Latte art almost always uses espresso as its base, and when brewing espresso, there are actually tricks to making it more suitable for latte art. So, which coffee beans are more suitable for latte art? Front Street Coffee is here today to give you the answer.

Recommendations for Choosing Coffee Beans for Latte Art

To create perfect latte art, we first need to extract an espresso with a rich but moderate crema, so that the foam layer blends better with the milk and the latte art pattern is more stable. Based on Front Street Coffee's experience, choosing medium-dark roasted espresso beans is very beneficial for this.

Here are a few coffee beans highly recommended for practicing latte art. They not only have a rich aroma but also pair with milk for a balanced, smooth taste—an absolutely perfect match for milk. If you like nutty flavors, we recommend Front Street Coffee's Specialty Espresso Blend and Front Street Coffee's Colombia Huila coffee beans;

if you like a rich crema, we recommend Front Street Coffee's Classic Espresso Blend; if you like caramel and spice notes, we recommend Front Street Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

Besides choosing the right coffee, we also need to pay attention to the freshness of the beans. Overly fresh espresso beans contain a large amount of carbon dioxide, which produces a relatively thick crema that is not conducive to latte art—they need to rest for 5–7 days. Stale espresso beans, on the other hand, lack sufficient carbon dioxide, so they cannot produce enough crema and it appears thin, unable to blend with the milk foam. Front Street Coffee recommends using coffee beans with a roast date within 7–45 days to make espresso. Precisely because we know how important freshness is to coffee flavor, Front Street Coffee has insisted for years on shipping beans roasted within 5 days, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the coffee's full peak flavor period after receiving it.

Three Major Learning Methods for Coffee Latte Art

1. Milk Pitcher and Milk Volume

If your milk pitcher is 450ml, then you can use about 200–250ml of milk; if the pitcher is 500–650ml, then the milk volume should be around 300–350ml.
 

2. Open the Steam Wand to Purge

Purge before steaming milk, mainly to release the condensed water inside the steam wand.

3. Milk Pitcher Placement Angle

Place the steam wand's steam tip toward the 2–3 o'clock or 9–10 o'clock position, and insert the steam tip into the milk at about 2/3 depth—not too deep, and do not let it touch the walls or bottom of the pitcher; nor too shallow, otherwise large bubbles will continuously form on the surface.

4. Milk Texturing

Pull surface air into the milk to form foam. At this point you will hear a "hissing" sound of air intake. (If after opening you hear a piercing screech like a pig being slaughtered or no sound at all, it means you are not in the texturing process.)

5. Creating the Vortex

Eliminate large bubbles and separation through a vortex. By adjusting the angle between the steam wand and the milk (not the contact point), make the milk form a 【vortex】 in the pitcher, and through the 【vortex】 tear apart the foam produced during texturing, breaking large bubbles into fine ones, and blending the upper foam with the lower milk.

Stop the 【texturing】 process at the right time. Once the milk temperature reaches 55–65°C, turn off the steam and then remove the steam wand.

6. Tap the Pitcher After Steaming.

The purpose is to pop the remaining large bubbles on the surface of the milk foam, making the surface look smoother and finer. Once the milk foam is ready, we officially begin latte art. This time we'll use a big heart as a demonstration.

①  Lower the milk pitcher close to the cup and start pouring from the center of the liquid surface.
 

②  While straightening the cup with your left hand, increase the flow rate with the pitcher in your right hand and slowly straighten it. At this point you will see the milk foam floating on top, slowly forming a circle and gradually expanding.
 

③  When the cup is almost at a 180° angle, the foam circle is already formed. Lift the pitcher in place while reducing the flow (be careful not to lift while pushing forward), using the downward force of the stream to press the upper layer of coffee liquid down. At this point you will see a heart-shaped notch appear in the original circle, with the streams from both sides converging toward the center.

④  Once the heart-shaped notch appears, you can push forward, and the pointed tail of the heart will come out.
 

⑤  And just like that, a solid heart is born.

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