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

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

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

Quick pic...

...before I head off for work. I just got my Silvia machine Monday, and this was my 2nd morning latte attempt. The SUPER POWERFUL steam made way too much foam and I got no art from yesterday's coffee, but today's wasn't too bad. Still a lot to learn about this new powerhouse of a machine.

I actually had better art in my wife's soy latte but didn't photograph it. I have a baby on my lap right this minute... so I am tired of typing with one hand - and she's about to FREAK on me!

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the fish. -Naug

Disclaimers a plenty on this one!

You might say to yourself "Hey... (self). This isn't all that bad of an attempt. It kinda even looks like a fern leaf." Yes, it actually sorta does look like a leaf. I'm rather impressed it looks like much of anything, actually. And so begins my morning saga...

First of all, my wife decided to stay late in bed which left me to entertain the baby. Now she's just coming up on 3 months and needs constant attention and/or body contact. Her favorite thing is to hang in the Baby Bjorn (think chest harness for infant). I start grinding my espresso... baby happy and looking around. I tamp and get the milk ready... baby's still fine. I start to froth the milk and baby starts to *SCREAM* like I've just scalded her with hot steam (which I did not). So I'm trying to comfort my baby and make good micro-foam with her cute head blocking my view of the process - very difficult indeed!

Finally I finish frothing and she settles down a bit. I don't know if it was the sound or what. So I pull the shot and get ready to pour. I viewed a YouTube video of leaf art right before I made the latte so I tried to incorporate new technique into my latest effort. Right as I start to pour, my baby decides to start thrashing about in the Bjorn - not to be confused with Björn Borg - the great tennis player of my youth, mind you.

So I finish the pour and think, hey... not great, but actually rather nice considering all the points listed above. I go to grab my camera and go figure, it doesn't turn on... dead battery. I realize also there's no memory card in it. I put the spare battery in and surprise... also not charged. I look for my wife's small digital camera and it's disappeared. Finally I grab my father's loaned video cam and snap off a picture at least 5 min after the pour took place - better "latte" than never!? Ha ha.

So that has been my lengthy dissertation of a disclaimer for an actually half-decent latte pour.

I guarantee you I won't be holding a baby trying to do the process again any time soon. Until my next attempt... happy drinking! -Naug

Saturday morning latte

I had a bit of time Saturday morning and made a quick latte before work. As you can see I started my art pour too soon and had milk left over in the pitcher - which I later added to bring my drink up to level. ;-) Not my best attempt, but sometimes this is the best I can manage with the foam I can muster. I will try again soon, I promise. Byeee!

Not bad... not bad....

So after spending all night thinking about NYTIMES no-knead-dutch-oven bread and wanting to make some, I settled on making a morning latte and did get some decent foam to make a nice feather-like pattern. Not quite a leaf, but I like the results.

I'll write more if I have time but for now... BABY DUTY!

-Naug