The story of latte art

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I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped by L’Occasion Café and discovered our wonderful latte arts made by Léo or Erick (if not, you should) 😊.

Anyway, let’s get together and give you a quick lesson in the history of latte art!

You may know this, but recently we’ve been organizing introductory latte art workshops, and we always start by telling the wonderful story of the art of drawing pictures on your coffee (which, by the way, was accidental, did you know?).

To make a beautiful latte art, you need a beautiful foam

Indeed, to talk about the invention of latte art, we first have to go back to the beginning of the 20th century, more precisely to 1901 with the invention of the first espresso machine with an integrated steam nozzle. It’s a kind of rod that produces steam, and once in the milk it helps to froth it while heating it to obtain a silky, homogeneous texture.

Thanks to this foam, which comes to rest on the surface of our drink, it’s possible to make different shapes, even a simple round one (which is the original way of serving a cappuccino in Italy, did you know that too?).

This machine was put on sale in 1905 by the Italian M. Pavoni, and it was then that the practice of latte art became possible! 🇮🇹

But it wasn’t until the 1980s that an American, David Schaeffer (who was the boss of Vivas Espresso, a major coffee chain in the USA) accidentally formed his first latte art. 😅

Mr. Schaeffer then began training his baristas in the latte art technique, popularizing it in the United States.

Differents ways to make latte art

The best-known and most widely recognized technique is the “free pour”, which consists simply (but not so easily) of pouring the milk into our cup using a pitcher and repeating different movements to obtain different figures.

But there are other, lesser-known techniques that are just as creative, enabling beginners to create shapes a little more easily. We develop these techniques in our workshops! ☝🏻

One of these is painting. The idea is to paint and draw freely on your milk foam once it has been poured over the coffee, in the shape of a circle for example.

All you need is a stylus or metal rod to understand this technique.

Starting with a simple shape, you can make a cat, a rabbit, a bear or even try your hand at drawing the Grinch (as seen in this photo 🤣).

This is just a small glimpse of the latte art technique, which is much appreciated and also requires quite a bit of practice…

If you’d like to find out more about the various possible techniques, or learn how to practice, we’ll let you get in touch with us, or join us at L’Occasion Café for the workshops we organize. ☕️

An activity with your colleagues? It’s possible too (and what’s more, it’s great fun with colleagues). For all BtoB requests, contact us! We’ll put together a package to suit your needs 😊

See you soon at l’Occasion Café ! ✅