Get ready to pour some love as in this guide you'll learn how to make a latte art heart!
The coffee heart is a basic design that forms the foundations for many advanced latte art techniques. Luckily, it’s easy to learn and always impresses customers and friends.
Below you'll find a video of me pouring a heart along with a step-by-step guide on how to make it, then some tips on how to make it better.
Difficulty | |
Prior Knowledge |
How to make a latte art heart
1. Make sure your milk is combined
Before pouring you want to make sure the milk you pour is combined by spinning it. If the foam and milk seperates the foam will come out of your jug all in once and ruin your design. Give it a good 5-10 spins until it looks like wet paint.
Make sure your foam and milk is combined before pouring.
2. Create the canvas
Next you want to gently incorporate the milk into the espresso until the cup is three quarters full. This creates the canvas that you will make your design on. I recommend incorporating the milk in a gentle circular motion.
Create the canvas
3. Get low and shake in the centre in one spot
Next you want to bring your jug close to the espresso, keep a consistent pour, and then shake your jug side-to-side while keeping it in the same spot. You can even rest your jug onto the cup if you find this helps keep you steady. Keep pouring until you start to see a circular blob or apple shape starts to form.
Get low and close. You can even angle the cup to get closer.
4. Lift and Suck The Milk Down
When your circle has formed, pull your jug directly up to create a thin steady stream of milk. This will create a suction that will arch the top of the circle in order to create the love heart curve.
Once the circle appears it's time to create the thin stream.
5. Follow Through
When your latte cup is almost full, keep the flow of milk steady and then follow-through the milk from one side of the cup to the other to create your coffee art heart.
The thin steam sucks the milk and cut the milk.
6. Done!
And you’re all done! Super simple wasn’t it? This is a perfect design to bring a smile to any customer (or significant other).
Latte art heart complete
Heart coffee tips and tricks
Below are some more tips on how to make latte art.
- Make sure you have a good shot as espresso is the canvas. The better the shot the better the contrast.
- Swirl your espresso shot before pouring in your milk. This makes sure that the espresso canvas is an even color.
- Tilt your cup when pouring in your design. This allows you to get closer to the espresso to make your pattern.
- Pour into the centre of the cup and keep it there and shake! Once you cup gets full then create the thin stream and follow through!
- I find keeping the milk a little cooler than normal helps with latte art.
- Keep practicing! Once you master the heart you're well on your way to learning more difficult designs. For more latte art lessons check out our guides below.
Keep learning! More latte art guides below...
Latte Art Classes
1. Basics of Coffee Making
2. Beginner Latte Art
3. Advanced Latte Art
The trouble with the Gaggia Classic is that it come with an “assisted steam wand” (the plastic bit around the wand) ) instead of normal metal one. This makes it much much harder, although not impossible, to make good latte art. I recommend switching out the wand if latte art is your goal as it’ll allow you to make better milk, here’s a good video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWoNXAq2Kus
Also proper milk steaming technique is usually more important. As you have to texture the milk properly to be able to make latte art. I wrote a milk steaming guide you can check out for this: https://www.latteartguide.com/2013/02/steaming-milk_22.html.
Re. the classes i’m from Melbourne, Australia so i’m not familiar with the latte art classes in SF. But coffee roasters and some “third wave” cafes tend to do classes. Have a google for “barista training” and see if you can find a half-day course that teaches latte art. For example here’s one I quickly found although I have no experience with: http://fourbarrelcoffee.com/class/espresso-milk-preparation-16/
Hope I helped and don’t give up! It just takes time, practice and repetition. It took me 3 months to properly learn latte art but this was at a commercial cafe where I was making 300+ coffee dockets a day. You’re only making 2 or so coffees a day at home.