Barista One

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Latte Art

B1 5.02 – The Second Half

The Second Half

Learning the Rudiments of Pouring Height and Flow Rate to Produce Designs

Drawing Height <1 cm

After the cup is half full, you will mostly be working at the surface of the drink (<1 cm above it) to produce your pattern. To put a design on the surface of the drink it is necessary to position the spout as close to the surface as you can without actually touching the surface. If you don’t get close enough, your design will end up underneath the surface. To paint white lines on the drink, the emulsion of milk and foam must remain on the surface.

Gif showing the drop from the filling height to the drawing height

Tilting the Cup

To get close enough to the surface to reach the drawing height (<1 cm) it helps a lot to tilt the cup towards the spout of the milk pitcher. If you hold the half-full cup horizontal to the bench, there will be a 3–4 cm gap between the top of the cup and the surface of the drink. Tilting the cup reduces this gap, allowing you to reach right in and onto the surface. To create the heart, tulip, or rosetta design, your spout must be positioned no farther than 1 cm from the surface.

In this video we show Matt pouring a rosetta placed flat on the bench, then one where he tilts the cup

Flow Rate

How Flow Rate Influences Line Width

Even the simplest designs require two or three flow rate adjustments. To ensure a precise metric to which you can compare your own flow rate, we have created a simple flow profile for each design we will examine. We have organised flow into three speeds:

Slow Flow Rate

  • 15 ± 5 ml/sec
  • This flow rate creates a very narrow flow,