Road to Rosetta

Ah, latte art. I am always amazed by the sheer number of baristas who put a lot of effect to perfecting the art. From a simple monks head to a heart, tulips to rosettas and then, the crazy animals I’ve seen people do. It helps being on Instagram and going to coffee festivals, watching latte art showdowns in action. I remember the mini latte art showdown at the Kent Coffee Festival a few weeks ago and how shaky my hands were! I was nervous already, let alone having friends and the fellow baristas at the stands watching. It wasn’t pretty but it was a great vibe and everyone had a good time. That got me looking into latte art more. Before, I was content with being able to pour a simple heart and tulip, mainly because I love the simplicity and practicing the same patterns over and over again helps perfect the pouring technique and finish. Safe to say, I am more confident pouring these than I was five months ago. I used to have a love/hate relationship with latte art as my hands (and mindset) struggled with pouring techniques and sometimes, frothing the right textured milk was difficult. Weirdly, I improved my latte art using french press milk over the last four months, but by knowing what milk texture to aim for and how to froth/press the milk correctly, you get more/less the same texture as you would with a milk steamer. It took a lot (I mean, A LOT) of time to get it right but it was worth the effort. With greater understanding of how and why milk texture is important, I was able to pour fairly consistent latte art all because of brewing coffee manually.

I call my next latte art chapter ‘The Road to Rosetta’ because aim is to be able to pour the rosetta revolution, a term I used by one of my favourite coffee personalities Lance Hedrick. It was from his featured podcast with Freshly Brewed that triggered a light bulb moment for me. He mentioned (I paraphrase) that if you like pouring latte art and spend a lot of time doing it, go for it! It might seem like some tedious/pointless thing to do knowing people are going to consume the cup of coffee anyway, but actually it is quite the opposite. Like food on the plate, we eat and drink using all our senses, first looking and admiring what we are about to consume. If it looks visually appealing, already our experience is enhanced. No one can deny that latte art looks amazing.

Over the course of time, I will be making lots of mistakes and I am sure there will be some minor frustrations. But like anything, with patience and consistent effort, the rosetta will come.