Latte Art

As a former barista (that's a coffee maker if you didn't know - and no, I made real coffees, not Starbucks mass produced crap) I can appreciate this competition of coffee art. Although I never tried my hand at what they call Latte Art (design is created by the pouring technique), I did do alot of etching (dragging knife, thermometer needle, etc through the foam / choc powder/sauce) Many simple etching designs are really easy and quick to do, and totally wow the customer ... this usually makes for better tips ;) Of course, this is all dependant on having great foam as a base. Most of this can be done with a fairly cheap espresso machine, but of course, the better your coffee geek gear, the better the foam!