Hello my pretty

This was my Saturday attempt. Pretty nice. I think it was my 2nd because my first had SO much steam that I ended up with some ridiculous frothy foam that I just couldn't make any art with. This was made for my sister-in-law's husband and I even did the pour after adding syrup so the crema MUST have been good.

I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing at the start of my pour, but one day... one day my perfect pour will arrive.

But until then, I pour, I drink, I impress only my own ego.

Cheerios.
-Naug

OH NO! I rushed it.

Sometimes everything starts so perfect... great crema, lots of powerful steam and then the moment of truth - the pour! I suppose my microfoam wasn't the best but I definitely rushed my pour and ended up running out of cup at the end to get the rosetta made. I'd give my effort a C+ mostly because the execution was poor even though the end result is better than average.

Man. I MUST be my own worst critic. Perfectionist Latte Blog is what I should rename this thing. Oh well.

Happy Weekend and keep on frothing all!

-Naug

The crema my brother was buggin' me about

So I FINALLY got those darn beans roasted and this is my first REAL attempt with the extra crema that I now obtain. I made a couple lattes for my wife and myself yesterday but trying to froth milk for 2 lattes AND get art is a bad idea. Both looked horrible (but with good crema). So today I concentrated on just one cup and got pretty good results. As usual the end pour is better than the beginning so I need to work on my technique a bit more.

Not to make excuses, but I was rushed because the man (an old scouting buddy) who is tiling our kitchen floors showed up right as I finished frothing and I had to pour "with company". Oh... the pressure.

Anyway, the taste is very good - strong but smooth. Maybe next post I'll get a little better definition in the leaves of the rosetta.

Until then... making it "Good to the last drop!"

-Naug

Best yet?

So I'm not sure this is my best ever, but it's my best in some time. This may be the last latte I make using the free beans that came with Miss Silvia. I just roasted my blend of Brazil, Colombian, and Nicaraguan this morning so I will probably have another entry on Monday if I get a good pour - hopefully with nice dark CREMA!!!

The free "Super Crema" espresso beans (as they are dubbed) did have better crema than any vacuum bagged beans I've used prior, but nothing like what comes with a fresh home roast, especially one with 15% robusta to give a nice crema boost.

So, hopefully next post I will have some nice dark crema as a starting palette to work my "magic". ;-) THEN my only excuse will be my ability to pour!

Ta ta.

-Naug

No crema but decent pour

This pour from this morning just goes to show that you can get fairly good art EVEN IF your crema is plain awful. I actually did my shot into an espresso mug and then decided to try a pour so I transfered that into my cup - something I never do. As a result, I lost most of what little crema I had to begin with.

I'm still a little unsure how to start the pours because I get really undefined lower leaves of the rosetta but only toward the end of the pour am I getting a good light and dark contrast in the design. I'm sure having better crema and fresher beans would help. Maybe I'll roast some on Saturday... I've been SUPER lazy recently.

Have sooperdy dooper day!

-Naug

Bottom 3

These are my last 3 latte art attempts. I guess I'm exaggerating when I say bottom 3 because I've had many worse pours than these. I didn't even get very good pictures of them - mostly because I could tell they weren't so spectacular. I am about sick of the pre-roasted espresso beans that I still have a half bag of which came with my Silvia. The sad thing is that I HAVE all the green beans to iRoast it up AND a new digital scale to weigh them out, I've just been preoccupied recently and can't be bothered to roast them.

As an aside, my old digital scale now displays EEE no matter what I do - even with fresh batteries (which were 2 of the CR lithium type that cost over $6 and weren't even the issue). My advice? Don't waste your money on a Salter scale. :-)

Rant over.

So I will trudge on and hopefully have some better, less-watery crema soon and maybe a beautiful pour in the not so distant future. This is DEFINITELY not a good hobby for a generally lazy person with perfectionist qualities... it's very easy to get frustrated.

Hoping your lattes are always tasty...
-Naug

Someday

Yes, someday. Someday I will truly know what it means to create the perfect latte art. I am not complaining too much about where I'm at now. I mean a couple of months ago I couldn't pour anything like what I can today. Maybe only one out of 10 pours I'd even want to put on the blog due to their lack of anything "blog-worthy".

So, I shouldn't whine or complain too much about not having perfected my art yet. I do wish I was a bit more consistant. I knew that on this one I had too much foam and it wasn't forming a very tight froth in the pitcher. Once again I sort of circled the milk in initially and then slowed my pour near the end with the shake, but since the foam was lighter and too "foamy" I knew I wouldn't get very good detail in the rosetta.

The good news is that it DOES look like an actual rosetta, just one from a distance photographed with an out-of-focus telephoto lense or something. Ha ha.

Well, at least the coffee tasted good as usual and that IS all that matters, right?

Cya next time
-Naug

I love you too!

Well... It seems that I can make a heart now. :-) My wife will be happy since she's been asking me to do some other type of design. I pretty much over packed my portafilter and the espresso was barely dripping out - this is a pretty hard thing to do on the Silvia with all it's power. I also frothed the milk first since the machine hadn't heated up its usual 30 minutes in advance and I wanted coffee bad!

I had a really dark small shot in the cup and with the milk frothed already I only had to swirl the pitcher for about 15 seconds and tap it before I was ready to pour. I again poured kinda quickly circling the outside of the cup trying to slip the milk in. Then I did a little bit of a shake but this time ended up more with a heart. I think this was because of the vigorous pour at the start. Either way, it's really pretty and tastes good and I'm quite satisfied with the results. I will have to try to replicate my result and pour the heart again.

I suppose if I ever lose my day job I could pass for a minimal barista at some non-Seattle non-Italian cafe. Ha ha.

Y'all come back now, Y'ear?
-Naug

A nice artful thing...

...but what IS it exactly. It's kinda leaf-like but also rather featherish. I do think I'm starting to get used to the whole pour technique thingy. It's almost like you have to kinda pour around the cup to "slip" the milk through the crema leaving it rather undisturbed. Then at the end the foam begins to settle along the top and you begin to shake to form the art.

My problem is that I can only practice 3 times a week or so which makes it hard to remember what techniques work and which don't. But I suppose this is the nature of the home barista vs the full-time barista.

And so I trudge onward. Seeking a perfect pour to one day impress my big brother.

Till next time,
-Naug

Now we're getting somewhere

So I had to rush to get this one made. I didn't have my larger brown latte cups clean and didn't FEEL like cleaning them so I used my smaller 7oz cups and frothed my wife's soy latte first (life would be easier if she drank milk) then frothed mine. The smaller amount of milk heated almost too quickly and I had to try NOT to pull too much air into the milk to make a nice microfoam. I was worried that the foam would die when it hit the espresso since I had less than 20 seconds of froth time, but it held its own and when I did the shake I realized I was going to get a good pour.

I darkened the photo slightly to show the crema - yes, still using the preroasted free beans. But the result speaks for itself. Pretty darn nice. It was drunk in record time too cause it was so small - a good excuse to make another before work if I ever heard one.

-Naug

ps... my wife asks when I'm going to learn some other design. uh... when I perfect this one... so, never probably. ha ha.

Hmm...

This is proving to be more difficult than I had first thought. I miss my home roasted super crema beans, but I should still be getting better by now. I am mostly having difficult with getting the microfoam just so as well as the start of the pour. The finish is coming along better and this is a pretty decent example but my foam is just a tad off.

As a side note I also was making blueberry/blackberry whole wheat muffins so I was just maybe a little distracted? OK, I wasn't, but just was hoping for an excuse.

See you folks latte! :-)-Naug

Afternoon is better

It seems like my latte art ability increases in the afternoon. I still am using free roasted beans and hope to soon get some more green to do my own roast. Again I JUST started to blog and my wife decided to give me our little baby to hold. I'm surprised she isn't freaking out just yet.

Anyway, I don't have much else to say. I will keep at it. And maybe soon have a bit better crema to work with.

Naug... out!