The Butterfly

This is a fun one to pour that is certain to impress. The butterfly only requires you to know how to pour a kind of apple-shaped heart. The rest is done with a sharp pointed metal object like a tiny screwdriver. You will have to pay close attention to some of the drawing techniques with the screwdriver, but the rest is very simple. If you have a love of the insect world and want to bring some of its natural beauty to your latte art creations, then The Butterfly is the design for you!

Always begin every latte art creation with great espresso and steamed milk. This is absolutely essential. Your milk foam needs to have a certain consistency if it is to rest on top of the espresso crema. Remember to angle the steam wand to the side of the steam pitcher to get the milk to swirl around the pitcher toward the end of the steaming process. This gives your milk the texture necessary for great latte art. Tap the side of the pitcher a few times to get the bubbles to settle, and you will be ready to go.

The Butterfly design starts as a single apple shaped object that eventually grows into much more. You will pour the apple shape as you would pour a heart, except you won't do the ending "strike through" motion characteristic of the heart. In other words, there is no need to elevate the pitcher to create a "sucking" motion for a heart when you make a butterfly. You are avoiding this motion because you will want to keep the middle shape as round as possible. When finished pouring, simply remove the steam pitcher. It's time to get out your sharp metal object.

You will want to make the butterfly's antennae first. To make a nice looking antenna, dip your pointed metal object into the middle of the white apple shape. Then take it out and create an arc running from the upper edge of the cup, on either the left or right side, to the middle of the apple shape. Repeat the process for the opposite antenna. When you are done with this step, your apple shape will look even more like an apple because it will have two stems sticking out of the top.

At this point, you will give some more definition to your butterfly. Let's start with the butterfly's butt. Grab your pointed metal object and begin from the brown crema foam on the bottom left or right of the apple shape. Move the brown crema in an arc from the side you have chosen to the middle of the apple shape. Repeat this process again for the other side of the butterfly. If you did everything right, you should now have an apple shape with an oblong ovalish bottom.

It is time to give your butterfly some wings. This is pretty easy because your shape should be practically divided into two parts. Simply dip the mini screwdriver into the milk foam and pull the foam out to the four edges of the cup. Make sure you do this with a slight arc to give all four butterfly wings a unique curvature.

The last step for creating a butterfly is to pull the sides of the wings inward to separate the wings into the four parts we observe with real butterflies. Start on the left or right side of your butterfly in the brown crema foam and move the brown foam to the center of the butterfly with a single stroke. Do this for the opposite side and your butterfly will be finished. Try out a few variations on this one using chocolate syrup to line the outside of the apple shape before you turn it into a butterfly. Show us whatever clever creations you come up with by uploading them to our gallery!

Learn more about making Latte Art in our Latte Art How To!