On Latte Art

Latte art seems to be one of those little things that people either absolutly love or feel completely indifferent toward.  Personally I’m on the love side, the first time I saw latte art was on a training session and they had a DVD/Video showing latte art on and it mesmerised me, and initially spurred me to be better at being a barista. Little did I know how far I truely had to come from that point.

I learnt a lot that day, not only about basic latte art, but how to appreciate an espresso asis, and just how much cleaning could be done to a coffee machine.

So I crafted away at latte art for a good long time without the aid of a spouted jug, started to pour sloppy rosettas and hearts etc and customers rarely commented or acknowledged the work that has gone into it, however the few people that did comment on it made me feel pretty good, which spurred me to continue and to nagg my boss to get me a motta jug.

Anyway, back to the original point.  “Why do it?” some of my less than eager co-workers ask, for me its fun to challenge myself a bit, its also nice for customers who have never seen it before to see the magic that is forming a rosetta or tulip on a cup.  And for the odd customer that is familiar with 3rd wave coffee its nice to surprise people when they stop at a motorway services to get a latte with art ontop.  So part of it is for the customer, it creates another sensory pleasure.  Not only does the drink smell, taste and feel nice in the mouth but it also looks pretty.

That said, I have to admit there are self-serving reasons to put that extra bit of effort into the drink.  Firstly, it keeps things interesting, you can challenge coworkers to pour certain patterns and engage with customers a bit more (including asking them what they would like to see you pour). Also if a drink goes out and isn’t up to standard (because mistakes a made from once in a while), people are generally more likely to be nice about it, as the latte art shows that some effort has been made (Obviously, if a bad shot is noticed before hand then it shouldn’t leave the bar but some slip through the net now and then).

A slight pullback now, I don’t think latte art should be poured at the expence of the drinks quality, for instance, it’s totally possible to pour an obviously attrocious shot and pour art ontop of it, but why?  All this does is make your drink akin to the Starwars new trilogy(1-3) lots of form, very little substance. And there are times when latte art isn’t appropriate, for instance if you have 20 people waiting for their drinks, don’t bother pouring tulips on waves or double rosettas just get on and make it, pour a bloody heart or a quick rosetta and move on to the next drink, or you’ll never get anything out and just end up with a queue of angry customers.

Uses
Latte art has a few uses other than the superficial cup in itself.  It creates a talking point, for a small shop competing with the big chains its a real unique selling point.  To people working within the big chains who have an interest in coffee it creates a stepping stone across that rather large ravine.  And for anyone attempting it, it forces microfoam instead of textureless froth, which even on failed attempts is a rare occurance in the afformentioned chains and a proper microfoam is worth 100x more than the latte art occurance.

At the end of the day, I don’t expect latte art all the time, but when I get it it is special and I think the barista and comment on it.  I will continue to pour latte art when I can and hope to get better at it, I don’t get stressed over it however, if something gets messed up then I just let it go, and certainly wouldn’tmake someone wait for me to pour a design I’m happy with over the course of multiple attempts.  I’ll also encourage my co-workers to pour latte art as it keeps them interested in making drinks better and keeps the milk nicely foamed rather than flat or frothed.

It shouldn’t, however, be used as a yardstick to measure a barista either.  Some people just can’t pour latte art, but still produce brilliantly textured milk and should be commended and not felt a ‘lesser’ barista simply because they don’t have a certain skill.

At the end of the day I think its an incredibly useful tool for the front-end of the industry.  It can inspire baristas to do better and to learn more and it creates a talking point with the general public.

Happy pouring

Starbucks and their effects…

This is based on a reply on a Barista facebook group complaining of baristi from Starbucks joining in…

Apologies for the slightly disjointed nature of this blessay it wasn’t originally meant to be as large as it is, but I had to vent my spleen as it were when i got started

Going back to the Starbuck’s Baristi though I agree to a point, I think Starbucks have done good in their time, in bringing espresso coffee into the main stream, and until about 5 years ago they still made drinks in group machines rather than bean to cup. And if you ask nicely you can get a true macchiato from them. I’m really hoping their new direction will get them back to leading the public to expect better coffee because at the end of the day thats better for all of us.

Their baristi are a product of their company, I would imagine its a lot easier to get a job in Starbucks when you leave school than it is to get a job in an independent coffee shop, where a member of staff’s training cost is a lot higher in relation to income, as is often the trust that must be placed in the individual. They tell their staff “this is a macchiato” and they try and set themselves up as the all knowing font for coffee expertise, and if their baristi are browsing groups like this and are seeing there are different ways of doing things and their passion for coffee could be directed better (Its hopeful but I’m sure there must be some passionate and potentially brilliant baristi within their ranks) then they might say to themselves “Well if I can’t do better coffee here then i might try somewhere else and see what I can do”.

But they need to change a few things in my view, to really make the best of their position, instead of having the “Espresso Blend” they could improve their quality and educate by having a rotating blend, seasonal espresso dependant on which regions are shipping out coffee at that time and dropping their “100% Arabica”. This is going to be a bit contentious, but in my view  in a 21oz latte you need robusta. Rather than a 10% Fairtrade mix which they currently have, paying a fair price for good quality robusta would help farmers a hell of a lot more.

Also they need to stop acting like independents are the enemy and be embracing of them, they alienate the coffee community by doing this and I would be more willing to part with money.

I would also love for them to go back to using grouped machines and having trained and talented baristi rather than having stores that could be staffed by 2 monkeys.

The last thing which they can do to improve it is to close some stores. I know it sounds backwards, but if there is a starbucks for every McDonalds then they get associated in the same way and when you can get a coffee from McDs for 1/2 the price then its a no brainer.

At the end of the day, the huge majority of the general public will associate lattes and cappuccinos with Starbucks and to ignore this is bad for the industry as a whole, they’re the face of coffee and changing that is nigh-on impossible.

Though I would love it if with every person on the street mentioning a cappuccino brought memories of 6floz thick walled cups of silky coffee, at the moment its a 16floz paper cup with a latte topped with froth/foam and then drenched in chocolate powder and filled with as much sugar as can saturate the milk and changing that is a slow burn, but it is slowly happening.

If Starbucks and their contempories were to go bust tomorrow, 3rd wave coffee shops would not get any bigger, the crowds would just move to McDonalds, and Krisy Kreme and any number of other food service outlets that have capitolised on “Premium Coffee”.  Or maybe I don’t have enough faith in the general public…

Thats just my two cents of course