dresese

More cappuccino progress

The last time I wrote about my experiences with making cappuccinos, I was having better success. The key was the water pressure - as soon as it was fixed my froth became much better. Still, I haven't been that happy. My frothing frequently turns out too bubbly, or too thin, or both.

For help, I went to Zibetto and asked the barrista there about how to make the proper froth. He was very willing to give some tips. First he made some froth and showed me the consistency - it was thick but there were no bubbles. He said that's how it should be, thick & smooth, like yogurt. He said there was nothing to the frothing, you just position the wand at the right place (he sort of rested the pitcher of milk on the upper corner of the wand), and get a whirlpool. He did this for a few seconds, then tilted the pitcher of milk slightly so that the tip of the wand was just at the surface, creating froth. After just a second of this, he moved the wand to the center of the pitcher, all while keeping the whirlpool going. He said the whirlpool will whip air into it, and break up all the little bubbles. He kept this going until the pitcher was too hot to hold, then stopped.

I've attempted the same thing, but found that I tend to get big bubbles at the end, but just on some machines. On others, everything goes great. So for the moment, I'm sticking with the good machines. Even so, I'm not getting the volume of froth that I want. Perhaps I either need to work on my position for the few seconds I spend at the top of the milk, or extend that time period. Or maybe just none of the machines are powerful enough. My latest effort, which was fairly good: