Quest for Coffee (11) | How to Pour Latte Art: Failures

This week’s update is dedicated to my effort that has gone unrecognised in magical designs but nonetheless contributed to my improvement. My journey in learning how to pour latte art has led me along a whole string of failures.

A. Whole. String. 

There’s Failures and Failures and Failures 

There have been far more failures in this Quest for Coffee than there have been successful latte art magic designs. If you have been following this Quest, you’d know just how tricky this latte art magic can be. 

But it made me believe some truths. Truths that I never really thought were real but just things people said:

Success is not linear. 

Progress is not linear. 

I lived through the failures and the successes. Each latte art design was poured by my own hand and each one was every bit as magical and wild. Many of them were not “latte art magic” and more like a lab experiment gone wrong. 

But all of them, failures or not, were great coffees. 

Sometimes my hand would deliberately create something halfway wonderful. Other times I get a brainfart and some thick blob-like, magical mess happens. I have realised that it is all part of the process of learning and mastery. 

Like I mentioned last time, the whole latte art design is a composite of different pours. The whole design may look like spilled paint, but a small part of it could have been great. Maybe it was the base of the flower, or the fully-filled body of the heart, or that last pour to finish off the bottom tip of the heart.

Some part of it could be better than last time. 

Check out my previous Quest update!

One Cup of Failure, Many Cups of Progress 

I write this not just to document my journey in this quirky Quest for Coffee, but also to prove that trying in itself is the only step toward success in any endeavour, magical or not. 

There have been many many times when I have been discouraged because of one cup’s ugliness. Sometimes it’s 3 cups in a row. Progress was dismal and slow. I didn’t know if I would ever get anywhere. Ever. 

As past me would soon realise, the one cup of failure means nothing. No latte art magic this time, eh, no biggie. I’ll try again tomorrow. And again the next day. And again, and again.

It takes many cups before progress becomes visible. 

To you, my past self some 4 months ago, using a junky coffee machine that couldn’t steam milk, and to you, my future self who may be learning and struggling in some other Quest, I want to humbly remind you that progress and success comes slow and will never be linear. 

So take heart (no pun intended). 

You have achieved growth and progress in this journey to create some latte art magic. It’s far from over, but you have proven that you can do it.

And this is proof. At my expense.

How to Pour Latte Art?

To the many ugly cups of latte art magic gone horribly wrong, I thank you for your teachings. 

There will be more failures to come in this Quest for Coffee. Many more cups of failure await. But many other cups with wonderful magical latte art designs await too. 

How to pour latte art?

Well… keep pouring your heart and soul into it and never stop. 

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