Latte art difficulties
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Phil Roberts on
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Ian, I don't want to assume... are you using whole milk? Before offering any advice, I think that's a good starting point.
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on
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You can pour latte art with anything... skim, soy, half and half, hell I even had one of my baristas pour a solid rosetta with rice milk (which is absurd by the way). Whole milk is easiest, but if you're going to be using mostly skim milk (or whatever) it's best to practice with that.
Ian it sounds like you are stretching/creating froth to too great an extent. If you had to describe what the milk looks like when it's done steaming would you say that it looks like wet paint? It should.
Having said that, just look up one of the references on the web, the advice you get through a guide is going to be just as solid as one of ours (probably).
Use the analogy of skipping rocks as far as the "pouring" part goes. It's not so much pouring the milk as it is sending the milk out across the surface of the crema.
When in doubt, make thinner foam.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Deferio on
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Ian,
here are some steps that usually end in good results
- Make sure your cold milk is just below the base of the pitchers spout
- Position your steam wand so that it is off to on side but is not touching the sides
- Submerge the steam wand 1/2 inch under the milk
- Tilt the pitcher to around a 20% angle in the opposite direction of which ever side your seam wand is on
- Fully activate steam wand
- you should see the milk rotating quickly
- Now let the pitcher down just till you hear a tearing sound, that is the steam tip being exposed to the air
- Keep the sound consistent but faint for 3-5 seconds
- then submerge the the tip ONLY 1/4 inch under the milk
- Hold the pitcher perfectly still until you cannot touch the side for longer than one second
- Turn off steam without moving the pitcher.
- Set the pitcher down and let it rest for 10-20 sec
- tap any surface bubbles
- swirl the milk with a wide and forceful motion
- pour right away
These are generally steps that will result in good dense flexible milk.
hope it helps-chris
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This pretty much nails it. I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't pour latte art or steam properly anything except whole milk. But I also couldn't have been as direct and concise as Chris!
-Phil
Deferio said:Ian,
here are some steps that usually end in good results
- Make sure your cold milk is just below the base of the pitchers spout
- Position your steam wand so that it is off to on side but is not touching the sides
- Submerge the steam wand 1/2 inch under the milk
- Tilt the pitcher to around a 20% angle in the opposite direction of which ever side your seam wand is on
- Fully activate steam wand
- you should see the milk rotating quickly
- Now let the pitcher down just till you hear a tearing sound, that is the steam tip being exposed to the air
- Keep the sound consistent but faint for 3-5 seconds
- then submerge the the tip ONLY 1/4 inch under the milk
- Hold the pitcher perfectly still until you cannot touch the side for longer than one second
- Turn off steam without moving the pitcher.
- Set the pitcher down and let it rest for 10-20 sec
- tap any surface bubbles
- swirl the milk with a wide and forceful motion
- pour right away
These are generally steps that will result in good dense flexible milk.
hope it helps-chris
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Permalink Reply by Ian C. on
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I am working with rather large pitchers, filling to just below the spout would be ridiculous. Generally, pouring to about half an inch below the widest part of the pitcher is more than enough for any drink I could make. The milk does rotate quickly, and I have tried a number of different ways to get the "wet paint" look to the milk and nothing has worked. I am using 2%, but I'm pretty sure that's not the issue here. I do hold the pitcher at an angle. Generally, I start with the wand as deep as it goes into the milk and work it up until it's just below the surface and sounds a bit like bacon frying. I hold it still of course, I'm not an idiot. I've looked up all the advice there is to look up on the web for this topic, and I can't find anything that would seem to help. Worse, a lot of it is conflicting! I came here for some better advice, but Bryan's remark kinda scares me! Hahaha.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Demers on
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Ian,
You are correct that 2% milk is not the culprit (unless of course it hasn't been properly stored, sometimes it's still drinkable but won't steam correctly - so always use the freshest milk possible). Bry's remark shouldn't scare you too much, and I agree with him that you may be "stretching/creating froth to too great an extent." Basically when you say it sounds like bacon frying, that is when you are "stretching" the milk (or creating foam). So try getting that same sound for 3-5 seconds, like Chris said, just after you start steaming. Then submerge the tip about 1/4 inch and hold still and keep the milk rotating.
Once you get the right amount of foam, it is very important that you swirl the milk just before you pour. As the steamed milk sits, the light foam will float to the top, and the liquid milk will sink to the bottom, so if you don't swirl all that foam will sit on top and end up on the top of your drink in one big glob! So the swirling helps to re-integrate the milk and foam together.
Lastly, pouring. Tough to describe here, but if you pour too fast sometimes the foam comes out too quickly and lays itself on the top of your latte, and too slow it all sinks below the crema, so some things to look out for. Try watching videos of people pouring latte art, you can get a sense of how to do it properly.
Good Luck!
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A properly sized pitcher is just as important as properly steamed milk. If you are using 50+ ounce pitchers to pour 12 ounce beverages it's never going to truly work out the way you want it to.
-bry
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Yes! I meant to add that but I forgot, haha
Bryan Wray said:
A properly sized pitcher is just as important as properly steamed milk. If you are using 50+ ounce pitchers to pour 12 ounce beverages it's never going to truly work out the way you want it to.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by luke leffel on
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Chris nailed it with the how-to and I second bry's comment on the correct size pitcher.
There are a few reasons for proper pitcher size:
1) one needs to steam the exact amount needed for each drink-this can't be done in pitchers too large or too small because of maximum and minimum fill limits for each pitcher.
2) there needs to be a particular relation from the tip of the pitcher to the surface of the drink at the time of pouring the art. if there is too little milk in the pitcher at the time, the foam will not slide off of the edge of the pitcher but will fall onto the surface of the drink. if there is too much milk in the pitcher, the drink vessel will fill to the top while the foam rests on top of the rest of the milk still left in the steaming pitcher. (it's possible to work with both too little or too much milk but this can be difficult even for experienced latte artists)
i suggest working with a 20oz pitcher filled to about 1/3" below the bottom of the pouring spout and pouring into a 12 oz vessel with 2 shots of espresso inside it.
also, keep working on proper stretching and steaming techniques, when finished steaming, there should essentially be no bubbles on the surface, especially not big ones.
hope this helps.
-luke.
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Ian.
Start adding air withing the first 2 seconds after activating the steam wand.
If you are starting as deep as you say and moving up slowly then not exposing the steam tip then you are missing your opportunity. After you have started adding air then just keep adding it for 3-4 seconds (one one thousand , two...)
then submerge tip 1/4 inch only. Any lower and you loose the ability to press the air you added into small bubbles that flow.
You should just try the step by step and see how that works. Use a 20 ounce pitcher.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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You've gotten some great advice so far. I'll just add an emphasis to two things that jump out at me from your original post... what is your sequence?
Do you think you might have a foam incorporation issue? When you begin to pour, your milk and foam need to be as close as possible to fully homogeneous. It will be this way as soon as you've finished, and not too much after that. You can temporarily stave off separation by swirling the pitcher, but separation is inevitable. To prevent this, your objective should be to finish your milk at around the same time or just a little before your shot finishes.
I'll also add my vote to getting the proper sized pitcher. Select one that will be 1/3 or so full with your target milk amount. A decent pitcher can be purchased for $10-15 from several online sources, and may be your solution.
Hope that helps.
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It definitely is a foam incorporation issue, but I find the foam separates on its own, and no amount of swirling or stirring gets it back in. It's dense, but too airy and solid to make good latte art out of. It's great in cappuccinos though. Our shop is on a budget and we won't be getting new pitchers anytime soon. I'm not sure on the exact measurements but I'd say that the milk makes it 1/4-1/5 full before it is steamed, and maybe 1/3 full after. They're not gigantic but they're large. I'll take the measurements at work Tuesday.
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