How to pour the perfect flat white at home

Want to learn to craft coffee-shop-quality flat whites in your own kitchen? Dear Green roastery founder Lisa Lawson and barista trainer Danny Ormonde (both SCA AST accredited) reveal a few essential tips for achieving velvety flat whites at home

Before you begin

There’s no getting around the fact that you’ll need a decent home espresso machine with good steam pressure. A La Marzocco Linea Mini or a Sage are both great investments.

Before you can even start honing your latte art, you’ll need to ensure you’ve dialed in your machine correctly to pull the perfect espresso shot. Learn how to do this by reading Dear Green’s dialing-in guide.

Master the milk

Make sure you’re using super fresh milk as it’ll steam better. Keep it chilled – the colder the milk the longer you’ll have to steam it and get it right. Use whole milk for better flavour and consistency – or a good dairy-free alternative such as Minor Figures Oat Milk or Oatly Oat Drink.

To froth: fill your milk jug to just under the spout – remember you’ll need room to increase the volume of the milk by one third.

Position the steam wand just underneath the surface of the milk before activating. Aim for a slurping sound and a whirlpool in the jug. Don’t heat the liquid above 67 degrees – if the jug is too hot to touch you know you’ve gone too far and risk losing the natural sweetness and texture of the milk.

Remember: latte art is only possible with lots of practice and the correct milk consistency.

Perfect your pour

Once you’ve nailed espresso extraction and got the milk texture to a smooth foamy consistency, the next step is to practise your pour.

Tip: try practising pouring with water before you work with milk; it’ll create muscle memory for what you’re trying to do.

Keep the texturised milk in the jug swirling until the point of pouring – this ensures the milk and air don’t separate.

Start to pour at a controlled speed. Pour from a height so the milk initially dives under the espresso, finish low to allow the foam to create a pattern on top. Pour with the appropriate angle to ensure hot milk and froth are poured together as one.

When the cup is almost full, the spout of the jug should nearly touch the surface of the coffee. How you manipulate the jug’s movement will determine the resulting latte art.

Try keeping the latte art simple at first – pour directly into the centre to achieve a circle, then strike vertically through the circle to create a heart shape.