Small problem with Latte Art

[Diirewolf]

Hello I have recently discovered Latte Art and thought it was something I would like to get into, being a cappuccino driniker myself. I read many sites and watched many tutorials and attemted this many times myself. I have a small problem though. I pour the milk in the pitcher and let it cool in the freezer. I then remove it and foam the milk till 80 degrees, then heat it till 150 all while its spinning in the pitcher. I pour a shot of espresso into a cup (rather large cup) while pounding and spinning the pitcher on the counter to get the perfect milk texture etc. (full fat milk btw). Once this is done i pour the milk into the cup but instead of going as shown, all the foam comes off onto the coffee almost immediately and i pour the rest of the milk which isnt very foamy. Is there any problem with my technique? I have put a lot of effort and practice into this and I have yet to make my first latte artistic cup of cappuccino. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ElPugDiablo]

What type of machine are you using?

 

[Diirewolf]

I am using a regular low-end machine for frothing, cost me about $80 nothing too fancy. Seems to work though, i may have an idea as to why this is happening it could be the pitcher i'm using, its not meant for latte art. Any more ideas?

 

[ElPugDiablo]

In your original description, sounded like your foam is on top and milk is on the bottom. You need a bit of steam power to incorporate the milk and foam. A typical espresso machine should have the boiler pressure above 1 bar, if your machine has to have sustain high pressure for the duration of milk steaming in order to properly foam milk to pour latte art.

 

[Josh]

it could also be that when you are frothing (up to 80-100 degrees) you have the tip of your steam wand out of the milk too far, therefore creating more foam than you should. try doing it with the tip just a little deeper.

Another thing you can try is pouring some of the top of your frothed milk into a second pitcher, then using what you have left for latte art.

hope this helps!!

on another note, not all steam wand "tips" are created equally. you should do some research on that too.

 

[3ternal]

make sure your foam isnt seperated from the milk all the way when you pour, swirl it around and do a shaking motion to get equal amounts of milk out at the same time. Practice with a glass to see your milk to foam ration, you'll get it with time. Good luck.

Cheers.

 

[angelicodin]

I just joined and I was looking for information on here for this type of thing. I've been trying to practice the milk when I make coffee and trying to use dish-soap and water (as not to waste milk from a video I saw), but I never thought about the tip of the wand to make a difference, but also that a glass would be a great idea to see how it's separating.

Either way I just wanted to thank the other posters for this information, it well dose help, es pally compared to just posting a new thread. ^_^

 

[Randy G.]

My recommendation is to pull the shot directly into the cup first, then stretch the milk. Unless you have very high quality milk, and are really good at stretching it, letting the milk sit while you prepare the espresso just gives the milk time to separate. Here are some lessons and articles that may help:
Why won’t my milk foam? « « jimseven jimseven
Foams « « jimseven jimseven
Properly Frothing and Pouring Milk - Tips and Techniques • Home-Barista.com
YouTube - How to steam milk for Latte art taught by Scott Rao using soap and water <---- (This one is excellent!!!!!)
YouTube - How to Make Espresso Drinks : Tips for Steaming Milk for a Cafe Latte
YouTube - How to Make a Caffe Latte : Steaming Milk to Make a Caffe Latte

 

[yyc_coffee]

I think the issue is how long you are stretching your milk. try to only stretch the milk(with the wand barely coming out of the milk) for 5-7 seconds, try to pour the milk within 20 seconds, make sure to spin it before starting the pour. Now! with your pitcher "far" away from your cup start the pour and as the cup is filling get closer. Tilting the cup at an angle and creating more surface area helps a lot too!