Could they be more different?!?

This is my 2nd belated post of September. I had 4 decent lattes to post but have not had internet/power for the past few days (my town had 660,000 ppl without power this week and mine finally came back LATE Monday night). The top pour is one of my favorites of recent. I only wish the crema was a little darker near the bottom, but the overall rosetta is pretty nice.

This second attempt from yesterday had potential. I got a lot of detail in the "leaves" but did not get good contrast - too much of the foam slipped under the crema. Again, this is all in the pourer's abilities and mine are far from perfected. So I will continue my quest to hone my skills as a master barista. Ha!

Pour it again, Sam.

-Naug

Been slacking on my blog...

...not that anyone reads it anyway! These are my 2 previous attempted pours. I have not posted in a while because I have had both a power outage and just haven't felt like I was getting anything worth posting. I will also post a 2nd entry with my most recent 2 from this week.

As you can see, neither is a very good example. The 2nd has a heart design - purely unintentional I'll admit. My crema has been pretty good with the home roasted beans, but my microfoam is still all over the map and don't even get me started on my pours. Ugh.

Thus concludes post 1 of 2...

-Naug

Not much luck these days...

I'm having issues getting the microfoam right. As you can see there are many larger bubbles which are affecting my pours and the latte art in general. I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

Sadly lacking in style.

-Naug

Neverending...

I don't see any foreseeable conclusion to this hobby of making latte art. There are times when I think, hey... a couple more days and I'll have everything just so, but there are SO many variables that I'm surprised baristas DO master the technique. I'm sure it helps having professional equipment and doing multiple pours on a daily basis. My 3-4 pours a week does make for a steeper learning curve.

I tried frothing the milk FIRST today then pulling the shot to see if I could get better results in this order - what I used to do back in my Saeco Classico days. The milk seemed to froth really nice and even without too much steam pressure. I then purged the machine and pulled the shot.

The end result is fair, but it still seemed as though my microfoam was a little thin and didn't hold up to the much thicker crema and so my overall pour wasn't very great. Back to the drawing board I suppose. But at minimum my brother can't critique my lack of good crema. I've currently got an excess of the stuff. :-P

Until next time, pour like you mean it.

-Naug