Latte Art: From Beginner to Master...All the Shapes You Should Learn

Starting to enjoy the taste of coffee is fun, but we know a lot of you arrived here because of the itch to create your own beautiful latte art. But, like most skills, practice makes perfect. With latte art, it's helpful to start with more simple shapes before you're recreating the mona lisa with espresso and milk. So here's our guide to what to start with, and the progressions to get you to mastery. 

Our Latte Art Progression Guide

Start With: A Dot in the Middle

We might sound a little too basic here but we recommend taking it plain and simple and focusing on just pouring a very clean central dot/circle. What this will achieve is a focus on pouring in the centre of the cup and understanding how to control the milk. 

Try small dots, large dots, off centre dots and the most perfect centred circle you can get, then move on to our next challenge which is...the heart.

Next: Move to a Heart

Ok, now you can whip out the camera as you move up the 'impressive latte art' ranks! It's time to try a heart . The heart is much like the large centred dot you made earlier, except you'll cut through it at the end to finish the top of the heart. Wiggling slowly as you pour will help add some texture to your heart and get you ready for your next quest, which is the rosetta!

Try: a Rosetta

Now we're getting into the full latte art aesthetic! This one really relies on the wiggling you tried in the heart. Much like the heart, once you've done a wide wiggle, move into a more narrow wiggle to bring up the height and cut all the way down to finish off your rosetta.

If you're finding you're going quite off centre, pull back to the dot to make sure you can still find the middle and experiment with your pouring speed. 

Ok, Now What? Try a Tulip

Now the chance to try something a little fancier, the tulip. This one combines a dot as the base of the flower, with smaller dots stacked on top and a final cut in the top dot to give you the petals of the tulip. 

This one really tests how good you are at lifting off at the end, and not rushing to ruin the stunning texture you create. 

Easy? Now a Swan!

Ok now we're in the big shoes! Using everything you have learned, you can now build some birds. This one is best explained with a video, so here's a helpful video by esteemed latte art pro Coffee to Art 

Of course, practice practice and practice to get better!