Minggu, 26 Juni 2011

What is Latte Art?

By Emmanuel Rogers


Have you ever been served a coffee with artwork on top? Well, that design on your espresso is known as latte art. It is usually created by drawing on the froth right after the latte is made. This is difficult you may think, but as with all the other arts, practice leads to perfection. Most quality coffee shops feature latte art these days, the subtle artwork adding appeal and excitement to a cup of coffee.

Many different latte art designs exist, with new ones being created all the time. You have have seen designs such as cats, stars, leaves, and swans. The most popular latte art design in the heart, which is an easy basic design to make. Another popular design is the rosetta, more difficult to create then the heart. Master latte artists can create much more such as faces, animals, flowers and play with the colour of the coffee to produce attractive patterns with lots of detail.

Learning latte art can be tricky as most skills are passed down from barista to barista. There are many training classes and video tutorials online that can help you learn. Here we cover two basic ways of creating latte art. The first method is the free pour, in which latte art designs are made as the milk comes into contact with the espresso. The second way is an etching design, made by creating artwork in the froth shortly after the milk is poured with a stick. The trick is to add the milk to create the white part of the design where shades of brown are created at the coffee surface.

The free pour is achieved by keeping the cup flat or slightly tilted on the table top. Pouring in a particular way, the white foam rises to the surface, straight up or sideways depending on the cups initial placement. Placing the cup level with the table and pouring slowly and particularity will result in a heart like shape while movement on the pour can result in the leaf or fern pattern.

With etching, complicated patterns that are impossible to do with the free pour technique can be achieved. The downside of the etching techniques is that they don't last very long. Since you are mixing the foam and the espresso with a thin stick, they will dissolve into each other and fade away rather quickly. It may take years to prefect these latte art techniques and as you become an experienced barista, you will notice these things happen effortlessly.

There are many factors that effect the end result. These factors including the type of espresso used, the espresso machine, the thickness of the foam later as well as the ability of the latte artist. It is fairly easy to practice this each day as coffee is consumed often, even if you don't work in a coffee shop. If you ever plan to work as a barista these skills will come is very handy. If you want to check out more latte art in your local area, many competitions exist. Ask your local latte art serving coffee shop about events in your area.




About the Author:



Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar