Not too long ago I began to design a tattoo as the urge for a new one had started to grow. I started to think about what I wanted it to represent and inevitably found myself reflecting on the last thirty years of my life. I decided that I wanted the end result to be a manifestation of my origins, where I came from and the foundations that made me who I am. I haven’t booked the appointment yet, I’m still working on it, but the theme of the last month has been my roots, origins, beginnings and how I got to be sitting here writing this article. So, naturally it seems fitting to be reviewing the birth place of coffee – Ethiopia.

As the story goes, in Kaffa Ethiopia AD850, a goat herder observed his goats getting a little silly after they grazed on a native cherry. Kaldi, being the enterprising young goat herder he was, consequently knew he was onto a good thing. The rest of this particular tale is going to take way too long to tell in its entirety so let’s fast track it a bit. Coffea Arabica has been growing wild in Ethiopia since the dawn of time and is known by the Ethiopian people as “buna”. The coffee industry is the seventh largest producer in the world and employs well over 12 million people in some 350,000 farms located in the regions of Harar, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Limmu and Djimmah. The traditional way that Ethiopians grow their coffee are included in certifications such as Fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ and certified organic. The grading system there just recently got a shake up by the introduction of the “Q” grading system for specialty coffees. Up until now coffees would be graded as based on its process; wet receiving a grade 1-3 and dry processed receive a 4-5. Now many coffees can be submitted to a second of round of scrutinising based on cup quality and further grading to receive a specialty coffee classification.

Yirgacheffe holds the title in the wet processed division of coffees. They are renowned for their clean cup with powerful floral and fruit notes, but it can be a little hit and miss sometimes when cupping a pooled style coffee such as this (coffee that is sourced from all over one region and not from a specific farm), but when you strike a good lot of Yirgacheffe it will knock you out quicker than Danny Green. Beginning with sublime aromas of sweet sugary honey and hints of cedar and raisin, it is then followed by a well balanced floral acidity in the cup. The flavours are very up front and straight away there is berry, citrus and soft cocoa with a subtle underlining of Mediterranean herbs. Theses flavours are on the bright side but they bring a well toned smoothness and medium body to the pallet, and as the cup cools the aromatic herbs come to the forefront.

Ethiopian coffee has long been used as the main flavour component in espresso blends, but the Yirgacheffe I feel, is wasted in a blend because there is so much to explore when cupping it alone. However, if you want to add a little extra pizzazz and flavour to your cup it will defiantly add an extra dimension to any blend.

Lib had the Pizza with Onion Jam and Fetta, while I tried the Lamb Shanks. Both were excellent, although if anything, I thought I did slightly better with the Lamb Shanks, which were perfectly cooked and on a bed of mashed potato – excellent winter fare!

As for their scrummy-looking desserts, it was a difficult choice between the white chocolate tart, the berry and almond torte and the flourless chocolate cake. I went for the latter, which was very good, although suffered a little in terms of the final presentation – the accompaniments option was runny cream, which just didn’t do it for me; in the end I asked for ice cream, but since the cake was served cold, it really didn’t work either.

Coffee, by Queensland roaster de Bella, was creditable although for some reason, the barista insisted on offering the milk at a too-cool 50 deg. C.  [AF]

2 Acland St
St Kilda VIC 3182
(03) 9534 2922

One option that looks the part is Wrapido, and in fact the coffee [depending on who is the barista at the time] isn’t bad at all.

They have a great selection of food, including delicious freshly-baked muffins, along with the usual cakes and brownies. However, what is a little surprising about Wrapido, given the name, is their wraps!

The options seem fantastic at first glance: Taj – chargrilled tandoori chicken, mango chutney, cucumber and yoghurt raita on aromatic rice, all wrapped in a tomato tortilla; Thai Spice – marinated spicy prime beef served rare with grilled eggplant and a fresh herb, cucumber and green leaf salad in a soy chilli & kaffir lime leaf dressing, wrapped in a red salsa tortilla, and Veggie Roast – char grilled mediterranean vegetables in a balsalmic vinaigrette topped with humus and leafy greens on a bed of couscous, wrapped in a pesto tortilla…

At $8.80 that’s good value and the selection seems mouth-watering, almost too good to be true. And this is the problem – at least in our [several] experiences, it was too good to be true. The wraps were overstuffed with rice and not enough of the fillings advertised. Not only that, but several that we tried were soggy.

On the plus side, the actual cafe space is extremely convivial, combining modernity with a comfortable buzz and the selection of coffees is excellent, creating a great ambience – definitely a place to hang out; if only they could do something about those wraps!

55 Willougby Rd
Crows Nest NSW 2065
(02) 9438 4946

While the breakfast options are not huge, they are certainly generous. They offer an excellent muesli with fruit & yoghurt, scambled eggs with a range of extras, and a variety of other breakfast and all-day options, including wraps and sandwiches. We tried the Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo,  which was delicious. The coffee was excellent – perhaps not surprising since Lou [one of the cafe co-owners used to be a barista trainer for Lavazza!

All-in-all, an excellent cafe experience, one where you don’t have to sacrifice on ambience and quality, even though it’s not located in what is seen as a traditional ‘cafe belt’. And, from what we could tell, certainly one that is appreciated by the locals. Highly recommended.

We visited on a Saturday morning and the place was hopping – loud, crowded and buzzing.  This time, we determined to review Maling Room from a normal all-round cafe point-of-view, including things like ambience, and of course food! The menu includes a great range of offerings, including Smoked Salmon Eggs with gruyere cheese, eighteen month aged Truffle Eggs, and Banjo Eggs with Hickory Smoked Bacon with HP sauce. We ordered the Akoori Scrambled Eggs – Indian-spiced with cumin, coriander onion and tomato, and kasundi chutney, and the Smoked Salmon Eggs, both of which were delicious.

My first short black was well-rounded, full-bodied and smooth, the second was a little thinner, although with a velvety mouth-feel; when I asked the barista the reason for the difference, he let on that the first was their house-blend, and the second was a different blend – a Rwandan, that had only been roasted a few days earlier. This is my kind of place; I thought: I can handle being tricked like this!

Probably the only downside is that when it gets busy, things at Maling Room can get a little noisy, due to the wide-open space and the wooden floors. However, this is a small price to pay for what is clearly one of Melbourne’s premier café experiences. Highly recommended. [AF]

The Maling Room

206 Canterbury Rd

Canterbury

Given its ‘foodie’ credentials we went there expecting great things, and were surprised to find that the food options were quite limited. The menu was fairly brief, offering the basics but not much more. Items included Homemade Muesli [$9.50], Toasted Banana Bread [$4.50], Fruit Toast and Ricotta [$6.50], Scrambled Eggs [$8.50] and a range of toasted sandwiches.

The scrambled eggs were nicely cooked, but the surprise was that pretty much everything you order apart from the eggs themselves are counted as an ‘extra’. I had mushrooms and smoked salmon with toast, so my dish quickly went from $8.50 to $14. The meal itself was OK, but nothing special – certainly adequate, but nothing more.

Again promising great things was the shiny Syncra Cynesso three group espresso machine on the stainless steel bench – an attraction for coffee purists ‘in the know’. However once again Side Plate disappointed, my flat white having a slightly ‘burnt’ character. The Cynesso is a beautiful machine, allowing custom espresso settings, but definitely needs to be perfectly tuned to turn out the perfect shot!

Service was pleasant enough – although to this reviewer’s mind, it just seemed a little fussy – perhaps the result of the close quarter contact, due to Side Plate’s rather intimate size. One slightly annoying detail – they don’t have a toilet for customers – in this day-and-age, you would not be wrong for considering that pretty much a ‘given’ for any cafe.

Overall the deal at Side Plate seemed to be one which over-promises and under-delivers; in these recessionary times, it’s also a little pricey for what you get. [AF]

664 Bourke St

Redfern East, NSW 2016

I arrived at about 11:30 on a Sunday morning and ordered Poached Eggs and Bacon on toast, along with a creamy latte. The staff were very friendly and the service was very good. The coffee arrived and I was greeted with a mug of nice smooth coffee with a dark and slightly nutty flavour and a velvety mouth feel.

A few minutes later, the food arrived – a plate of nicely presented wholegrain hand-cut toast with bacon and poached eggs on top, accompanied by baby spinach and seasoned with a sprinkle of ground parsley and cracked pepper.

The eggs were superb and were matched by the bacon, which was rindless and beautifully smoked; the whole piece was a wonderful chewy texture throughout, without being rubbery or dry. I am sure they must get the bacon from the deli at the Queen Vic markets down the road!

The food is fantastic, the coffee is good and the staff are wonderful. If you are on your way to the Vic markets, stop by Appetite, it’s just a short walk up the road and well worth the trip.

Appetite on Errol – Errol Street, North Melbourne

In spite of the fact that Velluto Nero struck gold with the Sydney Morning Herald Good Living crowd [April 08], we found it surprisingly empty when our reviewers first visited late last year.

First, the coffee. Our flat white came with a nice rosetta, but lacked body or any special character; hopefully the espresso would be better. It wasn’t, but luckily when we review a cafe we take it so seriously we go several times, and our reviewer’s piccolo latte on the third visit was quite good – maybe it was a different barista! However, from a coffee perspective it’s got nothing on Mecca, just around the corner.

Velluto Nero serve a range of sandwiches and other simple lunch items, but the menu was of surprisingly lacklustre quality, considering they pose as a potential lunch option for busy city workers. In fact, the Roasted Vegetable Focaccia I had was probably the worst ever – it was so tasteless, it could have won a blandness award in a Monty Python skit.

They have a roaster in the front, as if to emphasise their roasting credentials and proudly showcase their ‘coffee awards’. In fact, they’re great on the self-promotion, but there has to be a reason this place is not buzzing. The 1978 Brunello Rondi film of the same name got a 4.6 out of 10 in a film buff site we visited and in this reviewer’s mind, we would find it hard to rate the cafe much higher.

Velluto Nero
259 Clarence St, City

In fact, there are a number of other things that go into making the difference, but overall it’s the commitment of the owner to excellence right through the process – from sourcing of great coffee through to well-roasted and blended beans, the freshness of the coffee – and the perfect shot that a great barista offers at the end of the process!

Sydney has always been regarded as somewhat of a transient city – one that is fickle to the trends that come and go. But one thing that doesn’t seemed to have changed all that much over the past couple of years anyway, are the main players on the purist espresso scene -  with the burgeoning desire for knowledge about specialty coffee, the guys that created the wave of espresso excellence in Sydney are still riding high on that wave. Riding on their laurels too? No – most of them are continually experimenting with roasts and blends, and even new coffee-making techniques. There is great dedication needed to stay at the top and in so doing, these cafés continue to illuminate the way for the new-comers following in their wake.

And just one further thing – many of our reviewers have lived and worked overseas; let’s be clear – these five cafés are the equal of pretty much any on the world stage – our congratulations to them for their passion for excellence!

1.Mecca

67 King St
Sydney NSW 2000

Tel: (02) 9299 8828

Underneath the cornices of the beautiful old Grace Hotel, on the corner of York St and Sydney’s CBD’s busy King St, lies a real gem. And Paul Geshos is determined that Mecca should live up to its name – as a rare oasis for coffee lovers in Sydney’s CBD!

With two beautiful Mirage’s side by side, they certainly pump them out – and they need to, once the city crowd of aficionados starts lining up at the door from first thing in the morning.

But Mecca is also pushing the boundaries with other types of coffee, including the Siphon unit – a vacuum coffee maker, which works on the principle of expansion and contraction of water vapour to infuse the coffee grounds, a method primarily employeed by coffee nerds, but becoming increasingly popular with specialty coffee aficionados.

It’s a method that best showcases single origin coffees, and they’re currently offering this unique brewing method with exotic origins like Ethiopian Sidamo, Kenya AA Auction Lot 639 Gatomboya and Guatemala El Injerto Estate Pacamara. They offer the Siphon-brewed coffee for $3.50 up [depending on origin]. It’s difficult to explain in print, however, if you’re planning to explore coffee to new levels, this is certainly worth checking out!

Head Barista: Alex Kum

2.Toby’s Estate

32-36 City Rd
Chippendale NSW 2008

Tel: (02) 9211 1459

Toby’s is one of the ‘big names’ of the boutique coffee roasting business in Australia, supplying several hundred cafés in New South Wales, and soon to expand to Victoria.

They also have several retail cafes, including the original in Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo, and our favourite – the Chippendale location – on City Road opposite Victoria Park, and close to Broadway.

One of the pioneers of specialty coffee in Sydney, Toby’s have been up there, but not quite top of their game for the last couple of years. However, with a couple of new baristas, and innovations like the new Mirage Idro Compresso hand lever unit [at their Chippendale store] they’re definitely back up there with the best!

With a house espresso blend that is full-bodied and chocolatey, this is truly excellent coffee destination - highly recommended.

Head Barista: Joel Scott

3. Campos

193 Missenden Rd
Newtown NSW 2042

Tel: (02) 9516 3361

We ‘discovered’ Campos seven years ago [Crema issue Spring 2002] and others took up on our review that year, and in subsequent years.

With their success has come growth – they’ve expanded to become one of Sydney’s leading suppliers of specialty coffee to cafes.

Typically with a tangy, fruity flavour and hint of spice, their shots come to their peak with milk-based coffees, and since approximately 90% of Australians drink milk-based espresso, they’ve picked their niche well! It’s always busy and the main complaint if often finding a seat. But we see its business as a just reward for their commitment to espresso excellence - Campos is still the benchmark by which others are judged!

Head Barista: Ben d’Emden

4.Single Origin

60-64 Reservoir St

Surry Hills

Tel: (02) 9211 9055

As the name suggests, these guys have chosen to make a name for themselves in single origin coffees.

A buzzy atmosphere - one that’s almost a little too frenetic for some - they manage to pour out some of the best espresso shots in town. Typically your espresso will have a spicy, caramelly flavour ['House Origin' blend], but they also offer single origins like Habar from Honduras, El Salvador Santa Anna and Panamanian Boquete.

Single Origin hit the scene almost 6 years ago with their café in Sydney’s trendy Surry Hills, and over that time, have built up a loyal following.

Head Barista: Shoji Sasa [pictured]

5.Grind Espresso

6 Surf Road
Cronulla NSW 2230
Tel: (02) 9568 5535

An oasis of relaxation in beachside Cronulla - Grind features the sort of cosy, grungy atmosphere that you would expect to find in Newtown’s King St. Its walls are lined with all sorts of knick-knacks, photos and reviews - most of them good! And there’s a reason for that. Richard Calabro and his team churn out the sort of coffees that you could almost drive down to Cronulla especially for.

Let’s cut to the chase - they don’t do food but that’s not why you come to Grind. It’s an espresso bar and yes, it’s all about the coffee. And what great coffee it is too - it certainly holds its own with any of its more citified Sydney compatriots - smooth, bold and with an excellent crema - these guys do it right. If you’re down that way, make sure you make a visit; for the true espresso aficionado, this one’s definitely worth the 40 minute drive!

Owner/head Barista Richard Calabro

by David Schomer

Often during my twenty years spent in hot pursuit of this elusive espresso, I have come back to the words of Piero Bambi, the owner of LaMarzocco espresso machines: ‘In espresso we are trying to preserve the fragrance through the brewing process’. And really, isn’t that what anyone wants from coffee, to taste as good as it smells?  But to achieve this is to control several complex factors from the green bean selection, roasting, and blending to the sensuous performance art of brewing and pouring. Let’s follow our barista as she performs her graceful dance to lure this delicate beauty into a cup. It starts when she (we are tagging along with Linda Cleckler) hits the button on the grinder. Heavy conical upper burrs pull the beans down, compressing them until they shatter into smaller fragments to enter the flat burrs, to be sheared into the final grind…  
To comment on this, or any other articles, click here for the Crema Magazine Forum

Seventeen grams of the fluff exits the edges of the flat burrs and drops into a chute along the sides of the grinding head. A whirling brass paddle smashes into the coffee, whisking it on a furious circular journey at about 450 rpm until it is forced out a square portal to tumble into the dosing hopper. After grinding, this is the first real assault on our sweet coffee – the impeller smashing it into lumps, bruising the lipids and destroying a little of the fragrance. 

Linda begins flapping the vestigial Italian dosing lever and in little pie-shaped chambers the coffee advances towards an aperture in the floor of the hopper to drop into her coffee basket. For the Italians, one pull on the lever gives a single shot, two pulls delivers a double dose of ground coffee. I describe it as a vestige because we grind only by the cup and achieve portion measurement with a timer. The Italian dosing hopper is also somewhat of an air and coffee mixing machine, and oxidation claims a bit more flavor. But these flavors do not go quietly into that good night: oxidation, literally the bonding of an oxygen molecule on the molecular structure of the aromatic compound, creates a sour/astringent flavor, and aggressively degrades the sugars and aromatic oils in the cup. Because of the short, pressurized percolation cycle of around 25 seconds, the final consistency of the ground coffee is critical to achieve crema, and preserve the full amount of fragrance the bean has to offer.

 The flat burrs shear the bean into a complex consistency that looks like snowflakes under a microscope. To accomplish this the flat burrs must remain very sharp and require changing every 500 pounds. The goal of the grind is to achieve the highest surface area of exposed aromatic oils, lipids and sugars to be transported quickly by the brewing water into your cup. The rapid percolation cycle and pressure are the unique characteristics of the espresso method that allow us to preserve the most delicate fragrance through the brewing process. With such a short brewing cycle, the grinder is the critical machine to preserve the highest percentage of the fragrance per gram of coffee used. However, the espresso machine is ultimately responsible for the integrity of that fragrance – in other words how closely the flavor resembles the fragrance.

Linda, of course has infinite capacity to destroy the coffee as she doses, packs and locks the porta-filter into the group head of the machine. Or, with finesse and skill (which is the case here), she can be the maestro that brings the entire symphony together. A great barista takes years to master the nuance of temperature control, particle distribution and packing, the espresso flow rate and the cleaning regime to make a distinctively superior espresso. She is in her fourteenth year as a pro barista.

In Trieste, Sergio Michael of Illy Caffe told me they consider the ‘miscela, mano e macchina’ or the blend, the barista and the machine, as equally balanced  factors to create (or destroy) a fine espresso. It was during my visit to Illy in 1989 that I truly fell in love with the sweet Northern Italian espresso roast, a roast simply referred to at Illy Caffe as “normale”. So, before she hits the brewing switch let’s talk about the roasting of coffee for espresso.

The picture shows three roasts with the darkest being found in Naples, located in the southern half of Italy. The medium roast is representative of coffee found in Florence and the Central Italian style, and the Northern Italian roast might be found in a typical espresso bar in Milan. 

Roasting is a Maillard reaction (so named after the French chemist Luis-Camille Maillard, credited with classifying this class of reactions in 1912) and produces CO2, caramelized sugars and heat in the final stages.  Darker roasts than the Naples example in my opinion are outside of our consideration for the caffe espresso method. The carbonization of sugars makes a pronounced bitterness in the espresso in very dark roasts. Again we go back to the simple essence – just smell the coffee and it is very apparent what its flavor potential is (if it smells like burnt rubber perhaps it is not so sweet).

The Italian lore acknowledges that as you travel south the roast deepens from Northern Italian and begins to become darker in color. As the final color becomes darker, acidity decreases, while bitterness increases in the final cup. I would add a corollary to that maxim: the darker that you roast the more consistency that can be achieved in the flavor of the espresso. The most difficult roast to brew consistently is of course, the sweetest, fresh Northern Italian roast. Darker roasts are achieved by stopping the roasting process at a higher temperature where complex sugars and aromatic oils carbonize. If you go very dark, 100% of the fragrance has burned up and these molecules are very stable. This results in an easily repeatable, but fantastically bitter espresso coffee in the cup (hmmm… I suppose, if we added enough milk and sugar…)!

I have chosen the Northern Italian style for Vivace because it is roasted just to the peak of caramelized sugar content, and quickly cooled. (Forceful cooling is essential or the beans will continue roasting without added heat and left unchecked can actually result in the coffee catching fire in the roaster). But the sweet roast demands the very highest attention from the barista and roaster because of the very high concentration of sugars and aromatic oils, which are the fragrant molecules that are the most volatile. The fragrance is an earthy caramel with a slight toast/leather note and traces of dark chocolate and blueberry.

Oxidation, incorrect brewing water temperature, an incorrect flow rate or a dirty machine are going to cause the most noticeable deterioration in this style of roast compared to Central or Southern Italian roasts. For the restaurant owner I recommend the Central Italian degree of roasting as a good compromise between sweetness and volatility. The sweet roast will drive you and your staff nuts… I promise. Once roasted, coffee should be stored in a cool dark place and is best on days four through eight after roasting. Any artisan roaster worth considering will put the roasting date on the package.

Back to Linda, and our perfectly ground, dosed, and packed fresh coffee, as she turns on the brewing switch in the espresso machine. Her action opens a solenoid valve and turns on a rotary pump at the same time. Water held at 203 degrees F. surges against a 0.6mm carburetor jet placed inside the water line right above the group head. The machine engineers have chosen the faintly suggestive term “gigueler orifice” to refer to this important restrictor in the flow of water to the coffee. The purpose of this is to create a chamber between the tiny pin point, madly shooting hot water, and the surface of the coffee bed. This pre-infuses the coffee with brewing water because it takes between one and two seconds before the chamber between the coffee bed and the jet fills, and the coffee feels the full pressure. The gradual build up of pressure prevents pressurized water from fragmenting the top of the coffee, and loosens up the flavors in the top layer of the packed coffee. The whole cycle takes about two seconds.

Linda has started steaming the milk, first stretching to add air, then submerging the steam tip and locking into her whirlpool to create the chiffon texture. In seconds two through eight, the water rapidly percolates evenly through the cake under 125 pounds of force. Inside the pressurized chamber, caramelized sugars, lipids, and hundreds of varieties of fragrant molecules are trapped in dense foam – the crema, and quickly transported into your cup. The speed, and the cradling of the volatile oils in the crema, is responsible for the espresso method offering a flavor/aroma experience that has the highest fidelity to the true fragrance of the roast.  Longer saturation methods, such as French Press or Clover, will never preserve the finest flavors the coffee has within it.

During seconds eight through twenty three, the beautiful red-brown crema oozes into the cup. The total volume of our shot, made from 17 grams of coffee, is less than two ounces. The shot is usually brewed into the porcelain cup it will be served in to avoid losing crema by transferring from a shot glass into a cup. Linda turns off the pump. If her milk is not ready to pour she adds a bit of “saver milk” to preserve the crema. Crema is a polyphasic, colloidal foam according to Dr. Petracco of Illy Caffe. Polyphasic, because it is changing very rapidly in your cup, colloidal because there are particles suspended in liquid, and foam of course is gas suspended in liquid. Within moments of brewing the dissipating crema can release much of the more noble flavors and begins to lose the satin-like mouth feel.  

It is carbon dioxide that makes the foam in espresso (remember your Maillard reaction). The particles in espresso are tiny bean fragments and microscopic droplets of the oils. These are the real tasty bits. The aromatic oils are too numerous and fragile to measure. The latest attempts by Italian chemists put the number of distinct compounds between 250 and 800; for a complete analysis I recommend the ‘Chemistry of Quality’ by Andrej Illy). When perfectly fresh, the crema creates a downy-silk mouth feel and harbors the sugars and aromatic oils for just a moment, to be savored before burning up through exposure to air. After the aromatic oils, sugars and gas, crema is also composed of water. It is worthwhile to step back and consider water. 

In Seattle, our water usually has around 50 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids (TDS) You can think of TDS as mineral content, also referred to as hardness. Seattle, with fresh mountain run-off as a water source has very soft water. A little more hardness, right around 150 ppm of TDS, will give espresso, or brewed coffee, more depth of flavor and a deeper development of distinct varietal flavors, such as dark chocolate and blueberry notes present in a fine Ethiopian Harrar. This ‘tuned’ water will also remove a persistent, slight metallic note in the coffee. This water also has a very similar effect on the finest maccha. Maccha is green tea made only from the highest grade, shade grown ‘baby’ tea leaves, and is prepared with a whisk in a very strong concentration. Espresso can be compared to Macccha for its body and mouth feel combined with a very concentrated flavor.

The Persistence of Crema

One great joke on Vivace has emerged from our twenty years of efforts to perfect caffe espresso: the more caramelized sugars we preserved through brewing, the more fragile and delicate our crema became. It seems that sugars have a damaging effect on surfactant molecules responsible for foam. Crema used to last much longer on top of the shot than it does now.  I would welcome collaboration with a food scientist to explore this problem. Linda is finished steaming just as the shot is ready. This timing gives us what we call high definition foam for very sharp latte art. For best mouth-feel we steam first and swirl the pitcher as the shot comes out. The milk will take on sheen like white chrome and the mouth feel takes on a more velvety texture. She is ready to pour.

She pours with total focus. Starting out she tilts the cup and positions her pitcher right on the rim of the cup. She pours close to the surface of the coffee and with a slow flow rate of milk from the pitcher.  The idea is not to disturb the crema in the beginning of the pour. When the cup is about half way full she pulls the pitcher back, always pouring, and it sways like the head of the cobra looking to strike. Then, she strikes…sweeping the pitcher back towards the surface of the coffee she also begins pouring milk faster. The pouring speed combined with the sudden motion creates a current within the cup that speeds to the back and splits, sending the flow back along each side of the cup towards her hand.

Into this current she casts ribbons of milk with a gentle undulation of the pitcher. The white ribbons flow to the back of the cup and are swept back up each side towards her hand. With great artistry she creates the shapes she desires and then when the cup is full the flow rate of the milk is reduced to create a pencil point. This is the “scribe” used to draw the stem, or the split in the heart. At best the latte art captures the flow of milk and espresso combining in a still image. They are beautifully impermanent; the instant it is poured the foam begins to coalesce, slowly losing mouth-feel and sheen… Hopefully the customer enjoys it at its peak.  Then, the dance begins again.

Author David Schomer is the co-owner of Seattle’s Espresso Vivace.  For more info. please visit www.espressovivace.com