Barista training part 4: Hot & steamy

Finally we learned how to turn espresso into a cappuccino or a latte. Or a machiato, which is really hard, and my new all-time favorite coffee drink.

So the espresso machine builds up kinds of steam during the extraction process, which is a nice convenient way to heat and froth the milk. Dan explained that, while there’s not too much sugar in milk, there’s a chemical reaction between the milk and the steam that caramelizes the milk and gives it a slightly sweet taste.

There are two goals when steaming the milk — heating it and texturizing it. The proper way to do this is to place the steam wand 1/3rd of the way into the milk, between the edge and center of the milk pitcher. When the steam is turned on, you can hear the milk “stretching” — incorporating air bubbles. If you get a louder sound, like trying to get those last drops of liquid out through a straw, the wand is too shallow and you’re just blowing bubbles.

If you put the wand down just a little further, you heat the milk. Once the wand is placed, there’s no need to move the pitcher around—the milk moves courtesy of the steam, swirling and, as it does, progressing from stretching to heating. Whichever direction the wand points affects the way the milk moves. You want it angled out for a nice whirlpool.

Beginning baristas are best off using a thermometer to get just the right temperature when steaming. If the milk is so hot that the pitcher is too hot to hold, then it’s also too hot to drink. The goal is around 130 to 140 degrees. The hotter the milk gets, the more chocolaty it tastes. Less hot gives a more caramelized taste. This is true of cow’s milk, soy milk, and rice milk, too.

Once we got the 411 on the right way to steam milk, we learned the wrong way. Learning how to over-foam and seeing what happens when the steam wand touches the bottom of the pitcher (all heat, no air) certainly fell under the category of wasteful in terms of milk, but was really educational.

After the milk lesson, we got a lesson in definitions. Latte is more milk and less foam combined with espresso brewed coffee. Cappuccino is equal parts milk and foam with espresso. Lattes are usually larger (16 ounces or more) and cappuccinos tend to run at 8 ounces. Other variations:

• Café Au Lait — coffee with steamed milk
• Americano — espresso with hot water mixed
• Macchiato — a shot of espresso with a dollop of foam. When LaunchPad Coworking opens, this will also be known as “Julie’s usual”.

We played with these combos for a bit and then came the advanced lesson — latte art. This part of class was led by Silence Huang, an enthusiastic home coffee aficionado who is preparing to open his own coffee shop in Taiwan. Using a combination of hands-on demonstration and white board illustration, Silence showed us how top notch baristas can manipulate the milk pour to create heart and leaf shape designs on the top of a coffee drink. Admittedly our efforts paled by comparison. Let’s just say our beginner efforts were more abstract and, uh, cutting edge.

And then it was clean up time. It’s true — we didn’t just sign up to learn how to taste and make coffee drinks. We wanted the full on experience. So I volunteered to learn how to purge the steam wand, scour the portafilter, and brush the group head. That’s one task I probably won’t seek out on a regular basis, but as with the rest of our education, I was glad to learn the details.

Thanks again to Tori Breitling and Marie Hwang for the most excellent photos.

Barista training part 1: Adventures in Coffeeland
Barista training part 2: Brew ha-ha
Barista training part 3: Brews Clues