Latte coffee seems simple, but in reality, every step—from bean selection and extraction to milk frothing and latte art—hides its own nuances. While cafes differ in their milk-to-coffee ratios, bean choices, and parameters, the classic approach usually involves blending a large amount of milk with espresso. This article uses Front Street Coffee as an example to systematically explain the entire latte-making process: how to choose espresso beans based on flavor preferences, adjust grind size, dose and distribute the grounds, and tamp; the principles and techniques of steaming milk; and finally, latte art practice steps for beginners. Whether you're preparing for a barista interview or looking to improve your output at home, you'll find practical references here.

Every cafe makes lattes with slightly different ratios of milk to espresso, bean selections, and extraction parameters. Overall, though, a latte is simply a beverage made by combining a large amount of milk with espresso.

Quite a few friends have privately asked Front Street Coffee what exactly one needs to learn to become a barista, and whether knowing how to do latte art is enough. In reality, baristas need to master not just coffee-making but also a great deal of related knowledge, and the most fundamental skills are none other than espresso extraction and milk steaming. Many cafes, during interviews, will ask applicants to make a latte as a way to test whether they have the basic barista skills.

To make classic Italian-style coffee, using Front Street Classic Espresso Blend works better —this is a recipe combining beans from three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam, using a dark roast, which maximizes the coffee's rich aroma and makes it easy to extract abundant, creamy crema. It's suitable for both Americano diluted with water and latte paired with milk, and can be purchased from the Front Street Taobao store or Front Street Tmall flagship store.

Espresso extraction parameters:

Dose: 18g

Yield: 36g

Extraction time: 28 seconds

Milk parameters:

Milk type: Whole milk

Steaming temperature: 50°C

Foam thickness: 1cm

Milk-to-coffee ratio: 1:9

Cup details:

Cup capacity: 200ml

Material: Ceramic

How to pull a good espresso shot?

1. Choose your beans

To make a latte, you first need to prepare a suitable bag of beans. Front Street has put together a few bean selection guidelines for your reference.

A. If you prefer nutty notes and a balanced taste, try Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend or Front Street Colombia Huila beans;

B. If you like spicy caramel with roasted aromas , we recommend Front Street Golden Mandheling beans or Front Street Commercial Espresso Blend;

C. If you favor floral notes with a sweet-tart quality, Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso beans or Front Street Huakui SOE beans would be a good choice;

Front Street Coffee usually recommends resting espresso beans for about ten days. As you know, dark-roasted beans degas faster than light-roasted ones, so why rest them this long? The reason is that espresso extraction, unlike pour-over, doesn't have ample space for the coffee to degas. If the beans are too fresh and degassing too vigorously, channeling easily occurs, making the espresso output unstable.

2. Adjust the grind size

Once you've chosen your beans, you need to focus on the espresso grind size—this is basically a daily grind adjustment task.

The finer the grind particles, the denser and tighter the puck, making it harder for water to penetrate and lengthening the extraction time. Conversely, widening the burr gap produces coarser particles, allowing water to flow through more easily and speeding up extraction.

Front Street generally references the previous extraction parameters when pulling espresso, keeping the time between 25 and 30 seconds with a double dose of about 18 to 20 grams.

After ruling out factors like puck perforation, if the extraction time becomes longer, it may be over-extracted on the surface and under-extracted inside, presenting as sharp acidity, burnt bitterness, and astringency—indicating the grind may be too fine and can be coarsened slightly. If the flow speeds up, the stream is thick, extraction is shallow, and the color is pale, the grind may be too coarse and just needs to be tightened slightly.

3. Dosing

Dosing is the first step of distribution. Uneven dosing will greatly mislead and interfere with the subsequent distribution step—even the most advanced distribution tools cannot completely eliminate the impact of the dosing stage on espresso extraction.

What are the effects of uneven dosing?

1. Flavor differences: When dosing is uneven, the distribution stage can no longer compensate for problems in the lower part of the coffee bed. Inconsistent density in the puck leads to uneven puck thickness, and during extraction, hot water flows at different rates in different locations. With the slightest lapse, perforation and channeling easily occur (water's inertia makes it choose the path of least resistance while neglecting other routes), causing some areas to be under-extracted and others over-extracted, making every cup taste inconsistent.

2. Extraction parameters fluctuate too much, so after adjusting the grinder for ages, the flow rate is still wrong, the time is still wrong, the grind size is still wrong. You've ground through a pile of coffee beans and still can't produce consistently.

So how do you practice dosing?

1. Prepare a digital scale

Weighing the dose before every extraction is an essential practice for making perfect espresso. Even with a quantitative grinder, I suggest you periodically check the grinder's weighing accuracy—after all, no matter how advanced the machine, errors and malfunctions are inevitable.

2. Rotate while dosing

Whether using a hand doser or direct grinding, as long as the coffee grounds don't fall perfectly vertically, the puck will still show some degree of bias under lateral acceleration. For example, when dosing by hand, the effect of pressing hard versus pressing gently is naturally different—the harder you press, the more it shifts to the left.

At this point, you need to rotate the portafilter at a steady speed while dosing at a steady rate, so the grounds distribute evenly into different parts of the basket—of course, absolute evenness is impossible, but at least it's much better than dosing in a fixed position.

4. Distribution

Tapping and settling are two motions, but they're usually used in sequence. Quickly tap the bottom of the portafilter with your palm to shake the mound of grounds level, then follow with straight up-and-down settling taps to effectively eliminate large gaps in the coffee bed, making the mound denser and increasing the amount of coffee the basket can hold.

Checking the distribution result

If during extraction you notice the flow of coffee quickly becomes unstable, jumping dramatically, and the color quickly turns pale, you can judge that: there's a problem inside the puck (cracks have formed), or uneven tamping has caused the areas with less coffee to be over-extracted (which is also very likely caused by uneven distribution leading to uneven tamping), or simply uneven distribution has left the edges uncovered by coffee grounds, allowing water to flow straight through there.

After extraction is complete, remove the portafilter and observe the shape of the puck. If the edges have no coffee grounds, or the grounds have been washed up, or the puck has obvious gaps, then the extraction failed due to uneven distribution.

4. Tamping

Tamping uses a certain amount of pressure to compact the loose coffee grounds so that pressurized hot water can penetrate evenly. The direction is straight down. If you tamp at an angle, the high-temperature, high-pressure hot water from the group head will seek the layer of least resistance to penetrate, causing uneven extraction. It also easily leads to what we call channeling.

The amount of force used for tamping and what kind of tamper you use don't matter much—as long as the puck is compressed firmly. That's why keeping the tamping force consistent every time is all the more important.

How to steam milk?

For this experiment, Front Street Coffee used Guangming fresh milk.

The milk steaming process:

1. Place the steam wand at the center of the milk pitcher, tilted about 45 degrees to the upper right near the edge of the pitcher, at a depth of about 1 cm. (This depth is fairly common, but given coffee machines with varying steam power, it's only a suggestion.)

2. Turn on the steam, slowly lower the milk pitcher, and bring the steam wand's tip into contact with the milk surface to create aeration, using an up-and-down rolling motion to gradually build volume and foam.

3. When the aeration and foaming have expanded to the thickness you need, tilt the steam wand and move it to the right of the pitcher's center near the edge of the pitcher, so the milk foam rolls in a vortex pattern.

4. Control the pitcher's angle and depth to fold in the coarser foam, and stop once the desired temperature is reached.

Principles of steaming milk

The first stage is: aeration, introducing air. Aeration is when the steam wand's tip contacts the milk surface and steam enters the milk to create foam.

The second stage is: texturing. Texturing is using the vortex motion to fold air into the frothed milk, causing larger bubbles to burst and break down into fine microfoam, and creating bonds between milk molecules to make the foam texture denser and creamier.

Points to note: Aeration, introducing air

Turn on the steam to begin aeration and observe the milk surface. If the milk is spinning but you don't hear a "tss-tss-tss" sound, it means air isn't being introduced. At this point, lower the pitcher slightly to expose the nozzle tip a bit for aeration. Once you hear the hissing sound of air intake, stop lowering the pitcher and hold it in place.

At this point, observe the milk's movement. Normally, it should be aerating while the liquid rotates, forming a vortex.

The motion of lowering the pitcher to introduce air must be subtle and gradual, not too abrupt. Once you hear the sound indicating aeration is happening, steady it and stop lowering.

Steam wand angle when steaming milk

Many people are used to placing the steam wand at the 2-3 o'clock or 9-10 o'clock position of the pitcher (assuming the pitcher spout is at 12 o'clock).

Besides positioning the steam wand correctly, the angle between the steam wand and the milk surface is also very important.

If the steam wand is too vertical, most of the steam shoots downward, making it hard to form a small vortex in the milk. If the steam wand is too flat, most of the steam shoots out parallel, making the small vortex too large and creating turbulence that's hard to control or causing milk to overflow.

Latte art practice methods for beginners

Once we've pulled a shot of espresso and steamed the milk, first swirl the cup to coat the crema onto the walls of the cup, then tilt the cup to about a 40-degree angle.

When pouring the milk, control the stream so it isn't too large, letting the milk pierce straight through the coffee to the bottom, then begin circling to mix the milk and coffee. Note here that when pouring the milk, the stream should be thin, and you should pour at a fixed point in the center of the coffee.

Then begin circling to mix the milk and coffee until about six-tenths full, and start your latte art.

For the push-stack heart, pour the milk at the 1/3 point of the cup to push out a semicircular arc, then immediately push another one forward. When forming the final heart shape, raise the pitcher higher and pour a little milk to let the initial semicircular arcs wrap around the entire heart, and finally finish with a thin stream for the tail.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.