Art is among one of the most important forms of human expression and its unique shape can be found in our world of coffee! Some might say coffee is just a drink, not art. But whatever you consider it, it takes a lotof time and practice to create.
We won’t be able to make something pleasing just because we have a paintbrush or in this case a milk pitcher. But, once we understand how to control the amount of air going into the milk during steaming, we will be able to start practicing making micro-foam and pouring art into our coffee.
To make crisp, well formed designs in our coffee drinks the milk must be steamed to a certain texture. That texture is the consistency of wet paint and we should see it cling to the sides of the pitcher, but not be very thick. This slightly thinner texture makes the lines in our designs more clean, but also is the reason we must pay close attention to the height of our pitcher when pouring art.
The tip of the pitcher must be as close to the surface of the liquid as possible for the white lines to start showing up.
The closer the pitcher is to the espresso the thicker the lines will be, and the farther away, the thinner the lines will be.
pouring a heart
To begin, we will pour our milk starting from about 7 centimeters above the surface of the espresso. This is considered the high position.
Once the cup is ¼ full, we will pause, tilt the cup towards the pitcher and move the tip of the pitcher as close to the surface of the liquid as possible. This is considered the low position. Keep pouring low and into the middle of the cup, move the pitcher very slightly from side to side, pouring a little faster to widen our design.
Once the cup is almost full, slow down the pour and level out the cup. At the same time bring the pitcher up high again, pulling a thin stream of milk through the design to finish it off.
For those of us who take up this hobby, learning about coffee is a lifelong journey and everyone around us can enjoy the benefits of our daily grind.