Latte art looks chic and it is fun drinking the beautifully created designs in your coffee. If you’re used to being caffeinated a lot with tasty lattes, you probably have a big dislike for the amount of money you’ve to shell out for every cup.
Making your cuppa Joe at home is much more cost-effective. Plus, it is not as complicated as it seems. Lattes are simply a glorified form of espresso with the addition of steamed milk that spreads into a smooth, rich sippable paradise.
So if you have the desire to become the next Picasso of latte art and give your lattes gorgeous steamed milk makeovers, read on as we have lined up tutorials for creating pretty rosettes, lovely hearts and slick swirls and more.
How to Make Latte Art
What Do You Need:
For the Latte Art:
1. A jug or a pitcher
2. A cup or a mug of your preference
3. A toothpick or a latte art tool, or even something thicker than a toothpick
For the Latte:
1. An espresso machine
2. Coffee
3. Milk
4. Chocolate syrup
How to Make Perfectly Foamy, Creamy Milk – The Essentials
The Milk
For latte art, you need cold milk which is also as fresh as possible. You can also use full-fat milk, which will add another layer of mouth-watering flavour to your latte.
Important – Do not let the milk come in contact with heat or light before you begin steaming it.
Also, never use the same milk again when making latte art.
The Jug
A narrow spout jug in stainless steel should do the job nicely. Keep it clean and cold before use. Fill it up with enough cold milk to texture it properly.
The Espresso
For awesome latte art and a taste-bud-delighting coffee, the espresso should be fresh with a distinctively strong layer of crema.
Remember this golden rule of latte art perfection – Good crema = great latte designs.
The Cup Size
Use 1 ounce of espresso in a 6-8 ounce cup with a wide surface and a large diameter. Beginner latte art designers find these large cups more helpful to use as a coffee canvas.
The Steaming of Milk
Steam the milk at full blast with the steam wand in it. Hold your jug with both of your hands and gradually lower the jug till the tip of your steam wand barely touches the milk surface. This should create a shh-shh sound and the technique is called ‘stretching’ or ‘foaming’, as it forces bubbles into the milk to make it frothy and foamy. Just foam the milk for a few seconds as too much bubbling will distort the frothiness.
Latte Art Design Tutorials
1. Latte Art Rosetta
Rosetta looks hard to create but it really isn’t. Follow our steps to create a perfect Rosetta every time. To make a Rosetta, first tilt your cup to a 45 degree angle and pour in the milk very slowly. Hold the jug slightly away from the cup. The stream of the pouring milk should be thin enough to form a nice base at it sinks to the bottom of your cup. Once your cup is more than half full, bring the jug’s spout closer to the cup till touching it. Now, pour a little more milk and you’ll see white dots or flecks of foam forming on top.
This is when you move the jug from one side to another to create the layers of a Rosetta.
As you reach the end of the design and the cup, pour less milk, lift the jug and pour the milk in a straight stream through the centre of the latte, completing a beautifully done Rosetta.
2. Latte Art Heart
Using 3 ounces of milk, one ounce for one cup, steam it. Again, tilt the cup to a 45 degree angle and pour the milk in the centre. Hold the jug quite high for the milk to hit the centre. Once the cup is 3/4th full, begin shaking your hand which is holding the jug and put the jug close to the cup and stop shaking it. White circles will appear.
Once your cup is full, pour the milk in a straight line from one side to another, cutting through the centre.
3. Latte Art Etch Spirals
Make a thick foam. Using your chocolate syrup, draw a neat spiral from the centre of your cup till the edge and pull lines from it using a toothpick. Create 5 lines to resemble a star shape. Then make lines from the edge to the middle again for perfect swirls.