How To Make Latte Art

Welcome to the ultimate guide on how to make latte art at home and work. Here you will learn how to steam great milk, pull the perfect shot, and the hand techniques to pour basic and advanced latte art designs. This is latte art 101.

About This Guide

I remember when I first started working as a barista there weren't any good guides online on how to learn latte art. I saw all these cool images and videos of baristas pouring fantastic designs and I wanted to learn them! I eventually did through trial and error but it would have been a whole lot easier with some good guides to refer to.

That's why I started this site to teach coffee lovers of all skills how to make latte art!

On this page you will find an index of all the latte art guides on this site. You should start with the basics and work your way up to the top. Like all things mastery comes with practice, but I hope this page gives you a head start and if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Ivan Bez Latte Art Guide

Ivan - Barista & Founder

Latte Art Tutorials


Latte Art Essentials

Before we get into the hand techniques on how to pour latte art you must first learn how to pour the perfect espresso shot and steam great milk. You should think of your espresso shot as your canvas and your milk as your brush. Without a good canvas and brush your latte art will be lacking and you won't be able to pour more complicated designs.

If you are producing watery espresso or bubbly milk foam, I recommend you don't go further until you get these right. The key to latte art is is a good espresso base and perfectly steamed milk that looks like wet paint. Below you can click through to my milk frothing and espresso pouring guides.

How To Steam Milk: 6 Step Steamed Milk Guide

How To Make An Excellent Espresso Shot

Basic Latte Art

There are two basic latte art designs you must master before being able to do more complicated designs. They are the latte art heart and rosetta. The reason why these two pours are essential is that the more complicated designs are just variations of these two pours. So once you get these two down the rest will be much easier.

I've also included a fun latte art sunrise in my beginner handbook. This is one of my favourite easy pours as it always gets smiles from customers. A lot of people do hearts and rosettas but a sunrise is unexpected! Click the images below to learn these pours.

Latte Art Heart: How To Make It Like A Pro

Latte Art Sunrise

Advanced Latte Art

After you've got your fundamentals and basic pours down, now we start getting into the more fun designs! But don't get intimidated by these pours as they're just variations of the heart and rosetta pours.

The reason why these pours are a little more tricky is because they require more precise pouring techniques. You'll need to learn increase then slow down your pour rate - and even turn your cup to get the design right! You will spend a bit more time learning these designs. But once you do you will be wowing your customers and friends! The intermediate pours I've included below are the latte art indian chief, wave tulip, regular tulip, and reverse tulip!

Latte Art Indian Chief

Latte Art Wave Tulip

How To Pour A Latte Art Tulip

Latte Art Inverted Rosetta Tulip

Expert Latte Art

Welcome to the ultimate challenge! Below are some of the toughest latte art designs to master and is why they are classified as advanced coffee art. These designs build upon the intermediate designs and take it one step further.

The reason why these pours are more difficult is because you require even more precise pouring. If you pour too fast or don't turn your cup at the right moment the design will be ruined! Time is also very important for these designs. As they are complicated they take more time to pour, but if you're too slow the espresso canvas will become hard and impossible to work with. So you must be quick and exact!

In my opinion if you can pour these designs you can call your self a latte art expert.

The designs you will be learning below are: the latte art swan, latte art phoenix, and the latte art scorpion! I wish you luck!

Latte Art Phoenix

How To Make A Latte Art Swan

How To Make A Latte Art Scorpion


Top Tips On Making Latte Art

Now that we've gone through our latte art guides here are my top tips on making it. 

  • Learn to make a great shot and steamed milk. This is the most important tip as it really comes down to this. You can have the best technique in the world but if your milk and shots are terrible the end result will be lacklustre.
  • Choose a good shaped cup. You want to use a nice round cup with a wide diameter. Once the milk hits the sides it is much easier to guide the milk and the extra surface area allows you to add more designs.
  • Steam your milk to 50 degrees celsius (122 fahrenheit). I find when the milk is a little cooler it produces a silkier and better flowing milk for latte art.
  • Practice, practice, practice! The more you pour the better you will get. For me personally it took two to three hundred coffees to perfect latte art. 
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