Heart – Placing and Cutting

Learning a Two-Element Pattern

The heart is a two-element design. It calls upon the same techniques as the monk’s head, but the final 2 seconds of the heart design require you to perform a cutting technique directly through the centre of the design. Early attempts at cutting through a design might result in spills because applying the ‘brake’ for a milk pitcher takes some practice. It’s really quite simple, though: to arrest the flow of milk after you complete a design, simply lower the elbow of your arm that is holding the pitcher.  

Video: the brake

To ensure the heart design has a pronounced valley at the top (the bottom of the design as viewed by the barista) you can increase your flow rate even higher than you might for the monk’s head. For the last 2 seconds of the pour, ensure that you slow the flow rate again to a sedate 15 ml/sec, and then use the cutting manoeuvre to form the tail of the heart.

The flow profile of the heart design.

Specifications for the Heart Design

Tilt: Lower the rim of the cup until the surface of the canvas is touching the northern tip of the cup.

Manoeuvres: Placing and cutting

Entry point: The bull’s-eye — the junction of the north-south and east-west axes.

Flow profile: Very similar to that of the monk’s head, but with a deceleration from a high summit followed by a careful cut-through, at a low flow rate, to finish. The high flow rate early in the sequence deepens the valley in the top of the heart.

Video: how to pour a heart, featuring placing and cutting

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