped cups, cup rotation increases the surface area of the coffee and pulls the pattern away from the spout-coffee point of contact
* >!In my subjective experience, cup rotation should become more drastic the closer the cup is to being full. The beginning of a pattern requires less cup rotation (eg: wing base), while the middle and end of a pattern will require more (eg: rosetta stem, wiggled tulip dot, rose, swan.!<
* >!Cup rotation can be manipulated: Personally, I start my winged base pours with no rotation but start rotation as soon as I start moving my pitcher forwards. This keeps the pattern from expanding too quickly at the start, forming gaps in the base as will be shown below in the Pattern Expansion section. I also increase my cup rotation when I’m doing the middle dot of a tulip. That helps increase the amount of contrast that is pulled into each little ripple. !<
* >!Cup rotation is unnecessary in some approaches: you can have the cup pre-angled appropriately and rely entirely on pitcher movement and tilt!<
* Pattern Expansion
* In the style of latte art I learned, pattern expansion is the result of **good milk texture** and the balance between pitcher tilt, cup rotation, and pitcher movement.
* When the pitcher tilts forwards (flow rate), the pattern should naturally move away from the point of contact between the milk and the coffee given good milk texture and good integration.
* Stick with the tip I gave above about maintaining spout proximity in the Pitcher Tilt section.
* When cup rotation exceeds pitcher movement, the pattern expands too quickly, resulting in holes and gaps in our [patterns](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHdkV73IAjhhffqAiRxPYB1Xsc-HhtE_mitOTFqpvURN9giF8roCKXusrPKymwVmVw-_xF-j_zFyW9kmPBpc8Ng_dBKoXR7chy122c9vll50-k2eJ5fiKXDRBuKT2_TUFga8I1PiTGO0tkQb893U7DrVS1ovg4XZrYqwthmnZvOH8kHFwzqnoHGEL5L9f9IIKRGmMA-lAHJn8Us5ArXbnMGgQWyD444b5A8gJWdU9-CVT0W_h8utEh38W3vuPz8RGumyVn4EpgbrugZ_zytxhVBfoDmDAwpVLMlwYUNCTahcelAUloGVIJdZe4P7EPGPvjf8clqXxKrHTakPPTQPmIimdJnCnjUdBo28D_MTRtzs88dsgYtVCeLzSCj4xDfO40VYnmYVRhFql–hP4fFQkNFLCzVJ2ojj4bCFFuJG1gKDHcw9UhhAQ6iNlWFL1PIbuZbkKFejTakvtz0hrAxvjXtf79JOdnDEVGk0Zi5oqjxaIJvXNOQTQvMalvCuqvvvuDx3v5syUSb0Ko-uIb8Z0RKyR-KGa6XwvAe40BhytK9jH2oUbXQSTbhHk8TQogy3weJKrTpgsoz32nfVdLokLyPeS_hSh8qGzZInxs6fcz75_bzDuWJ32MPDk_LlLQxo73dlLX7YfPtKHcooGOt964FlFRITBIDPOlLB4EiSztOxpB7a-ZE78UFqUNvHpgqT-xOgMAX4xA2b7xjGbATcphE-rOa5cNaGh7sCtHrDEnLdZ2JJfVY5Z4PINx2lknQcVbnhrqkE0yb7o9FLkJRVP5YFIf8E_6UQYwKG7U0-fb9UlhiNncaMC7ojVppUSu2mL2j8GVnQik2mMVMepbzk-Rp-iHLe3wH3Ni1p4sn9sEPDqdJIiSpCpltkLYsz9c8FQYyurYsjhxE-OKb6gOxDXJjBX6WAJRPtNN8qVJLT61aUNw3DPSW_FBM_IJ35Dcw-BvqVGJ-yxlsujx2YRxpTEYSVNfRpmzJ3w=w736-h736-s-no?authuser=0).
* >!For winged bases, personally, I will use a pitcher movement that exceeds the amount of cup rotation to avoid this problem.!<
* The earlier you start your pattern, the more time your pattern has to expand into the cup. The later you start your pattern, the smaller it becomes.
* Draw throughs
* Draw through varies depending on the style of pour and personal preference.
* >!Some people prefer heavy draw throughs with higher flow rate that pull the pattern down more forcefully. For myself, I believe that really good texture can be drawn through with very gentle and thin stream of milk. I prefer to lightly knit the pattern together to complete the pour.!<
* Be sure the draw through is aligned with the center of the pattern. An asymmetric draw through will completely throw off the symmetry of a pour.

I’ve been seeing more and more latte art posts in this sub lately. Hopefully this is helpful for some of you.

by PithyGinger63