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My name is Mike Jones, and I’m a barista at Third Rail Coffee right by Washington Square Park in New York City. I’m going to teach you some basic coffee-making skills.
Alright, I’m going to talk to you about latte art. Latte art is kind of the exciting part of making espresso drink. It’s what gets a lot of people really pumped about making coffee. It’s not necessarily a representation of a quality beverage, but it definitely shows that the person who made it cared—it’s the mark of a professional, similar to plating with food. Now, the first thing you need is a good shot of espresso. You need the milk steamed properly with good micro foam, and then you have to pour, keeping a few things in mind. This is velocity, so basically how fast you’re pouring. And then where the milk is going in the cup, and where it’s flowing outwards. It’s kind of something you have to feel out and you really have to practice it many many times to get down. So we’re going to start off by doing the heart. This is sort of the basic latte art design and then the other one would be a rosetta which is a fern, and then a tulip. So heart, rosetta, tulip are the three basic designs you can do with latte art. So I’m going to start off making the heart, pulling a shot, steaming the milk and then pouring. Alright, so when you’re starting to pour latte art, the first thing you want to do is pour from a greater distance up, or from a greater height so that way the milk is actually going to go underneath the espresso and then as you get closer and start pouring faster, the foam rises to the top and this is when you start controlling it. So to make the heart, you’re basically just going to be pouring into the center until you see it’s about three-quarters full. So I’m pouring into the center there. Then as I get closer, the foam will rise to the top and you just kind of shake it, and then you lift it up at the end to suck it in and cut through. So again, pouring to the center, getting close when it’s three-quarters full, pulling up to suck in and then cutting through. That’s a heart.