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.