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https://preview.redd.it/plii1jaji4xc1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=186df643b129de6b1b965942086012ea80afddbe
with 130 mil in bank what to do

Looking to sell!! PayPal only. Shipping to the US is usually $4-$5. The name on card is my real name, I post them on facebook as well!
ALL PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE! Feel free to offer. Last time I didn’t add prices so i’m hoping this is better!
Draculaura Skull Shores $20 Torelai basic $30 Abbey basic $55 Snow bite $55 Ghoulia classroom $18 Clawdeen dead tired $15 (no shoes) Operetta roller maze $12 CAM $12 Spectra picture day $12 Lagoona roller maze $8 Clawdeen Scaris $15 Robecca dance class $15 Spectra 13 wishes $12 Abbey classroom $10 Jane Boolittle (With bag) $18 Howleen 13 wishes $18 Cupid EAH $15 Nud e dolls $5 Set including beds and spectra speakers $20 Stand without hooks $5 Clothes $5 each Draculaura G3 SS 2 $15 Frankie G3 SS 2 $15

Super disappointed the mystery bag didn’t have the brands it said and eyeliner is broken. Very excited about my hourglass primer and iconic bronzehighlighter

A Netherdeep Retrospective

It’s over! It’s done! Fifty-three sessions, 150+ maps, and a year and a half later… My group has finished our run through Call of the Netherdeep. This is sort of a general retrospective, but also a chance for kindof an AMA if anyone’s interested in my thoughts or has any questions, I'm an open book!

General

• About my party:
  • Vhondryl, Drow Spirits Bard (10) Twilight Cleric (2)
    • Tarot reader & framed for her sister’s murder. Ruidusborn.
  • Daxos, Dragonborn Hexblade Warlock (12)
    • Accidentally sworn to Tiamat as a patron, an ex-sailor
  • Rafi, Scourge Aasimar Oath of the Crown Paladin (11) Divine Soul Sorcerer (1)
    • Started as a member of the Cobalt Soul obsessed with finding Cael Morrow
  • Aldrik, Consecuted Human (Protector Aasimar) Bladesinger Wizard (10), Fighter (2)
    • Member of the Righteous Brand who discovered he was consecuted

Chapter 1: Jigow & The Festival of Merit (2 sessions)

• I played this pretty close to the book, and I think this is a fun start to the module. Luckily, my party got the Jewel, so I didn’t have to deal with the plot awkwardness if they didn’t, and they gifted the Moon Spear to Ayo. In retrospect I’d try to have Elder Ushru, know less about the Jewel, but give a more concrete reason to visit Bazzoxan (perhaps he knows a scholar that specializes in calamity era relics). I felt that knowing it was a vestige this early was a bit much.

Chapter 2: Xhorhas (~5 sessions)

• This was when I started really wanting to expand and tweak the module, a feeling that lasted through the whole campaign.
• I wanted my players to have more of a chance to bond as a party, so the rivals didn’t travel with them (I had also heard horror stories of them trivializing every encounter in the chapter). I think this worked out, as this was when everyone really found their characters, and got to know each other.
• My big modification to this chapter was writing the Dream-Bane Cave sidequest at the Emerald Loop Caravan Stop, which I think was a great addition to add more interest to the NPCs there and quick sidequest diversion. Otherwise it’s only a RP stop, and while my party is fairly involved in RP, would have been over and done really fast.

Chapter 3: Bazzoxan & Betrayer’s Rise (~6 sessions & ~6 sessions)

• Bazzoxan I think needs the most expansion out of the early chapters, because it’s easy to just go from level 5-6 and straight into Betrayer’s Rise in one combat as written, and you miss out on this whole interesting city you can explore. It’s a great place to start doing things with character backstory.
• I wrote up some sidequests for my party (The Hythenos Estate & On a Red Rock Trail), and repurposed u/JisaHinode’s Ruins of Sorrow (it came out just as I got to Bazzoxan, or I might have included it in chapter 2)
• Another big encounter I added was a demon incursion around one of the Sacrifice Engines to show them off. This also included the Rivals, since they had missed the Gibbering Mouther fight.
• This chapter was where most of my group’s Rival interactions took place. My party continued to be super friendly with them all (minus Galsariad who they thought was an ass)
• Betrayer’s Rise!
  • I put a lot of effort into making this dungeon seem more like the ever-changing dungeon of doom than it was in the book. Extra rooms! Swappable maps! Just a big project that I’m still pretty proud of. Here’s those.
  • They were traveling with both Prolix and Question during this (buuuut they accidentally killed Prolix in R12 under Torog’s Curse… uh, oops. This kinda made the Allegiance quests in Ank’Harel awkward, so I had to create a replacement NPC for him).
  • They fought Aloysia & the Rivals (Ayo now with Ruin’s Wake) at the Prayer Site, but they spent most of the fight trying to talk them down and get the spear away from her (and rolled amazingly). Galsariad fought halfheartedly on Aloysia’s side until she ran away with earthquake + teleport.
  • They got more teleportation tablets, but travelled with the rivals on foot out of the Rise
  • Had a party/drinks when they got out, and then teleported privately to Ank’Harel without the Rivals present.
    • Here’s where you kinda get a record scratch moment, because at this point the rivals were in no way rivals. They’d never held the Jewel, never heard more than snippets of the visions, were super-duper friendly, and weren’t around during the teleport. The connective tissue that gets the party to Ank’Harel is already super fragile for the main party here as it is, so I didn’t think it made any sense for the Rivals to up and travel to Ank’Harel (probably the slow way). So this is where I dropped them (and I know that’s controversial, but I don’t really regret it very much in retrospect). They’ve been proving themselves heroes in Xhorhas in the meantime. Our warlock recently invited them to attend the Tournament in Ank’Harel (taking place post-module), so I’ll have them pop back up there, and maybe in some other parts of my post-CotN campaign, but it hasn’t happened yet. They’re cool characters, but are a lot to run, and teeter a bit close to DMPC territory for my liking.

Chapter 4: Ank’Harel (~20 sessions)

• Oh, Ank’Harel! I think this city is a ton of fun, but was absolutely overwhelming my first few sessions in the city. This is also where I went fairly-off book, so hopefully you all can follow along.
• My party started with pursuing both the Allegiance and Cobalt Soul. I was correct in my assumption that they would lean Cobalt Soul (especially as my paladin was a member), and they eventually got to a part where they did not trust Lymmle Wist at all (very justified).

Faction Motivations
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Ank'Harel Quest \"Flow\"

• Faction tracks for me got a fairly large overhaul
  • Allegiance of Allsight: Ran the first mission with the Elephant as written, but follows it up with u/frozenfeet2’s Treasure Hunt sidequest as a way for Lymmle to “test” the party (but really to get them out of her way, since they were getting too nosy about Cael Morrow, by having them anger Devo’ssa). I added the following dungeon (The Lair of Devo’ssa) to the end of that quest because I love sphinxes and thought that would be a fun guardian for J’mon to work with. At the end they ran straight into the portal that led back to J’mon’s Quarters in Ank’Harel, but talked their way out of it, and J’mon tasked them with tracking down the ruidium weapons appearing in the hands of Ank’Harel’s gangs. This led nicely into a moment on my revised Cobalt Soul Track. After realizing that Lymmle set them up, my party didn’t trust the Allegiance at all and focused mainly on CS quests.
  • Cobalt Soul: I focused the Cobalt Soul missions on the Cult of Zehir (that was kind of randomly established in the first mission, but not expanded on). I named them the Shard of Ophidian, and had them act as smuggling and transportation for the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream’s ruidium shipments (using sewers and tunnels beneath the city). At the end of the first CS mission I had Laurin Ophidas escape to a sewer entrance, where they caught him and seeded some of the information. The greater quest chain was inspired by the flow of u/frozenfeet2’s Cult of Zehir Sidequest. I stole Search the Life Dome from the Allegiance track to insert in here also, as it didn’t make sense that the Allegiance thought it was an entrance since they have control over the real one (it also served well as a look for smuggling routes mission). But the main focus became tracking down members of the Shard of Ophidian, which ended up rewarding my party with the information needed to find their associates in the Consortium and later the Consortium HQ and take them all down.
• Personal quests
  • A big focus of the quests tied to the Consortium was my bard Vhondryl tracking down her sister’s killer, Koray the Spider, a fanatical ruidiusborn tiefling paladin that served Aradrine the Owl. Koray harried the party through the city, at one point stealing the Jewel, and was a fun unhinged NPC who didn’t want anyone else to be special (aka ruidusborn), and blamed our bard for something else that had happened in their past (very much Jinx from LoL/Arcane vibes). It all tied up very nicely with a raid on a warehouse the VD owned (and had moved to after their lair in the First Eclipse was discovered), with a big huge fight with Koray, Aradrine, and lots of minions. Jewel got recovered, Koray got killed (and revealed as Question’s lost sister), and the bard found a ruidum ring on Koray that was revealed to hold her sister’s soul, all very mysterious :P
• Other
  • I expanded on other temples in Ank’Harel with A Guide to the Guided District
  • Overall I think I had the most fun in this part of the book, just lots of intertwined quests and stuff to play with, as well as fun moments for shopping, a visit to the Raven Queen’s blood pool, and general fuckery. It all came together super nicely in the end.
  • One problem that became apparent though, was the fact that the book blocks off entrance to Cael Morrow behind fairly contrived sidequests to earn your way in, and my paladin who was already a member of the Cobalt Soul (and obsessed with Cael Morrow) felt like they deserved to be let in sooner, and were unfairly gated behind game mechanics. Which I totally get, and generally agree with, but am not sure how I’d really fix in a way that’s satisfying.

Chapter 5: Cael Morrow (~5 sessions)

• I feel like Cael Morrow could use a tiny bit of expansion, but I didn’t have the time to do very much as I was going through a rough patch irl.
• Definitely add more spots for fun lore, and mini-quests/tasks from the Allegiance members down there.
• I changed Olara to be a malfunctioning aeormaton, since it helped explain her memory gaps, and also remove the need for explanations about how she’s still alive and down here. She also tasked the party with fetching some wine from a nearby house’s basement where I had a fun little fight with a sea hag.
• Getting into the temple of Corellon was kinda clunky, so think about if your party has a way of doing that themselves, or maybe let them do it with a holy symbol of Corellon.
• Most of the fights in Cael Morrow were either trivial or fairly easy for my party, and I def would increase the numbers of enemies were I to do it again.
• You and your party will probably get tired of fighting Sorrowfish & Slithering Bloodfins by the end of Cael Morrow.
• You should buff the Alyxian Aboleth A LOT, and be careful about adding too many Aboleth Spawn (they’re much more nasty than the traditional Skum for some reason, and I didn’t realize that until mid fight, when I had added too many).
• My party used seeming and surprise to completely obliterate Galeokaerda (who I had even buffed) in one round, so now my bladesinger has a shield guardian, aaa. (I did convince him to leave it outside for the Netherdeep at least).

Chapter 6: The Netherdeep (~7 sessions)

• I think the theme of the Netherdeep and getting to explore Alyxian's internal struggle was super fun and relevant to a lot of my group's internal Motivations. Definitely one of my favorite capstone dungeon themes I’ve seen in 5e. Getting to explore Alyxian was fun, but tricky to get all the emotions across just so. I think I did a solid job, but could probably have improved the clarity there a bit.
• General changes I made to the Dungeon
  • I made several changes to enemy density and added additional creatures as I was already finding that Slithering Bloodfins and Sorrowfish were getting old by the time I left Cael Morrow. You can find my changes to encounters and statblocks for the additional monsters here.
  • Probably the biggest change I made to the dungeon was in N7: Battle of Betrayer’s Rise. When I was reading through, I was surprised a big historical battle against the demonic forces of Torog featured neither demons nor any element of that Betrayer God connection. l kept the wave structure of the encounter (+ Slitehring Bloodfins emerging from some of the enemies), but swapped to large numbers of weak-medium demons, culminating in a fight against Torog’s Champion, the Laughing Hand (notably featured in C2) since the timelines fit. I also wanted to expand on Alyxian's relationship with his Companions, some of who appeared in the encounter. (In my game this was Perigee, Xalicas, and Sa'adah (and to a lesser extent, Ganix who eventually was captured, corrupted, and transformed into the Laughing Hand)). The writeup of that encounter is part of the Netherdeep encounters writeup.

My group's path through the dungeon

• Favorite Rooms & Encounters
  • N7: Battle of Betrayer’s Rise (with changes)
    • Just a super epic battle, and an excuse for me to play with the Laughing Hand which was fun for my players
  • N8: Ruiner’s Spear
    • A great look at that last moment of Alyxian’s Life + fun skill challenge
  • N16: Curse of Ruidus
    • Curses + shark fight + creepy af eyes was awesome
  • N19: Cavern of Many Hands
    • Weird, but not trying to kill them + loot
  • N24: Cavern of Many Waterfalls (with buffed Perigee)
    • Another fun fight, meeting one of Alyxian’s companions in person
• Parts of the Netherdeep that could use improvement
  • Alyxian Visions
    • It's a lot of work to cram in all the Alyxian lore snippets, and you’re basically gonna need to hand them out like candy to get them all in. (Ok, I admit, I added three, but I wanted to tie in Alyxian’s companions to my story more).
    • In addition to the specified areas where players receive these with Fragments, I gave them out during long rests (each PC would get a different one) (we long rested 2x in the Netherdeep), the five Mirrors in N20, and I crammed the last couple in for each Fragment deposited in the Heart of Despair. Depending on if your group is speed running or not of it might be wise to prune a couple of the more repetitive visions, so you don't miss out on the ones that show Alyxian’s growth/journey, especially the ones at the end.
  • Map Design
    • The Chasm of Yearning is fairly isolated from the rest of the dungeon. There’s only one visible entrance N19: Cavern of Many Hands (which was off-putting to my players), and the other two entrances are hidden. I think this area is super important, if just for Perigee, and to a lesser extent the mirrors for additional chances at getting Alyxian’s story across. I ended up having Theo lead the players to the Chasm of Yearning instead of N17/18 otherwise they would have skipped this part of the dungeon entirely.
    • Very easy for your party to get enough Fragments to enter the Netherdeep in just the Grottoes of Regret + 1-2 rooms (like N11a or N16a). I added a ‘Lock’ on the Heart of Despair to require a couple more Fragments total than they had when I noticed this problem, just so they wouldn’t skip 2/3 of the dungeon and skip right to the finale (which they weren’t even close to expecting at that point). If you have Rivals in the Netherdeep (I did not), I’d advise them snagging some of the earlier Fragments to help push your group to explore.
  • Least Favorite Rooms/Rooms that didn’t play well
    • N3: Unforgotten Fallacy- The weakest of the living memories as written. If I were to do it again, I might include some kind of prelude where Alyxian is loud while trailing the hunters causing the Owlbears to get the drop on the hunting party. As it is, the party is kinda just there (and of course they’re gonna heal Saquiri right off the bat).
    • N25: Fragment of Loathing - The wording on shield removal is pretty clunky (you can either spend a bunch of turns stabbing with the spear and a bad to-hit, or just hold the spear and wish it away). Felt bad to my players. My players also didn’t realize that they could attack the moon before the shields were down, so none of the shields really did much except for the Purple Layer. And the moon had just a ridiculous amount of HP.
  • Other things of note that happened with my party
    • They kept Banishing Alyxian the Hunter when they met him after the initial “flee in terror” part, so that was kind of anticlimactic, unfortunately. I do advise stealing some elements of the Mage Hunter Golem from TCSR to beef him up a bit too.
    • They also kept charming the Death Embrace in N23 :( (sigh lmao)

Chapter 7: The Heart of Despair (1 session)

• Summary of Changes
  • Statblocks & more nitty-gritty writeup of my group’s experience + lair actions
  • Buffs to each of Alyxian’s forms
    • Notable changes from the book include hit point increases (roughly doubled), armor class (+1), higher proficiency bonus, magic resistance, resistance to non-magical b/p/s attacks, additional attacks per round, additional actions/bonus/reactions depending on the form, some additional movement options, and adjustments to the legendary actions of each form.
  • Three lair actions a turn tied to the ruined temples.
• Some great community resources
  • Mad props to to u/wrenthewriter for putting together some fantastic Alyxian combat dialogue for this fight, it really saved me a ton of time doing prep, and there are great thematic choices for pretty much every action Alyxian takes in there.
  • Also thanks to u/Savings_Arachnid_307 who posted some buffed Alyxian statblocks that I further iterated on.
• How it went for my party
  • Talking to Alyxian’s statue about half the party wanted to let him go, and the other half were hesitant (and kept being hesitant long enough to trigger the fight). They had def gotten some bad vibes from him, but recognized his heroics.
  • The fight itself was tense and challenging, but not overwhelmingly deadly even with my statblock updates. In retrospect, I could have probably turned up the danger 10% and still been fine. (Worst state was Question on death saves + the rest of the party at or under 15hp at about 2/3 of the way through Alyxian the Callous, but some Mass Cure Wounds from our Bard turned that around really fast).
  • Regarding Lair Actions. I think my “Lair Action for every ruined temple not cleansed” scheme was super successful. It let Alyxian do more while still being a solo boss, and when my party finally decided to do something about it about halfway through the fight, they got rewarded for their efforts (partially fewer lair actions, and partially a one-time blessing tied to each god).
  • By the end of the fight, Ruidium corruption was starting to make things super difficult for a few of my players (notably my Bladesinger, who had three levels of exhaustion). I do note that I was running a slightly custom version of Ruidium corruption, that was a slower burn than in the book, but with semi-permanent consequences. (See Slow-Burn Ruidium Corruption)
  • They started trying to talk to Alyxian within the first two turns of the fight, and were happy to get big damage chunks for doing so. They got a bit caught up in the fighting, so that kind of went by the wayside until the tail end of Alyxian the Callous, and they were very proactive with convincing Alyxian the Dispossessed (especially after he didn’t take damage and instead seemed to get better).
  • This led into the good ending, and while one player was still kind of a skeptic (mostly as he saw parts of himself in Alyxian and didn’t like it), the rest of the party was convinced to let Alyxian go live his life.

General thoughts on the module

• I think overall Netherdeep is a good-to-average module out of the box (6.5/10), but it has some very noticeable flaws in pacing, structure (extremely linear), and motivation outside of follow the MacGuffin, and I think the level design of both of the main dungeons are kind of poor (both BR & the Netherdeep have main paths that bypass the vast majority of each dungeon). However, I think there are a lot of ways to improve the module by adding content, sidequests, and player backstory elements. I had a ton of fun DMing for my party, creating maps, and working with and riffing off other CotN DMs, and I think we’ve all made an experience that’s honestly really fantastic.
• I have a lot of experience as a player, and some experience as a DM, but this is actually the first full campaign I've ever run from start to end. It was a really incredible experience, and I’m so proud of my party for being awesome players, strong RPers, and extremely tactical. I’m proud of myself for how far I pushed myself to grow in the process of running this campaign, and for somehow churning out just a hell of a lot of maps (though having a day job as an Environment Artist helps xD).

What’s next?

• We’re not done!
• I’m taking some time off to organize what comes next, but I’m planning on continuing with my group to chase down some backstory elements, and quell a rising tide of darkness…
• The short & longer term:
  • Gotta win that grand tournament and it’s prize money!
  • My warlock is an ex-sailor, and wants to buy an airship…
    • He also has 4/5 of a completed Vestige that will break the shackles holding Tiamat, but is realizing that might be a bad idea
    • And an old flame to rescue from a bad situation in Rotthold.
  • My paladin was informed that an old foe that they had convicted has escaped from prison and is at large…
    • And they have to come to terms with the fact that their single-minded quest to find Cael Morrow has come to an end, and they need to figure out what to do with their life.
  • My bard is trying to figure out where the ring that hold’s her sister’s soul came from, especially as the ruidium has melted away to reveal a mysterious symbol of a circle with a crown of spikes…
    • Maybe if she understands that she can reconcile with her estranged family
  • My bladesinger is trying to come to terms with himself… and his past life, and a mysterious connection that has the Children of Malice pursuing him.

It's going to be a fun time :)
---
Chapter 1: Jigow Maps
Chapter 2: Xhorhas Wastes Maps Emerald Loop Caravan Stop Sidequest
Chapter 3: Bazzoxan Maps Betrayers Rise Maps Additional Bazzoxan Sidequests
Chapter 4: Ank'Harel Maps Temples of Ank'Harel
Chapter 5: Cael Morrow Maps
Chapter 6: Netherdeep Maps Additional Netherdeep Monsters
Chapter 7: Heart of Despair Maps Running the Heart of Despair
All of my Call of the Netherdeep Maps Map Attribution Retrospective

I've come over from latteart to share some of my experience as a home latte artist (I know, I hate the term but don't know what else to call it).
https://preview.redd.it/d47lx9zy6fqb1.jpg?width=3012&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cc08fdbcb11477c72984b7d7d061a7931e2c548
This guide will be focusing on the principles of pouring "basic patterns" that include hearts, tulips, rosettas, etc. (as opposed to "drawn patterns" that are more figural in their depiction of animals and other things). I'm writing specifically for the style of latte art that I practice (Asian fine line basic patterns). There will be differences in ideas between what I've written here and the pouring styles of Emilee Bryant or Lance Hedrick. It should be noted that everyone has their own way of thinking about latte art. Even people within a style will have differences in their pouring techniques and philosophies. I'm by no means a master though; I definitely don't have the skill to hang with the people I just mentioned 💀.
This is by no means a total beginner's guide; there are many guides for that. My goal here is to help people who aren't sure how to improve to break through conceptual barriers and to teach you a little bit of self diagnosis. I'll be skipping over details that I don't think are particularly important for practical pouring or leaving them to others to explain.
Spoilered points are my opinions on more advanced pouring concepts that should be ignored until the basics are mastered.
Milk steaming

• The science: James Hoffmann's Milk Steaming Tutorial
• Technique breakdown: Lance Hedrick's technique
• Start with a solid steaming technique and go from there. It'll take practice to iron out all the bumps and learn to judge for yourself how steaming affects latte art.
• Really even milk texture makes latte art very easy, so if you're struggling to form any patterns, work on achieving a very even texture first before attempting any patterns.
  • Signs your milk isn't even enough include: hazy patterns, no pattern showing up, patterns that float on top of the surface of your coffee, when your solid hearts aren't round, when the crema and milk foam don't mix as you're integrating, when your draw through is a blob, patterns that aren't symmetrical even though you keep your pitcher and cup in line with each other, lots of foam gets stuck in your pitcher after you're done pouring, the pattern dissipates within 10 minutes of pouring, etc.
  • You'll know your milk is even enough when: the pattern is crisp and sharp without you really even trying, the milk wraps in on itself easily, the patterns expands on its own, the patterns are round, the draw through is sharp, you can ripple and the milk doesn't go hazy, etc.
• Tips to evening out milk texture
  • During steaming, maintain the angle of your pitcher and move in slow but determined motions. Keep the relative position of the wand and pitcher as steady as possible.
  • You'll want distinct Stretching and Rolling phases during steaming.
    • Stretch only in the early stages of steaming, and maximize the time you have for rolling. Stretch as gently as quickly as you can, making small bubbles that are easier to break down.
    • When rolling, try to keep the steam wand tip close to the surface of the milk. A common beginner mistake is to bury the wand under the milk. Instead, aim to have the wand tip as shallow as you can get it without introducing any more air.
    • When you bury the wand too deep during the rolling phase of steaming, the foam on top of the milk isn't as efficiently pulled down and broken up by the steam. This results in a worse texture that separates more quickly.
  • For latte art, aim for a milk temperature between 45 and 55C. Milk at a cooler temperature is more flowy. With experience, if you accidentally stretch too little, you can make the milk hotter up to 60C to compensate for thinner texture. Works the same way vice versa: stretch too much, make the milk cooler.
  • Make sure that when you're grooming your milk (swirling the pitcher), you swirl in the same direction you steamed your milk. Sometimes the milk may still be moving in the pitcher after you finish steaming, and swirling in the opposite direction may cause the foam and milk to separate sooner. (this may be superstition)
• Tips for judging milk thickness
  • There are two ways to judge thickness as you're steaming
    • Note the height of the milk in the pitcher as you stretch.
    • Note the pitch/frequency of the sound during the stretch. The more air you add to the milk, the lower the pitch/frequency of the sound. Some science.
  • Use both of these tools to learn how much you should aerate. Build up your intuition on aeration amount rather than relying on having the same amount of air each time. It's kind of like how professional chefs don't necessarily rely on timers and recipes but on experience.
  • Two common methods to measure aeration are by timing aeration and by aerating until the pitcher reaches a certain temperature. In my opinion, these methods are a little more arbitrary and lack principle. Unless you've trained to aerate at a very precise rate, these two methods just feel a little unreliable to me.

The effects of crema on latte art flow

• While crema is no longer very important in modern espresso brewing for taste, it is very important to consider when we're pouring latte art.
• Dead shots: The shorter the time period between pulling the shot and pouring the drink, the better. Many people see problems of the crema restricting the movement of the milk or forming unbreakable clumps. This is because the crema sat out for too long and has floated up to the top and become very dense.
• If your machine can brew and steam at the same time, PLEASE JUST DO IT. You spent money on a machine that is fully capable of producing beautiful latte art very easily, so try that function once in a while. A flat-bar profile won't even taste that different in a milk drink.
  • Pro-tips: Start your shot before you steam. Steaming milk on a great machine is usually between 14-25 seconds. The shot is longer than that so start pulling first. When you start steaming, pay attention to your aeration. When you transition into rolling the milk, turn your attention back to the shot. Brewing and steaming simultaneously can be easier if you steam by holding the body of your pitcher in the hand further away from the espresso controls, freeing up your other hand to cut the shot off.
• Things you should keep in mind if you can't brew and steam simultaneously
  • The level of pours you can do will be limited. My favorite pattern to pour, the wing-wing-4 tulip is already kind of the limit of what's possible with a dead espresso shot.
  • You want a somewhat thin texture of milk. I don't think there's any helpful way for me to tell you how thick or thin the texture needs to be, but in general, err on the thin side.
  • The ristretto trick
    • Many of us use setups that can't brew and steam at the same time, so a trick to mitigating this problem (if you want to sacrifice taste for latte art) is to pull a slow ristretto shot (30-40s, 1:0.8-1).
    • There is less crema overall in this shot, and it settles in a more even way than a longer shot and behaves more closely to a fresh double shot in terms of flow.
    • Start at about an 18g dose and go from there.
    • To dial in ristretto only for the sake of latte art, old myths about espresso can actually be pretty useful. For example, if the liquid out of the portafilter at the end of the shot is a little watery, you can probably grind finer until it goes back to being mostly crema foam. If you see blonding (lighter colored streaks during a bottomless pull), you can probably grind finer.
    • The ristretto trick works best with what specialty coffee defines as dark roast (usually coffees that are just starting to show a little oil on the surface). It'll also work for medium roasts, but taste wise, those may be too sour. It's kind of a waste of light roast which don't produce much contrast anyway, so probably avoid trying this with light roast coffees. Super dark roast charcoal coffees struggle to hold back enough pressure when you pull as a ristretto. Avoid buying those for latte art and for taste sake. Decaf coffees are also not great for pouring, not forming enough crema and behaving unpredictably in the cup. If you must use decaf, fresh is better (like just finished roasting fresh).
  • If you're interested in competing in latte art competitions, pouring into dead espresso shots will be different from pouring into fresh espresso. Technique-wise, there are differences, with dead shots requiring more force, flow, and exaggerated movements. Changing your muscle memory is not worth the extra practice you get at home unless you can get your hands on a dual boiler or heat exchanger. I'm currently having to retrain myself to pour with correct technique for a commercial machine.

Pouring

• Fundamentals of pouring: Sunergos Milk Training
  • This video should be watched in its entirety. It'll have specific tips for each pattern it introduces and will certainly be more helpful than what I can express only through text.
  • Watch this to learn the solid heart first. Follow that with a rippled heart, then you're off to the races.
• Integrating
  • Before pouring a pattern, the espresso and milk must be mixed first to form a canvas on which to pour. As you pour milk into the cup, the microscopic bubbles of milk foam form a layer of coffee-dyed milk foam on the surface of the coffee, creating a canvas with similar density to our milk foam for our pattern to land on.
  • When mixing, it's important to have some distance between the pitcher and the cup, allowing the milk foam to sink bellow the surface, coloring it with coffee. More on pitcher and cup distance later in the Pitcher and cup distance section.
  • Another reason why we integrate is to evenly mix the crema so that the density of the canvas is as even as possible. This means that different coffees may change our approach to mixing. In particular, with very stiff and thick crema (usually dark roasts), we have to swirl the coffee to break up the foam before integrating. A coffee will need swirling if you notice that when mixing with milk, the crema is stubborn and refuses to integrate.
    • HOWEVER, if you're using a setup that can't brew and steam simultaneously, you may notice that swirling worsens issues with crema clumping and being really resistant to pouring. The espresso has sat out for too long and has "died." Try the ristretto trick I mentioned above.
  • There are different schools of thought on technique for integrating. A common way is a more aggressive technique of shooting a single stream of milk straight into the bottom of the cup. My technique is to pour a thin stream and to mix side to side or in a circle, making sure to hit as much of the surface crema as I can before starting my pattern.
  • How much to integrate
    • How much you integrate affects how much room your pattern has to expand. The less you integrate, the larger your pattern will be. The more you integrate, the smaller your pattern will be.
    • Estimating the % fullness of the cup is an easy way to figure out when to stop integrating and to start the pattern.
    • For simpler patterns like solid hearts and rippled hearts, you can probably start your pattern when the cup is 60-70% full.
    • For patterns without stop-starts (ie: patterns that are poured in on stroke) like the classic rosetta or swan, I tend to aim for a 50% full cup before beginning my pattern.
    • For complex stop-start patterns like winged tulips and more complex variations, I aim for 40% full cup or a little less as a starting point for the pattern.
• Cup and Pitcher recommendations
  • Generally, if you want to pour more complex patterns, you'll want cups that are bowl shaped. My preference is for origami's 8oz latte bowls. You can definitely still pour nice patterns in proportionally taller cups like a Duralex, but latte bowls make life easier when you want to pour tulips and rosettas.
  • Personally, I'm super partial to WPM 15oz/450ml round spout pitchers. Not sponsored (I wish), but they are very easy to learn with.
  • If you want to pour 12oz drinks, check out the Vertex Latte Bowl and Rattleware 600ml pitcher or the Hario x Hiroshi 600ml pitcher.
• Matching Volumes
  • These values are based off cup and pitcher companies product descriptions. They won't be super precise but will get you in the ballpark.
    • 4-6oz/120-180ml: 10-15oz/300-450ml pitcher
    • 6-8oz/180-250ml cup: 15-17oz/450-500ml pitcher
    • 10-12oz/300-350ml cup: 20oz/600ml pitcher
  • You'll have to do some trial and error to find out how much milk you need in your pitcher. Some pitchers have markings, while for others, you'll have to rely on the base of the spout.
• Pitcher and cup distance
  • Aside from good texture, getting good contrast in your patterns is about understanding distance between pitcher spout and the surface of the coffee. Earlier in the mixing section, we mentioned how we want to pour from a height during integration, allowing the milk foam to sink into the coffee and become dyed with color.
  • As a rule of thumb, we should integrate from about 2-3inches/6-9cm away from the surface of the coffee.
  • To get a crisp pattern, we want our spout 0.25inch/0.75cm away from the surface of the coffee.
    • In order for our pitcher spout to reach the surface of the coffee, we'll have to angle our cup towards the pitcher. More on this later in the Cup Rotation section.
  • When the spout is not close enough to the surface of the coffee, the color of the pattern will be more hazy and washed out.
  • When the spout is too close to the surface, it can catch the surface of the coffee as you pour, potentially pulling the pattern in unpredictable ways as you lift your pitcher up, creating divots in your shapes, or scooping up too much crema and creating a low density zone that becomes beige.
• Pitcher and cup alignment for symmetry
  • For symmetrical patterns, the pitcher and the cup should always be aligned. As you gain more experience pouring, you'll want to allot more attention to alignment in order to achieve the best symmetry you can.
  • I feel like a common mistake is cup handle placement. You always want your cup handle perpendicular to the aim of your pitcher. That way when you hold the cup by the handle to drink, the pattern is facing your direction. Alternate as you wish for handedness.
  • Water exercise for pitcher and cup alignment: fill your pitcher with water and pour into the cup. Move the pitcher forwards and backwards while keeping the pitcher completely aligned (aim, roll, tilt, x, y, z) with the cup. It's a very complicated movement to get used to and cannot feasibly be trained through feel alone.
• Pitcher Tilt
  • The flow rate of our pitcher is determined by our pitcher tilt. Greater forward tilt = higher flow rate; less forward tilt = lower flow rate.
  • The tilt of the pitcher should be constantly changing to keep the flow rate of the pitcher constant. A common mistake is to start with a high flow rate but forget to continually tilt the pitcher forward as your pour. This has two consequences:
    • As the flow rate diminishes, the loss of driving force keeps the pattern from expanding properly
    • Since the pitcher is no longer adequately tilted forward, the pitcher spout to coffee surface distance will also increase, resulting in washed out colors.
  • A neat way to approach flow rate is to just remind yourself to keep the spout of the pitcher 0.25inch/0.75cm from the surface of the coffee. The pitcher will naturally tilt forward and adjust the flow rate**.**
  • While pitcher tilt/flow rate does affect volume control for more advanced pours, my opinion is that being mindful of the fullness of the cup is a better way to practice volume control. Then all you need to do is to dial in the initial amount of milk.
• Pitcher movement
  • Generally speaking, for bowl shaped cups, pitcher movement is used to determined the shape of a pattern. Takeout cups and other tall cups may require a different approach/technique when pushing. I won't be talking much about takeout cups due to my relative lack of experience with those.
  • Forwards/pushing motions form rounded shapes like hearts and tulips
    • The starting point of the pour with a pushed motion should be determined by where you want the top of your pour to be. ie: if you want the top of you heart to be at a certain height in the cup, then start your pattern there.
    • The key to understanding different push patterns is how the pattern wraps in on itself. This is dependent on two factors1: How far away the pattern is from the stream of milk flowing from the pitcher (far in a 2d sense, as in just the flat plane of the pattern and not how far away the spout is from the surface).2: The amount of time the milk has to wrap into the pitcher stream.
    • Pushing for hearts: in a solid or rippled heart, we have a bit of distance to cover from the top of the heart to the intersection between the two semi circles. Because we want the tops of the heart to wrap in order to form the two semi circles, we want to move forwards very slowly and potentially pour in place until each semi circle has fully wrapped inwards before we perform a draw through.
    • Pushing for simple tulips: each dot of a simple tulip is poured in a short amount of time. However, because of the nature of stop-start pouring of a simple tulip, we can get the pattern to start wrapping in on itself by pushing dots in the same spot. The amount of time the pattern has to wrap accumulates with each dot, wrapping the previous dots around the new ones.
    • Pushing for a wing base: Good milk texture and consistent rippling is a prerequisite to the wing base. If you don't have these two things down, the wing base will be difficult to master. The key to a good wing base is achieving the U shape with emphasis on the divot in the center and consistent thickness and fullness of each ripple. Because wing bases are very complex, there isn't only one viable technique/approach. Here, I'll be describing two different techniques that I'm aware of. This stuff is pretty advanced for the average home barista, so feel free to message me for clarification and extra resources.1: The most common technique I see among good latte artists is to ripple in place until the base forms a semicircular shape, then pushing inwards to form the divot. In my opinion, this first technique relies on really good milk texture usually made on a commercial machine. Since the milk flows well, each ripple easily wraps, allowing them to be full and complete in the final pattern. The flowier milk is also more easily pushed away when forming the divot of the U shape. With stiffer milk, this first technique often results in a shallower divot and ripples aren't full enough to form a pleasing, symmetrical pattern. 2: Another common technique is to be pushing inwards from the start of the pour. I think this technique is more suitable to home baristas. It's more forgiving of poor milk texture and is also easier to comprehend. Pushing and rippling inwards throughout the entire base pour ensures that the final divot of the U shape will be deep enough and increases the likelihood that each ripple wraps inwards to form full symmetrical ripples.
    • For a takeout cup or a taller cup, another viable method for wing bases is to pour against the far wall of the cup, relying on the flow of the pitcher against the back wall to push the pattern up around the cup. This technique can be used ceramic latte cups as well, but it's harder to pull off consistently imo.
• Backwards/pulling motions form triangular shapes like rosettas and swan wings.
  • The simplest (no base) rosettas and swans wings can be poured entirely by moving backwards. These are quite good fun to pour early on and can be great rippling practice.
  • How quickly you pull back can change the overall aesthetic of the design. For rosettas, they can be a desirable look with looser lines and more space between each ripple. Personally, I prefer a slower pull back for swans however, since I think a fuller wing better evokes the feathers of a wing.
• Rippling
  • Don't worry about rippling yet if your milk texture isn't perfect. Focus on evenness of milk texture first, and rippling will eventually come easily.
  • When you're first starting, practice rippling with water before doing an actual pour. It'll help build muscle memory and give you some warm ups before the real thing.
  • Rippling should be a natural motion. Working too quickly will result in messy lines and lines that crash into each other, losing contrast. (don't force a wiggle, rely on the pendulum effect of the milk)
  • Personally, I ripple narrower for bases than I do for rosettas and swans. I also try not to vary my ripple width too much for each of these techniques ie: I don't narrow my rippling as I get closer to the bottom of a wing base or the top of a rosetta. I like rippling wider for rosettas and swans so the stem takes up more space in the cup.
• Cup Rotation
  • Earlier in the pitcher and cup distance section, I mentioned that the cup needs to be angled towards the pitcher to allow our pitcher spout to get closer to the surface of the coffee. We will now discuss cup rotation in which I refer to the straightening of the cup from its tilted position.
  • As we are pouring, the cup should be rotated to prevent spilling of the coffee. I like to rotate as slowly as possible, keeping the edge of the coffee very close to the edge of the cup. This helps keep the spout-coffee distance in check. A small spill is fine anyhow; just needs to be wiped properly.
  • Cup rotation helps with pattern expansion: For bowl shaped cups, cup rotation increases the surface area of the coffee lessening the density of the canvas/foam on top of the pattern and pulls the pattern away from the spout-coffee point of contact.
  • When we're rippling, cup rotation affects the amount of contrast between each ripple. Fast and aggressive cup rotation pulls more color between each ripple. Slower cup rotation pulls in less color, sometimes with desirable results.
  • Overly aggressive cup rotation can form gaps in the base.
  • In my subjective experience, cup rotation should become more drastic the closer the cup is to being full. The beginning of a pattern requires less cup rotation (eg: wing base), while the middle and end of a pattern will require more (eg: rosetta stem, middle wing for a tulip, rose, swan.
  • Cup rotation is unnecessary in some approaches: you can have the cup pre-angled appropriately and rely entirely on pitcher movement and flow rate (pitcher tilt).
  • IMO different cups require different approaches to cup rotation. For cups that are taller than they are wide, more cup rotation may be necessary to get the pattern to expand properly. For cups that are wider than they are tall, less cup rotation can be used to keep the pattern from expanding too much.
• Pattern Expansion
  • In the style of latte art I learned, pattern expansion is the result of how much you integrate, good milk texture, and the balance between pitcher tilt, cup rotation, and pitcher movement.
  • When the pitcher tilts forwards (flow rate), the pattern should naturally move away from the point of contact between the milk and the coffee given good milk texture and good integration.
    • Stick with the tip I gave above about maintaining spout proximity in the Pitcher Tilt section.
  • When cup rotation exceeds pitcher movement, the pattern expands too quickly, resulting in holes and gaps in our patterns.
    • For winged bases, personally, I will use a pitcher movement that exceeds the amount of cup rotation to avoid this problem.
  • The less milk you integrate with, the larger your pattern will be. However, integrating too little has a few downsides.
    • Firstly, for ceramic cups that have a flat part at the bottom, beginning the pattern before you've cleared the flat part will result in an irregular shape for a base.
    • Secondly, the base may smash into the edges of the cup. It's more aesthetically pleasing to keep an even ring of brown color around the pattern.
• Lifting during the pour
  • For many patterns, it's necessary to stop mid pour by lifting the pitcher up slightly. When lifting, it's important to lift as little and as gently as you can. Lifting the pitcher too much encourages the milk foam to separate.
  • Note this example for a drawing style pour. The same lifting technique is necessary for basic patterns as well.
• Draw throughs
  • Draw throughs should generally be done at height above the surface of the coffee. Aim for about 2inches/6cm away, but for more advanced pourers, this really isn't necessary as evidenced by how low most people may draw through the head of a swan (0.5 inch/1-1.5cm).
  • Be sure the draw through is aligned with the center of the pattern. An asymmetric draw through will completely throw off the symmetry of a pour.
  • Blobby draw throughs can a sign of uneven or thick milk texture
  • Draw through varies depending on the style of pour and personal preference. Some people prefer heavy draw throughs with higher flow rate that pull the pattern down more forcefully. For myself, I believe that really good texture can be drawn through with very gentle and thin stream of milk. I prefer to lightly knit the pattern together to complete the pour.

I've been seeing more and more latte art posts in this sub lately. Hopefully this is helpful.

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https://preview.redd.it/cf4c4wsgs7qb1.jpg?width=3012&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6b6da29039be64f2340de183a31de002b77c16f
I wanted to share some fundamentals of latte art that I learned over the years (credit to my teachers rongger__ and _wen_hong). This guide will be focusing on the principles of pouring "basic patterns" that include hearts, tulips, rosettas, etc. (as opposed to "drawn patterns" that are more figural in their depiction of animals and other things). I'm writing specifically for the style of latte art that I practice (Asian fine line basic patterns poured in ceramic bowl style cups). There will be differences in ideas between what I've written here and the pouring styles of Emilee Bryant, Lance Hedrick, Caleb Schwarz, Matt Komins, etc as well as differences for pouring into different shaped cups. It should also be noted that everyone has their own way of thinking about latte art. Even people within a style will have differences in their pouring techniques and philosophies. I'm by no means a master though; I definitely don't have the skill to hang with the people I just mentioned 💀.
This is by no means a beginner's guide; there are many guides for that. My goal here is to help people who aren't sure how to improve to break through conceptual barriers and to teach you a little bit of self diagnosis. I'll be skipping over details that I don't think are particularly important for practical pouring or leaving them to others to explain.
Spoilered points are my opinions on more advanced pouring concepts.
Milk steaming

• The science: James Hoffmann's Milk Steaming Tutorial
• Technique breakdown: Lance Hedrick's technique
• Start with a solid steaming technique and go from there. It'll take practice to iron out all the bumps and learn to judge for yourself how steaming affects latte art.
• Really even milk texture makes latte art very easy, so if you're struggling to form any patterns, work on achieving a very even texture first before attempting any patterns.
  • Signs your milk isn't even enough include: hazy patterns, no pattern showing up, patterns that float on top of the surface of your coffee, when your solid hearts aren't round, when the crema and milk foam don't mix as you're integrating, when your draw through is a blob, patterns that aren't symmetrical even though you keep your pitcher and cup in line with each other, lots of foam gets stuck in your pitcher after you're done pouring, the pattern dissipates within 10 minutes of pouring, etc.
  • You'll know your milk is even enough when: the pattern is crisp and sharp without you really even trying, the milk wraps in on itself easily, the patterns expands on its own, the patterns are round, the draw through is sharp, you can ripple and the milk doesn't go hazy, etc.
• Tips to evening out milk texture
  • During steaming, maintain the angle of your pitcher and move in slow but determined motions. Keep the relative position of the wand and pitcher as steady as possible.
  • You'll want distinct Stretching and Rolling phases during steaming.
    • Stretch only in the early stages of steaming, and maximize the time you have for rolling. Stretch as gently as quickly as you can, making small bubbles that are easier to break down.
    • When rolling, try to keep the steam wand tip close to the surface of the milk. A common beginner mistake is to bury the wand under the milk. Instead, aim to have the wand tip as shallow as you can get it without introducing any more air.
    • When you bury the wand too deep during the rolling phase of steaming, the foam on top of the milk isn't as efficiently pulled down and broken up by the steam. This results in a worse texture that separates more quickly.
  • For latte art, aim for a milk temperature between 45 and 55C. Milk at a cooler temperature is more flowy. With experience, if you accidentally stretch too little, you can make the milk hotter up to 60C to compensate for thinner texture. Works the same way vice versa: stretch too much, make the milk cooler.
  • Make sure that when you're grooming your milk (swirling the pitcher), you swirl in the same direction you steamed your milk. Sometimes the milk may still be moving in the pitcher after you finish steaming, and swirling in the opposite direction may cause the foam and milk to separate sooner. (this may be superstition)
• Tips for judging milk thickness
  • There are two ways to judge thickness as you're steaming
    • Note the height of the milk in the pitcher as you stretch.
    • Note the pitch/frequency of the sound during the stretch. The more air you add to the milk, the lower the pitch/frequency of the sound. Some science.
  • Use both of these tools to learn how much you should aerate. Build up your intuition on aeration amount rather than relying on having the same amount of air each time. It's kind of like how professional chefs don't necessarily rely on timers and recipes but on experience.
  • Two common methods to measure aeration are by timing aeration and by aerating until the pitcher reaches a certain temperature. In my opinion, these methods are a little more arbitrary and lack principle. Unless you've trained to aerate at a very precise rate, these two methods just feel a little unreliable to me.

The effects of crema on latte art flow

• While crema is no longer very important in modern espresso brewing for taste, it is very important to consider when we're pouring latte art.
• Dead shots: The shorter the time period between pulling the shot and pouring the drink, the better. Many people see problems of the crema restricting the movement of the milk or forming unbreakable clumps. This is because the crema sat out for too long and has floated up to the top and become very dense.
• If your machine can brew and steam at the same time, PLEASE JUST DO IT. You spent money on a machine that is fully capable of producing beautiful latte art very easily, so try that function once in a while. A flat-bar profile won't even taste that different in a milk drink.
  • Pro-tips: Start your shot before you steam. Steaming milk on a great machine is usually between 14-25 seconds. The shot is longer than that so start pulling first. When you start steaming, pay attention to your aeration. When you transition into rolling the milk, turn your attention back to the shot. Brewing and steaming simultaneously can be easier if you steam by holding the body of your pitcher in the hand further away from the espresso controls, freeing up your other hand to cut the shot off.
• Things you should keep in mind if you can't brew and steam simultaneously
  • The level of pours you can do will be limited. My favorite pattern to pour, the wing-wing-4 tulip is already kind of the limit of what's possible with a dead espresso shot.
  • You want a somewhat thin texture of milk. I don't think there's any helpful way for me to tell you how thick or thin the texture needs to be, but in general, err on the thin side.
  • The ristretto trick
    • Many of us use setups that can't brew and steam at the same time, so a trick to mitigating this problem (if you want to sacrifice taste for latte art) is to pull a slow ristretto shot (30-40s, 1:0.8-1).
    • There is less crema overall in this shot, and it settles in a more even way than a longer shot and behaves more closely to a fresh double shot in terms of flow.
    • Start at about an 18g dose and go from there.
    • To dial in ristretto only for the sake of latte art, old myths about espresso can actually be pretty useful. For example, if the liquid out of the portafilter at the end of the shot is a little watery, you can probably grind finer until it goes back to being mostly crema foam. If you see blonding (lighter colored streaks during a bottomless pull), you can probably grind finer.
    • The ristretto trick works best with what specialty coffee defines as dark roast (usually coffees that are just starting to show a little oil on the surface). It'll also work for medium roasts, but taste wise, those may be too sour. It's kind of a waste of light roast which don't produce much contrast anyway, so probably avoid trying this with light roast coffees. Super dark roast charcoal coffees struggle to hold back enough pressure when you pull as a ristretto. Avoid buying those for latte art and for taste sake. Decaf coffees are also not great for pouring, not forming enough crema and behaving unpredictably in the cup. If you must use decaf, fresh is better (like just finished roasting fresh).
  • If you're interested in competing in latte art competitions, pouring into dead espresso shots will be different from pouring into fresh espresso. Technique-wise, there are big differences, with dead shots requiring more force, flow, and exaggerated movements. Changing your muscle memory is not worth the extra practice you get at home unless you can get your hands on a dual boiler or heat exchanger. I'm currently having to retrain myself to pour with correct technique for a commercial machine.

Pouring

• Fundamentals of pouring: Sunergos Milk Training
  • This video should be watched in its entirety. It'll have specific tips for each pattern it introduces and will certainly be more helpful than what I can express only through text.
  • Watch this to learn the solid heart first. Follow that with a rippled heart, then you're off to the races.
• Integrating
  • Before pouring a pattern, the espresso and milk must be mixed first to form a canvas on which to pour. As you pour milk into the cup, the microscopic bubbles of milk foam form a layer of coffee-dyed milk foam on the surface of the coffee, creating a canvas with similar density to our milk foam for our pattern to land on.
  • When mixing, it's important to have some distance between the pitcher and the cup, allowing the milk foam to sink bellow the surface, coloring it with coffee. More on pitcher and cup distance later in the Pitcher and cup distance section.
  • Another reason why we integrate is to evenly mix the crema so that the density of the canvas is as even as possible. This means that different coffees may change our approach to mixing. In particular, with very stiff and thick crema (usually dark roasts), we have to swirl the coffee to break up the foam before integrating. A coffee will need swirling if you notice that when mixing with milk, the crema is stubborn and refuses to integrate.
    • HOWEVER, if you're using a setup that can't brew and steam simultaneously, you may notice that swirling worsens issues with crema clumping and being really resistant to pouring. The espresso has sat out for too long and has "died." Try the ristretto trick I mentioned above.
  • There are different schools of thought on technique for integrating. A common way is a more aggressive technique of shooting a single stream of milk straight into the bottom of the cup. My technique is to pour a thin stream and to mix side to side or in a circle, making sure to hit as much of the surface crema as I can before starting my pattern.
  • How much to integrate
    • How much you integrate affects how much room your pattern has to expand. The less you integrate, the larger your pattern will be. The more you integrate, the smaller your pattern will be.
    • Estimating the % fullness of the cup is an easy way to figure out when to stop integrating and to start the pattern.
    • For simpler patterns like solid hearts and rippled hearts, you can probably start your pattern when the cup is 60-70% full.
    • For patterns without stop-starts (ie: patterns that are poured in on stroke) like the classic rosetta or swan, I tend to aim for a 50% full cup before beginning my pattern.
    • For complex stop-start patterns like winged tulips and more complex variations, I aim for 40% full cup or a little less as a starting point for the pattern.
• Cup and Pitcher recommendations
  • Generally, if you want to pour more complex patterns, you'll want cups that are bowl shaped. My preference is for origami's 8oz latte bowls. You can definitely still pour nice patterns in proportionally taller cups like a Duralex, but latte bowls make life easier when you want to pour tulips and rosettas.
  • Personally, I'm super partial to WPM 15oz/450ml round spout pitchers. Not sponsored (I wish), but they are very easy to learn with.
  • If you want to pour 12oz drinks, check out the Vertex Latte Bowl and Rattleware 600ml pitcher or the Hario x Hiroshi 600ml pitcher.
• Matching Volumes
  • These values are based off cup and pitcher companies product descriptions. They won't be super precise but will get you in the ballpark.
    • 4-6oz/120-180ml: 10-15oz/300-450ml pitcher
    • 6-8oz/180-250ml cup: 15-17oz/450-500ml pitcher
    • 10-12oz/300-350ml cup: 20oz/600ml pitcher
  • You'll have to do some trial and error to find out how much milk you need in your pitcher. Some pitchers have markings, while for others, you'll have to rely on the base of the spout.
• Pitcher and cup distance
  • Aside from good texture, getting good contrast in your patterns is about understanding distance between pitcher spout and the surface of the coffee. Earlier in the mixing section, we mentioned how we want to pour from a height during integration, allowing the milk foam to sink into the coffee and become dyed with color.
  • As a rule of thumb, we should integrate from about 2-3inches/6-9cm away from the surface of the coffee.
  • To get a crisp pattern, we want our spout 0.25inch/0.75cm away from the surface of the coffee.
    • In order for our pitcher spout to reach the surface of the coffee, we'll have to angle our cup towards the pitcher. More on this later in the Cup Rotation section.
  • When the spout is not close enough to the surface of the coffee, the color of the pattern will be more hazy and washed out.
  • When the spout is too close to the surface, it can catch the surface of the coffee as you pour, potentially pulling the pattern in unpredictable ways as you lift your pitcher up, creating divots in your shapes, or scooping up too much crema and creating a low density zone that becomes beige.
• Pitcher and cup alignment for symmetry
  • For symmetrical patterns, the pitcher and the cup should always be aligned. As you gain more experience pouring, you'll want to allot more attention to alignment in order to achieve the best symmetry you can.
  • I feel like a common mistake is cup handle placement. You always want your cup handle perpendicular to the aim of your pitcher. That way when you hold the cup by the handle to drink, the pattern is facing your direction. Alternate as you wish for handedness.
  • Water exercise for pitcher and cup alignment: fill your pitcher with water and pour into the cup. Move the pitcher forwards and backwards while keeping the pitcher completely aligned (aim, roll, tilt, x, y, z) with the cup. It's a very complicated movement to get used to and cannot feasibly be trained through feel alone.
• Pitcher Tilt
  • The flow rate of our pitcher is determined by our pitcher tilt. Greater forward tilt = higher flow rate; less forward tilt = lower flow rate.
  • The tilt of the pitcher should be constantly changing to keep the flow rate of the pitcher constant. A common mistake is to start with a high flow rate but forget to continually tilt the pitcher forward as your pour. This has two consequences:
    • As the flow rate diminishes, the loss of driving force keeps the pattern from expanding properly
    • Since the pitcher is no longer adequately tilted forward, the pitcher spout to coffee surface distance will also increase, resulting in washed out colors.
  • A neat way to approach flow rate is to just remind yourself to keep the spout of the pitcher 0.25inch/0.75cm from the surface of the coffee. The pitcher will naturally tilt forward and adjust the flow rate**.**
  • While pitcher tilt/flow rate does affect volume control for more advanced pours, my opinion is that being mindful of the fullness of the cup is a better way to practice volume control. Then all you need to do is to dial in the initial amount of milk.
• Pitcher movement
  • Generally speaking, for bowl shaped cups, pitcher movement is used to determined the shape of a pattern. Takeout cups and other tall cups may require a different approach/technique when pushing. I won't be talking much about takeout cups due to my relative lack of experience with those.
  • Forwards/pushing motions form rounded shapes like hearts and tulips
    • The starting point of the pour with a pushed motion should be determined by where you want the top of your pour to be. ie: if you want the top of you heart to be at a certain height in the cup, then start your pattern there.
    • The key to understanding different push patterns is how the pattern wraps in on itself. This is dependent on two factors1: How far away the pattern is from the stream of milk flowing from the pitcher (far in a 2d sense, as in just the flat plane of the pattern and not how far away the spout is from the surface).2: The amount of time the milk has to wrap into the pitcher stream.
    • Pushing for hearts: in a solid or rippled heart, we have a bit of distance to cover from the top of the heart to the intersection between the two semi circles. Because we want the tops of the heart to wrap in order to form the two semi circles, we want to move forwards very slowly and potentially pour in place until each semi circle has fully wrapped inwards before we perform a draw through.
    • Pushing for simple tulips: each dot of a simple tulip is poured in a short amount of time. However, because of the nature of stop-start pouring of a simple tulip, we can get the pattern to start wrapping in on itself by pushing dots in the same spot. The amount of time the pattern has to wrap accumulates with each dot, wrapping the previous dots around the new ones.
    • Pushing for a wing base: Good milk texture and consistent rippling is a prerequisite to the wing base. If you don't have these two things down, the wing base will be difficult to master. The key to a good wing base is achieving the U shape with emphasis on the divot in the center and consistent thickness and fullness of each ripple. Because wing bases are very complex, there isn't only one viable technique/approach. Here, I'll be describing two different techniques that I'm aware of. This stuff is pretty advanced for the average home barista, so feel free to message me for clarification and extra resources. 1: The most common technique I see among good latte artists is to ripple in place until the base forms a semicircular shape, then pushing inwards to form the divot. In my opinion, this first technique relies on really good milk texture usually made on a commercial machine. Since the milk flows well, each ripple easily wraps, allowing them to be full and complete in the final pattern. The flowier milk is also more easily pushed away when forming the divot of the U shape. With stiffer milk, this first technique often results in a shallower divot and ripples aren't full enough to form a pleasing, symmetrical pattern. 2: Another common technique is to be pushing inwards from the start of the pour. I think this technique is more suitable to home baristas. It's more forgiving of poor milk texture and is also easier to comprehend. Pushing and rippling inwards throughout the entire base pour ensures that the final divot of the U shape will be deep enough and increases the likelihood that each ripple wraps inwards to form full symmetrical ripples.
    • For a takeout cup or a taller cup, another viable method for wing bases is to pour against the far wall of the cup, relying on the flow of the pitcher against the back wall to push the pattern up around the cup. This technique can be used ceramic latte cups as well, but it's harder to pull off consistently imo.
  • Backwards/pulling motions form triangular shapes like rosettas and swan wings.
    • The simplest (no base) rosettas and swans wings can be poured entirely by moving backwards. These are quite good fun to pour early on and can be great rippling practice.
    • How quickly you pull back can change the overall aesthetic of the design. For rosettas, they can be a desirable look with looser lines and more space between each ripple. Personally, I prefer a slower pull back for swans however, since I think a fuller wing better evokes the feathers of a wing.
• Rippling
  • Don't worry about rippling yet if your milk texture isn't perfect. Focus on evenness of milk texture first, and rippling will eventually come easily.
  • When you're first starting, practice rippling with water before doing an actual pour. It'll help build muscle memory and give you some warm ups before the real thing.
  • Rippling should be a natural motion. Working too quickly will result in messy lines and lines that crash into each other, losing contrast. (don't force a wiggle, rely on the pendulum effect of the milk)
  • Personally, I ripple narrower for bases than I do for rosettas and swans. I also try not to vary my ripple width too much for each of these techniques ie: I don't narrow my rippling as I get closer to the bottom of a wing base or the top of a rosetta. I like rippling wider for rosettas and swans so the stem takes up more space in the cup.
• Cup Rotation
  • Earlier in the pitcher and cup distance section, I mentioned that the cup needs to be angled towards the pitcher to allow our pitcher spout to get closer to the surface of the coffee. We will now discuss cup rotation in which I refer to the straightening of the cup from its tilted position.
  • As we are pouring, the cup should be rotated to prevent spilling of the coffee. I like to rotate as slowly as possible, keeping the edge of the coffee very close to the edge of the cup. This helps keep the spout-coffee distance in check. A small spill is fine anyhow; just needs to be wiped properly.
  • Cup rotation helps with pattern expansion: For bowl shaped cups, cup rotation increases the surface area of the coffee lessening the density of the canvas/foam on top of the pattern and pulls the pattern away from the spout-coffee point of contact.
  • When we're rippling, cup rotation affects the amount of contrast between each ripple. Fast and aggressive cup rotation pulls more color between each ripple. Slower cup rotation pulls in less color, mostly down to personal preference.
  • Overly aggressive cup rotation can form gaps in the base.
  • In my subjective experience, cup rotation should become more drastic the closer the cup is to being full. The beginning of a pattern requires less cup rotation (eg: wing base), while the middle and end of a pattern will require more (eg: rosetta stem, middle wing for a tulip, rose, swan.
  • Cup rotation is unnecessary in some approaches: you can have the cup pre-angled appropriately and rely entirely on pitcher movement and flow rate (pitcher tilt).
  • IMO different cups require different approaches to cup rotation. For cups that are taller than they are wide, more cup rotation may be necessary to get the pattern to expand properly. For cups that are wider than they are tall, less cup rotation can be used to keep the pattern from expanding too much.
• Pattern Expansion
  • In the style of latte art I learned, pattern expansion is the result of how much you integrate, good milk texture, and the balance between pitcher tilt, cup rotation, and pitcher movement.
  • When the pitcher tilts forwards (flow rate), the pattern should naturally move away from the point of contact between the milk and the coffee given good milk texture and good integration.
    • Stick with the tip I gave above about maintaining spout proximity in the Pitcher Tilt section.
  • When cup rotation exceeds pitcher movement, the pattern expands too quickly, resulting in holes and gaps in our patterns.
    • For winged bases, personally, I will use a pitcher movement that exceeds the amount of cup rotation to avoid this problem.
  • The less milk you integrate with, the larger your pattern will be. However, integrating too little has a few downsides.
    • Firstly, for ceramic cups that have a flat part at the bottom, beginning the pattern before you've cleared the flat part will result in an irregular shape for a base.
    • Secondly, the base may smash into the edges of the cup. It's more aesthetically pleasing to keep an even ring of brown color around the pattern.
• Lifting during the pour
  • For many patterns, it's necessary to stop mid pour by lifting the pitcher up slightly. When lifting, it's important to lift as little and as gently as you can. Lifting the pitcher too much encourages the milk foam to separate.
  • Note this example for a drawing style pour. The same lifting technique is necessary for basic patterns as well.
• Draw throughs
  • Draw throughs should generally be done at height above the surface of the coffee. Aim for about 2inches/6cm away, but for more advanced pourers, this really isn't necessary as evidenced by how low most people may draw through the head of a swan (0.5 inch/1-1.5cm).
  • Be sure the draw through is aligned with the center of the pattern. An asymmetric draw through will completely throw off the symmetry of a pour.
  • Blobby draw throughs can a sign of uneven or thick milk texture
  • Draw through varies depending on the style of pour and personal preference. Some people prefer heavy draw throughs with higher flow rate that pull the pattern down more forcefully. For myself, I believe that really good texture can be drawn through with very gentle and thin stream of milk. I prefer to lightly knit the pattern together to complete the pour.

The single most helpful thing you can do to learn is to look for local baristas who are passionate about latte art to do 1-on-1 sessions to learn and correct in person. All the knowledge in the world won't do much to help in a skill where intuition and experience are more important.

Thanks to everyone who suggested so many great ideas for LOTRO Easter Eggs and Secrets! I had a blast this weekend looking for all of these secret locations.
To see my top 20 that I enjoyed the most, you can check out the YouTube video here https://youtu.be/fL79WkYbdlw OR just continue reading :) Both formats are provided since people enjoy content in different ways, and I want to be sensitive to that.
20 - Nain the Slakeless
Nain the Slakeless, the Lord of the Iron Hills has his very own easter basket of eggs near his throne in Jarnfast. You can find it in the southeast corner of the throne room. There is a narrow passage disappearing into the wall that ends at a tiny cave where you’ll find the easter eggs.
19 - Adventures of Floid & Dewitt
This one was brand new to me. Floid is the mighty steed and Dewitt is the explorer. This deed involves finding them in several different places scattered throughout Middle Eath. There are two parts. Part 1 gives you the title The Wanderer while Part 2 gives the title of Vagabond. I tried my hand at finding these myself using only the coordinates provided on the wiki page here:
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/The_Adventures_of_Floid_and_Dewitt
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/The_Adventures_of_Floid_and_Dewitt:_Part_Deux
However, I do confess that I was stumped on two of them, and really found Balthalion’s playthrough super helpful!!! You can catch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_U1TomDGk0&list=PL0szyANQhriOpVLUmtldTbGTSqvz5PPBI
18 - Animal Villages
Who knew that there were so many animal villages? There’s the Cat Lady’s House in Bree at the top of the Scholar’s Star 30.2s 52.1w. The Rabbit Cave in The Great River 27.5s 64.6w. The squirrel village in the Eastfold 68.9s 61.4w. And oh I just thought about Radagast’s hovel where there are a bunch of animals. Should have thought of that one sooner. I wish they would make a house full of puppies… Puppies are my favorite.
17 - Eorl’s Hallow
How many times have I ridden past Eaorl’s Hallow and not given it a second glance? I remember going there once but being so confused as to why it was in-game, and then never went back. Balthelion did a deep dive into explaining Eorl’s Hallow that if interested you can watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_U1TomDGk0&list=PL0szyANQhriOpVLUmtldTbGTSqvz5PPBI
But here’s the recap: In the center is a white horse on a field of green grass depicting Rohan. The 8 stones depict the life of Eorl, the First King of the Mark in the Wold.
Stone 1: Eorl at a young age tamed Felarof, the first of the Mearas, as retribution for killing his father.
Stone 2: The Red Arrow presented by Borondir on behalf of Cirion, the Stewart of Gondor, to Eorl summoning him to aid Gondor.
Stone 3: Eorl leads the Rohirrim along the Great River heading for Gondor.
Stone 4: Eorl slays the Eastern Kings on the Field of Celebrant.
Stone 5: Cirion and Eorl meet on Halifirien to swear oaths of mutual protection. I find it interesting that only one character is depicted on his knees.
Stone 6: Eorl sits on the throne of Rohan.
Stone 7: Prince of the Mark, Brego is given Eorl’s sword when he comes of age.
Stone 8: Eorl falls by the hands of the Easterlings, an honorable death in battle.
16 - The Horse and Rider Poem
A couple of years ago Ablthelion hypothesized that the words of the poem originally spoken by Aragorn in the books but by King Theoden in the movies are represented by the banners in Rohan. I don’t know if this is something that he came up with, or where he learned it from, but was unable to find out more information about it. If anyone knows for sure, I’d love to find out. For an in-depth analysis of the poem and how it corresponds to the banners in the game, you should definitely check out Balthelion’s video on the matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_U1TomDGk0&list=PL0szyANQhriOpVLUmtldTbGTSqvz5PPBI
15 - Deep beneath Gundabad
Cave claws are interesting easter eggs that will randomly appear in the most peculiar places. In the Pit of Stonejaws in Gundabad, you find a secret trapdoor hidden within Zul-mazal. This is part of the epic Gundabad quest line, that leads you down the steep staircase to the tomb of Motsog. What you may have missed, however, is that at the end of the cave on the left side, you will find three huge deep claws sleeping in an enclosed area at 45.6s 100.8w.
14 - Snowmen
Located in Tal Methedras in the North East region of Dunland there is a snowman village at 77.6s 7.7w. The broken-down igloos there make the BEST forts for a snowball fight. This Christmas I want to convince all my friends to get the snowball emote, just so that we can go have an epic snowball fight in the snowmen village.
13 - Ice skating
Apparently, NPCs love to ice skate whenever the conditions are possible. But a little secret is that you can actually push these ice skaters over lol. Just go visit Suri-kyla if you don’t believe me. Be sure to right-click on the NPC as if you’re going to interact with them.
12 - Sand Castle
It’s summer time and I live 3 hours away from the beach, so I enjoy heading over to Evendim to the island at 14.0s 73.7w and pretending I’m at the beach building sand castles. The best part of a sand castle, in my opinion, is breaking the sand castle down afterward :) Yes, I have a slight destructive streak in me. hehehe.
11 - Mirrors
This weekend I learned that there are working mirrors in LOTRO! I was shocked. You’ll be able to see your reflection in the mirror. This is a very unique piece of code that exists, and one I think is totally awesome. The easiest mirror to get to a working mirror is in Lalias market in Bree, you can find it on the wall in the stall across from the Mithril trader, where all the helms are. Strike a pose and look at your pretty face.
10 - Scholar’s Hall
The scholar’s hall was built in Bree 30.1s 52.0w by the devs to house the lectures given by Dr. Corey Olsen of the Mythgard Institute and Signum University. Dr. Olsen still holds lectures in the hall on Tuesday evenings at 9:30 pm server time and then embarks on a field trip to the location of the lecture’s topic. I’ve been playing LOTRO for 12+ years and only learned about this amazing resource a couple of months back when I stumbled onto the auditorium. I stopped by last night to check out the lecture and it was fascinating how he is able to tie in LOTRO lore to the game.
Mythgard Institute https://mythgard.org/lotro/
SignumU https://www.twitch.tv/signumu
9 - Colbert the Mad
Colber the Mad found in Micham’s Camp in the North Downs 13S 55.3w is an NPC based on Stephen Colbert who is a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. Stephen Colbert has an intense love for Tolkien lore, so much that it got him a cameo in The Hobbit, where he plays a hooded spy in Laketown. In game, though they gave a nod to him by making him an NPC in the North Down, and he actually has a few quests for you to have fun with.
8 - Inklings
The Inklings are found in the Rabbit Room of the Bird and Baby Inn in Michel Delving. This is a nod to a real-world tavern Eagle and Child, in Oxford England, that was frequented by The Inklings literary discussion group, consisting of well-known authors CS Jack Lewis, that is Jack Lewsidown in game, Owen Barfield, npc is Owen Farfield, Charles Williams represented by Carlo Williams, and a Rabbit. The NPCs refer to writing club member Ronald Dwale, which refers to JRR Tolkien, the master himself.
7 - Killer Rabbits
This one shocked me the most and I wouldn’t have known about it if some of you didn’t point it out. The killer rabbits are found scattered throughout Middle Earth. This is a nod to the killer rabbit of Caerbannog a fictional character in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There are various locations where you will see a rabbit sitting on top of a bear's skin. My favorite location is the rabbit cave in the Great River located West of Standguard 27.5s 64.6w, where the white rabbit sits atop a frumpled bear hide.
6 - Chicken Play
Yes, you too can run around as a chicken in Middle Earth, do chicken quests, and even complete the chicken deed to get the cloak of the cluck, a much sought-after cloak in Middle Earth. It all starts at Sandson’s Farm in the Shire 32.2s 74.4w. Once the intro quest is completed, you’ll be turned into a chicken and asked to go on some grand adventures to talk with various animals. My friends and I successfully even made it to the Steepset in Gundabad! There is not a deed for that location yet, but how awesome would it be if they expanded it to include some of the newer regions?
https://preview.redd.it/50oueovafalb1.png?width=1074&format=png&auto=webp&s=764b1a6c86b1866ff6b60c2d0a64b38818ff41c5
5 - Blind Leaper
The Blind Leaper is a title and a deed where you need to fall into 6 different pits in Moria. This deed will not show in your deed tracker until you’ve completed the deed called the Pits of Moria.
The first stop is the Great Delving 6.8s 112w. When you jump from the bridge you’ll get the message: “You have fallen into the depths of the Great Delving”
Next, you want to jump into the pit in Silvertine Lodes 11.1s 112.9w. You’ll get the message “You have plummeted into the depths of the Silvertine Lodes!”
Next leap into the chasm at Jazurgund in Durin’s way 3.7s 106.2w. The message will be “You have fallen to ruin in Durin’s Way!”
Next, soar through the air in the Redhorn Lodes at the Gate of Ruin just outside the grandstair entrance 10.3s 103.7w. The message will be “You have vanished into the depths of the redhorn lodes!”
The last two are in Nud-melek. On the west side 10.2s 100.8w, you’ll get the message “You have tumbled into the depth of Nud-melek!”
And on the east side, 5.5s 99.8w you’ll get the message “You have hurled yourself into oblivion in the chasms of Khazad-dum”
4 - Master Ascender
You will need to ascend the SW tower and the NE tower of Ost Galadh in Mirkwood. The SW tower is pretty straightforward, just follow this path. The NE tower is much trickier. Once you reach the top at Minas Glorelloth, you will get the title Master Ascender. If you get stumped and need some inspiration on how to do it, be sure to check out my video, slow it down, and see where you may be going wrong. https://youtu.be/fL79WkYbdlw
3 - Ridge Racer
This was another first for me this weekend getting the title of Ridge Racer which is a deed in Eregion at the Hollin Ridge that starts at 42.7s 8.8w. You will need a horse for this deed because you’ll need to do some strategic jumps along this ridge. Your goal is to get safely to the tower at the top edge of this ridge overlooking Eregion. The view from there is spectacular by the way. Once you reach the tower you will complete the deed Ridge Racer and get the title, plus some turbine points for your troubles.
2 - Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The trio of bears and their family home is found in Eastfold, South of Beacon Watch at 72s 58.4w. This story was published in the collection English Fairytales, retold by Flora Annie Steel in 1922, and illustrated by Arthur Rackham. In short Goldilocks stumbles upon a house in a cabin where three bears live. Outside of the cottage you find the baby bear, mama bear, and daddy bear aka hostile bear. You can actually go into the house and you’ll see there are three of everything! 3 bowls, 3 chairs, and 3 beds and surprise Goldilocks is sleeping in baby Bear’s bed, the one perfect for her.
1 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (TMNT)
I can’t believe that I’ve gone this long and not known about the TMNT easter egg. It starts with the poster bills posted all over Bree that start the quest chain Turtles in the Soup. They had me going there for a bit, and I’m NOT going to spoil the plot twist for you, but you should definitely go play through it yourself just to see the turtles in Artie Root’s House. Or if you’re level 140 and already doing Sagaroth, you can wave to them in the Carn Dum sewers on your way to defeat the Rat King.
If I missed any Easter Eggs that you’re passionate about, then please drop me a comment with some details on it in a comment below. Would love to know what y’all thought of this post, as I’m trying something a little bit different and new, hoping to provide some resources y'all may not be familiar with.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end, and see you next time :)