Why your latte art heart turns into a blob, and how to fix it

What makes a heart a heart

A heart has three parts: a round white body, a notch at the top and a pointed tip at the bottom. The body comes from pouring close to the surface with steady flow. The notch and the tip come from the very last second, when you lift the pitcher and pull a thin stream through the body.

A blob is a heart without that last second, or a body that was too stiff to be shaped. To find out which, look at your cup before you drink it: is the edge of the circle soft and flowing, or does it look piled up and foamy?

The five usual causes

• 1. The milk is too thick

  Why

  You stretched the milk for too long. Stiff foam doesn’t flow, it lands on the crema and piles up. You can tell by a dull, dry surface and a blob with a raised edge.

  Fix

  Stretch for only a few seconds, until the pitcher feels lukewarm, then just let it spin. The milk should run off a spoon like thin yogurt, not sit on it. See how to steam milk for latte art.

• 2. The milk has separated

  Why

  You waited too long between steaming and pouring. The foam floats to the top and the first thing that leaves the pitcher is a thick cap of it.

  Fix

  Pour within a minute of steaming and keep swirling the pitcher until the very moment you pour, so foam and milk stay mixed.

• 3. There is no real pull-through

  Why

  You stop pouring when the circle looks big enough, or you pull through while the spout is still low and the stream is thick. The thick stream drags the whole circle along instead of cutting it.

  Fix

  At the end, lift the pitcher to about 5 cm, let the stream get thin and pull it through the middle of the circle in one quick, straight movement to the far edge.

• 4. The flow is too weak

  Why

  With a hesitant stream, the foam trickles out unevenly. The white spreads in lumps instead of pushing out as one clean circle.

  Fix

  Commit to the flow once the spout is down. A steady, slightly faster stream pushes the white outwards evenly.

• 5. You start the heart too late

  Why

  The cup is almost full when the white appears. There is no room left for the circle to grow, so it stays small and round, and the pull-through has nothing to shape.

  Fix

  Bring the spout down when the cup is about half full. The fuller the cup at the start, the smaller and blobbier the heart.

The fix, step by step

Work through it in this order. Most blobs disappear after the first two steps.

1. 1Steam a little less air into the milk than last time, then tap and swirl until it is glossy.
2. 2Tilt the cup towards you and pour the base from a few centimetres up until the cup is about half full.
3. 3Bring the spout down almost onto the surface in the middle of the cup and pour a little faster.
4. 4Keep the spout in one place and let the white circle grow while you slowly level the cup.
5. 5Just before the cup is full, lift the pitcher, thin the stream and pull through to the far edge in one movement.

Change only one thing per cup. If you change the milk and the pour at the same time, you won’t know which one helped.

Read your blob

The shape tells you a lot. A blob with a raised, foamy edge points to the milk. A smooth, flat circle with no notch points to the pull-through. A blob with lumpy white edges points to the flow. A tiny circle at the rim points to the timing.

Once your hearts have a clean notch, the next step is stacking several of them: that is the tulip. It uses the same pull-through and the same milk.