107. Coffee art (espresso and latte recipes)

"Coffee should be black as night, sweet as sin, hot as love and strong as a curse," said Charles Talleyrand. Properly brewed coffee amazes with its wonderful aroma and lifts the mood. To brew good coffee you need to know a few secrets, and to make that coffee stir the imagination too, you need a bit of ingenuity ;).
Under the cut you'll find photos and the recipe for making espresso and latte, and learn how to decorate coffee with a heart of milk foam.

Cooking time ≈ 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Cocoa powder for decoration
• Espresso: 2 tsp finely ground coffee, spices to taste
• Latte: 1 tsp finely ground coffee, 200 ml cold milk

Most related coffee drinks are based on espresso. So first let's learn to brew it. Warm the cezve.

Put in the coffee and keep it on the heat until a light smoke rises from the cezve.

Now add the spices (sugar, cinnamon, pepper, salt...). The main thing is not to overdo it ;).

Mix thoroughly and pour in cold water.

Put the cezve on the heat and, stirring constantly, wait for the foam to rise. When it appears, take the cezve off the heat, wait for the foam to settle and put it back on. Repeat two or three times. Pour into coffee cups.

Now a latte from the espresso. Warm cold milk on the heat until small bubbles appear. Whisk with a blender.

Pour most of the milk into a glass.

Carefully pour the espresso into the centre.

The latte is ready; now it can be decorated. Sprinkle the foam on the surface with grated chocolate or cocoa powder, add the remaining foam and draw some pattern with a thin stick.

I had a little espresso left, so I tried drawing a heart on it. To do it, carefully tilt the jug of frothed milk and pour it into the centre of the cup with a slight rocking motion (the direction of the rocking is marked with numbers 1–6 in the picture). On reaching position 6, lift the jug slightly and sharply cross the resulting spot through to point 7. The milk will pull towards the edge of the cup and make a heart.

I couldn't capture the process itself — everything had to be done very fast. I'll try to film it.

Bon appétit!

p.S

Of course, there are far more original and complex coffee drawings. To repeat them at home you need a coffee machine and a pitcher — a special jug with a narrow spout that these drawings are made with. So one day I'll tell you about those too.

By the way, the pictures are slightly adjusted so the drawings stand out more clearly. I recommend not skimping on the cocoa powder. It's what lets the pattern hold longer and look brighter ;).