Get Your Art On

If you read last week’s post, you’ll remember that for all my good intentions, I didn’t quite make it to the part about how you make your espresso drinks pretty. The rosetta is a hallmark of barista achievement, to be sure—not to say you can’t have a delicious drink that doesn’t look like a work of art, but aesthetics certainly contribute to the overall experience. (Full disclosure: the photo above is not my own work of art. I got it by searching Google images.)

I didn’t learn how to pour artfully until just a few years ago, when a previous employer paid for me to take a latte art class at the industry trade show Coffee Fest in Seattle. Coffee Fest was a wonderland for coffee nerds like me, with rows & rows of booths offering samples of anything & everything you could think of with a connection to the world of coffee & tea: cookies, candies, bottled drinks, even shots of espresso & free crafted-to-order beverages. And for a couple hours in the middle of that whirlwind Saturday, I got to hunker down in a room with about ten other eager baristas to learn about the coveted rosetta.

In order to accurately describe the process for you, I must return to the issue of milk. A few hints & rules of thumb:

1. Your milk should be fresh, as cold as possible, & ideally organic, from local, grass-fed cows. It’s a good idea to keep your clean stainless milk pitchers in the fridge (or even freezer) when they’re not in use: super-cold milk means you’ll have as long as possible to manipulate the steaming process without scalding the liquid. (All you fans of “extra-hot” lattes out there, I don’t know how you do it. Your tongues must be made of asbestos. And your poor taste buds! Sorry.)

2. Never re-steam milk. Measure what you need carefully (or get really good at eyeballing) so you don’t steam more than necessary for the drink at hand. If you end up with extra, mix up a little hot cocoa or a steamer & offer it to that hungry-looking chap over there in the corner. Or your spouse. I don’t care who gets it. You could even keep a stash in the fridge & use it when you make pancakes. But don’t re-heat it for my latte.

3. If you can, steam your milk & pull your shots at the same time. I know, last week I said to steam your milk first, but once you get in the barista groove, the simultaneous coordination is worth the effort. Assembling the drink right away means that the milk will stay all nice & creamy throughout; it won’t settle out into pure liquid on the bottom & pure airy foam on the top (unless you want a dry cappuccino, in which case this separation is ideal). You want the thick, velvety consistency of melted ice cream that is essential for successful latte art pouring.

Okay. Now I can tell you how to pour the rosetta. Or I can try. I promise I’ll give it my best effort.

So you have your fresh shots, which have been pulled just seconds ago into a fairly low, wide mug.

You have your steamed milk, just barely off the steam wand (or if it’s been sitting a few seconds while the shots finished, give it a gentle stir to re-incorporate the air throughout). It should look like the image on the right: no bubbles!

Start pouring—slowly—at the edge of the cup, from a few inches above. I’m right handed, so I hold the cup in my left hand & the pitcher in my right. As though the cup were a clock face, think of the handle as 6:00. Pour to 3:00. (To add some confusion just for fun, the photos below are obviously not from my perspective, though that is me making the drink. I suppose you could turn your computer upside down or stand on your head if that helps.)

When the cup is about half full, drop the pitcher down to just above the surface of the liquid. You should see a circle of white forming at the center. Keep pouring slowly & steadily, & move the spout to the middle of the drink. 

Next comes the tricky part:

Ever so subtly, move your wrist back & forth. I mean subtly, people—someone standing a few feet away shouldn’t be able to see the wiggle. This action is what creates the striations or petals. The subtler your wiggle, the finer the striations (or the skinnier the petals).

As you wiggle (as I write this, the word wiggle is starting to look & sound awfully silly), move the stream of milk back from the center to your original 3:00 spot. Once you reach the edge, carefully draw a straight line back through the center (from 3:00 to 9:00). This line creates the “stem” or the point of the rosetta.

Voila! There you have it, a beautifully-crafted drink that will draw oohs & ahhs all around.

Okay, so mine turned out a little lopsided today. But still, not too shabby.

Happy barista-ing,

Jennifer