Seems our morning shift won't be threatened for art dominance in the immediate future...
Sarah from Intelligentsia was in yesterday to help train some of our newer baristas on refining their art skills. And while everyone has the crema and microfoam down pat (no bubbles, slightly sweet) there's still some work to do on technique.
Regular readers of this blog know that unlike Melanie, I am not a barista. I do panini and cannoli, leave and do my day job. But I can do good milkfoam so I gave art a whirl yesterday.
If you've ever tried to do latte art, it's very counterintuitive. Hard to explain, but there's a point in pouring when you have to do three things at all once: from your steady pour, about halfway through you have to tip the pitcher down into the cup, speed up the pour, then "push" the pitcher back and forth in small movements to create the swirls that make a rosetta or heart, then in a final flourish when you don't think there's enough milkfoam left, run a stem through the middle of your creation.
The speed and wrist movement in the second half of the pour really takes some getting used to. So while Andi, Lois, Cara, Melanie can now do it without thinking, idiots like me are left perplexed.
Anyway, Petra, Belle and Therese were getting the hang of it by the end of the afternoon. I, on the other hand, was painting Rorschach blotches. If you move your cursor over the photos, you'll see a brief explanation of each try.
One of these days I have to add a separate gallery for the good ones and the mistakes. And one of these days you will see me behind the La Marzocco... but don't tell Melanie or she'll start giving me regular shifts.
Good cannoli is an art form too! Nice touch on the photo captions.
Posted by: Mike Sansone | January 20, 2006 at 05:09 PM