There are hundreds of latte art designs out there, each wonderfully creative and providing a special coffee that shows our customers just how much we care about the art of the barista.
Here we run through the process of three basic designs: the heart, the rosetta and the tulip.
5 Top Tips for Creating Perfect Latte Art:
1 Cold milk
Pour enough cold milk (34ºF or 1ºC) for one cup into the steam pitcher – a cold pitcher will give you more time steaming your milk, decreasing your chances of scalding it. It also makes the cream stiffer and easier to handle.
2 Full Flavour
You can use any type of milk, but we would recommend whole milk because it tastes the best and it mixes with the espresso well, so you get a much better tasting drink with it. You can use skimmed milk if you want to reduce the calorie count of the drink, but it won’t work quite as well.
3 Use a Thermometer
For the perfect foam, always have a liquid thermometer handy – this will help you be exact about removing the milk from the steamer before it scalds. The goal is to heat the cream to just below boiling. The optimum temperature is between 65ºC to 68ºC (never more than 71ºC, as the milk will burn).
4 Pour with Confidence
Creating latte art takes a confident hand. Don’t worry if you don’t feel confident to start with, as your skill will develop with practice.
5 Small Bubbles
Try for small, light bubbles (called microfoam) instead of big, dishwater-like bubbles. You want your foam to have lightness without sacrificing body.
Now comes the technique…
Latte art: Heart
1 Pour from a greater distance up or from a greater height – that way the milk is going to go underneath the espresso (as you get closer to the top you pour faster so that the foam starts to rise up to the top – this is when you start controlling it).
2 To make the heart, you are basically going to be pouring into the centre of the cup until its is about ¾ full.
3 Then, as you get closer, the foam will rise to the top – shake it from side to side then lift up at the end to suck up and cut through, creating the heart shape.
Latte art: Rosetta
1 This classic latte art design looks like a fern. Similar to the heart, you start higher up so the milk cuts underneath the espresso.
2 Then, as you get closer to the cup, the foam will rise to the top.
3 Move to the back of the cup and run the pitcher back and forth, then lift up in a smooth motion and cut right through at the end.
Latte art: Tulip
Our final design is the tulip, which combines elements of both the heart and the rosetta.
1 Start off in the same way as the heart, but then you go to the back of the cup (same as with the rosetta) to form the base of the tulip. The catch is you stop pouring midway through the design.
2 Moving to the back, do a little wiggle with your milk pitcher then pull up and stop pouring.
3 Then pour back into the base and pull up.
4 Repeat as many times as your cup will allow.
5 At the end (when the cup is full) pull up and through the design, which creates the tulip.
We take great pride and care creating our latte art. Why not come in and watch how we do it in one of our locations.
If you have a special request, we will do our utmost to recreate it in store for you. Just talk to one of our baristas (but maybe just not during a busy lunch service).