Barista Secrets : Creative Coffee at Home

Includes five ready-to-use stencils and a gallery of latte art.

You cannot go into a specialty coffee shop these days without a barista performing creative magic in your cup while you wait. On a bad day, you might get a flower or a 3D heart from a sympathetic barista, but fancy coffees are not cheap. Coffee-lovers are buying home cappuccino and single-serve machines in record numbers, yearning for the fancy flourish. Now readers can learn how to give their homemade brew that barista touch.

As well as showing the how-to, this book curates the work of some of the greatest latte artists on the planet, from the froth sculptures of Kohei Matsuno to the works of celebrity barista Michael Breach, Instagram star Alan Chan, and others.

Latte art is the subject of local and international competitions where baristas compete to create designs on the cup's frothy surface. The book opens with Make Mine a Latte, a photo gallery of latte art from some of the world's best latte artists, each cross referenced to the how-to techniques later in the book.

The chapters are:

1. Barista Basics: This shows how to brew rich dark espresso, steam the milk creamy smooth, and the importance of pour height, rate, and angle, and the correct milk thickness for success.

2. Using Stencils: Five ready-to-cut stencils with instructions on how to use and make stencils plus information on flavored powders.

3. Free Pouring: How to pour basic designs, and then combine them or improvise to create unique cups of coffee: heart, rippled heart, rosette, ripple tulip, multiple rosettes and hanging heart.

4. Etching: Baristas use tools like a milk thermometer, toothpick or chopstick to draw lines and add flourishes transforming the latte top into art, like a butterfly or bear.

5. 3D Foam Designs: Originating in Asia, this trend has caught on in the West where you can now find 3D foam latte art. Color has also been added to the mix, with star baristas painting scenes, portraits, manga characters, and more.

6. The Perfect Cup: How to brew coffee; terminology, roasting beans at home, and grinding, buying and storing coffee.

Barista Secrets is a fun and practical book... and a great way to astonish and impress friends and family.

Ryan Soeder is a barista and coffee educator. He won the Coffee Fest World Latte Art Championship, North Central Barista Competition in 2015. He lives in Kentucky. Find him at instagram.com/ryansoeder.

Kohei Matsuno is a Japanese-based latte artist and a world expert in the field. Known for his 3-D lattes, find him at twitter.com/latte_artist_jk.