Just been hanging out with Ben of the newly formed Western Australian Barista Academy. Soon to be holding the WA state heats of the Australian Barista Championships.
Here’s a nice shot taken a few short minutes ago on my phone. Trying to put them roughly in sequence to show a bit of the technique Ben uses to dose, tamp and pull shots…
Dosing
Levelling
Tamping
The Linea
The shot (not the best one we pulled)
The latte art… just after Ben had almost knocked the cup over :)
Wow, nice art indeed!!! How did you do this? It looks great!!
Hey Bea,
This one was nowhere near as nice as the art than Ben can do most of the time… I’ll have to post some better shots soon.
Basically its about pulling a really nice shot of espresso with lots of dark brown crema… and then texturing/steaming the milk so its at just the right thickness and consistency to be able to pour nice patterns through the espresso. Once you’ve got the milk textured right, then you need to be able to pour properly, and steadily to get the rosetta shape (or heart, apple, whatever) … which is not as easy as it seems (if it did seem easy).
Needless to say, I need a lot more practice :)
Yeh, thanks for showing my slip up to the world Matt! ;)
Hi Bea,
As Matt said, latte art starts with getting exactly the right texture with your milk: too thick and you’ll get big blobs with no definition, too thin and you’ll wash away the crema as you pour. The next step is lots and lots of practice! Trust me, this not-so-hot rosetta is the result of hundreds and hundreds of attempts.
Anyway, maybe you can drop in some time and we can chat about it a bit more.
Cheers,
Ben
Thats just me showing how your slip ups still look better than my concerted efforts mate..
And as much as I’m sure Bea would love to drop in, the fact that she’s in Boston in the US might make that difficult :)
I managed to make something vaguely rosetta shaped this morning… might post it up later.
Yes, I wish I could do that. Where is the academy? Do you have a site?
Hey Miles,
The academy is on Lake St in Northbridge, 135 Lake St to be precise, just on the other side of Newcastle St away from the city.
The website is in the works… however in the meantime you can get in touch via ben AT baristaacademy.com.au