The Wave Heart

The Wave Heart is one of our favorite advanced designs. It is also likely to be one of the most challenging designs so far. You will create a wave heart by making a rosetta that swirls around the coffee cup. The trick is to learn how to get the milk on top of the cup to swirl in the direction you want it to so the rosetta itself starts to swirl around the cup. This is no easy task, but it can be done with lots of practice. If you're a master of the rosetta and the heart, the wave heart is a fun one to try for an added challenge.

By now, a highly skilled latté technician such as yourself should know the value of having perfectly steamed milk and excellent espresso. If you don't get the steam wand to push the steam at an angle to the steam pitcher to get the milk to swirl around the pitcher, your foam won't have the right texture for the task. Even basic latté art won't happen without the right ingredients. But you already knew that.

The biggest challenge in creating the wave heart is getting the milk in the coffee cup to swirl around the cup the way you want it to. You will have to be thinking about this from the very beginning of the pour. We're going to break down this part so into steps so it's easier to understand. Pay very close attention.

1.) Begin your pour at the right edge of the cup in between the near and far side of the cup.

2.) Bring your pour across the coffee cup from the right edge to the left edge through the center of the cup.

3.) Guide your pour around the circumference of the coffee cup one full time, moving in a clockwise direction. Stay as close to the edge as you can.

4.) When you get back to the left edge and in between the near and far side of the cup, bring your pour back to the right edge of the coffee cup through the center of the cup.

If you did everything correctly, you should have gone around the edge of the coffee cup once and brought your pour back to where you started, at the right edge in between the near and far side of the cup. Now you will want to begin the wrist wiggle motion for creating a rosetta. As you make your rosetta, bring the steam pitcher closer to you while moving around the right circumference of the coffee coup. The rosetta is meant to look like a wave, so move along what you want the crest of the wave to be.

Once you reach top of the cup at the near side, you will begin to direct your pour to the center of the cup where you will create the heart contained within the wave. Make your heart as you would make any, and don't forget to lift the steam pitcher up towards the end to get the sucking motion that will seal the deal.

The wave heart is one of the more complicated and intricate designs in the latté art world. If you can manage to pull this one off on the first try, you might just have a chance at latté art stardom. Keep pouring and drinking your favorite drinks. By now you should be wired enough to try a few more.

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