Barista friend called out my milk steaming technique at her shop in Portland

She watched me steam for a latte and said the hissing sound meant I was introducing air too late, so the foam separated by the time I poured. I always thought I had it down after 2 years with my Breville, but she showed me to tilt the pitcher and only stretch for the first 3 seconds. Tried it for a week now and the microfoam holds way better, but my pour art still looks like a blob. Anyone else get corrected by a pro and have to unlearn their old habit?

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karent751mo ago

Laughing at myself because I spent a whole year convinced my latte art looked like a fancy fern, turns out it was just a sad lumpy potato. Same thing happened to me when a friend who works at a coffee bar in Seattle watched me pour and just shook her head. She pointed out I was holding the pitcher like a hammer and swirling it like I was mixing paint, not milk. I had to relearn everything too, and now my rosettas look like a kindergartner's first attempt at a tree, but at least the texture is finally right. Honestly, the blob phase is just part of the journey, and I'm pretty sure the milk gods only let us get good right when we're about to buy a new machine anyway lol.