Yay! Latte art.
Two or three weeks into the internship and I was ready to tackle the Espresso machine. At first, it was quite intimidating especially after hearing stories of people getting burnt from the hot water nozzle and steam wand, but I was excited either way. By this stage, I was familiar with grinding coffee into the portafilter, tampering it down and pulling Espresso shots, the next challenge was frothing milk. As I watched my colleague demonstrate, I took mental notes and replayed the latte art tutorials I watched on YouTube in my head. Then proceeded to pour into the latte cup - the skill, technique and patience was precise. And that was it, a beautiful solid latte heart right in the centre of the cup. My colleague made it look so effortless. Looked fairly straightforward, I thought! Just follow the steps - froth the milk to a white-paint texture, give it a swirl and pour it into the cup.
Onto the stage, it was my time to shine. I say that, but actually I was quite nervous. My muscle memory was only getting used to holding the cup, adjusting the steam wand and positioning the milk pitcher to steam the milk correctly. It was all very technical. My first attempt wasn’t actually bad - milk was fairly smooth (albeit lacked some of foam) and reached 55 degrees so it was just about hot enough. It went downhill from there, however. My mind was trying to remember all the steps I was showed earlier, while confused with what I learned on YouTube. At the same time, my hands had a mind of their own - what angle was I supposed to hold the cup? Where do I pour the milk, was it at the edge of the cup or the centre? How do I tilt the cup as I pour? Then the pour itself. I’d say 75% of the milk reached inside the cup safely but the rest? All over the counter and my hand (having hot milk all over your hand is not fun..)
Now that I look back at it, I laugh and it’s a fond memory of mine. It’s serves as a good reminder that you won’t learn a new skill in a day and like anything new, it takes time. Latte art is fun and is a very satisfying skill to master, but the most important is frothing the milk correctly. Even the prettiest caffe latte’s can taste horrible and the plainest-looking latte’s can taste delicious.
