Would you like to someday try the skills that your favorite barista shows on your beautiful frothy lattes? Then, dear coffee lovers, you should check out the best cups for latte art. Whether it is your local coffee shop or a fancy patisserie that serves hot chocolate, we know how much you love the art of your warm beverages! As much as the credit of the art goes to the speed, the process, and the hand movement of your barista, it depends on the cups he chooses too. Might seem insignificant, but you’d be surprised to see how the perfect latte cup can make all the difference in an amazing coffee!
Hence, we will discuss here everything from the best size of cups for latte art to how to make coffee art at home with our master techniques, skills, and tips. So take that shot of espresso and get in for practice!
Top Picks:
Best handmade latte cups: Bodum Bistro 2 Piece double wall Latte Cup
“Handmade by experts, each cup is unique, well-made and keeps your coffee warm without heating up your hands.”
Best space-saving latte cups: Sweese 407.003 Porcelain Latte Cups Set of 6
“Stackable options on these cups save plenty of space on your kitchen countertop and look good too.”
Best multicolor coffee cups: Teocera Store Multi-Color Porcelain Jumbo Coffee Mugs
“If colors are your best friend in selecting coffee cups, these multicolor options come in a convenient set.”
Best overall: Sweese 403.403 Cappuccino Cup and Saucer Set
“The combination of premium construction, sleek design, no stain and no heating up your hand, this is the best overall cup for latte art.”
Best classic white latte mug: Norpro My Favorite Jumbo Mugs
“No latte cup is complete without a set of white ones. The perfect depiction of latte cups.”
Best professional latte cup: Coffeezone Barista Latte Art Cup and Saucer
“Made to be used by baristas to make latte arts, this can be your stepping stone to learning how to make coffee art.”
Best jumbo coffee cups: Teocera Store White Porcelain Jumbo Coffee Mugs
“For those who love to drink a lot of coffee everytime they drink coffee, a measure of 16 oz cups that can be used for a lot of other purposes.”
Best cup and saucer set: Coffeezone Latte Art Cup and Saucer
“Want both a good cup and a saucer for your coffee expedition each afternoon? This is a great set with premium material in both.”
Product Reviews on the Best Cup for Latte Art
In order to learn how to pour latte art, we need to first discuss some of our top espresso cups that will stop you from questioning the importance of these unique latte cups! Without further ado, here they are:
Bodum Bistro 2 Piece double wall Latte Cup
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Glass latte cups have a bad name when it comes to making latte art, but not with this one! Bodum Bistro’s double-walled latte glasses are a hit when it comes to starting with latte art-making, and we don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t work as a starter for you too! This is included for the glass-lovers and for select features as follows.
Key features:
- High Insulation: Since this is made of borosilicate glass, the heat retention on this cup is one of the best in business, allowing you to hold the cup for long as you continue your design or continue to drink from it.
- Cleaning convenience: This is dishwasher safe and microwave safe, so it is not only convenient to use it to reheat your coffee but also easy to clean minus any stains.
- Durable: The double glass layer, which is permeable to water only and not air, is a good vent to increase the durability of the cup.
Sweese 407.003 Porcelain Latte Cups Set of 6
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Are pastels your favorite when it comes to selecting coffee cups? The perfect choice for pastel latte cups that are convenient in design, excellent in appearance, and from a brand that is loved by many, these Sweese cups are a very handy one. Compared to the Bodum Bistro cups, which were 15 ounces, these are 10 fl.oz. Cups. Smaller, but are these better? Let’s see what these have for us.
Key features:
- Space Saving: You would think that getting a new set is trouble because you already have your kitchen storage suffering for lack of space. But these stackable cups make sure that you can save some counter space after you are done practicing with latte art-making!
- Convenient: When you are first learning to make latte art, larger cup sizes may feel uncomfortable to hold, and smaller cups may not have the right shape to pursue the practice. But this one has the right shape and the right comfort for beginner baristas.
- Stylish: The colors on the mug are perfect for a sophisticated serve if you are looking to purchase for your restaurant, office, or even home!
Teocera Store Black/Multi-Color Porcelain Jumbo Coffee Mugs Set of 4
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Here is one from another growing brand in the world of latte cups for coffee lovers, Teocera Store. You can not only use this to make latte art but on multiple occasions, and the functionality is as good as the appearance! A combination of black outer and primary colors inner, this is not stackable like the Sweesee latte cups. And they are much bigger too, 16 oz! For those who love to drink a lot of coffee, here is more on them.
Key features:
- Comfortable design: One thing with large mugs is that they need to be made comfortable. This is why Teocera made wide handles that are easy to hold and are squared off at the top so that you don’t spill while drinking hot coffee.
- Ergonomic shape: The shape is perfect for making latte art with, having a rounded bottom and a wider top. This allows your design to bloom!
- Durable: Since they are made with porcelain, they can survive hot and cold beverages for long and can last you a good time being dishwasher safe as well.
Sweese 403.403 Cappuccino Cup and Saucer Set
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
And we’re back with another Sweese cup set. But how is this different from the Sweese 407.003? Unlike the previous stackable option, this is a single set with a cup and saucer! Does the absence of sauce make your cup look like orphans amidst all the glorious dishes? You would love this addition then because the saucer also makes holding hot cups bliss. And this is much more compact, with only 6 oz fluid space, perfect for a quick, enjoyable cuppa!
Key features:
- Sleek: With a steel blue color enough to catch anyone’s attention, these cups are elegant and chip-resistant and so will remain stylish even after prolonged use.
- Pro-construction: Featuring navy porcelain cups with industry-standard contour, these cups are safe for the dishwasher and the oven, as well as the freezer. What’s more, these are lead-free and sturdier than stone-wear, making them a long-time investment.
- No-stain: You can clean them easily by hand or in the dishwasher without any residue remaining stained at the bottom.
Norpro My Favorite Jumbo Mugs
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Jumbo coffee lovers, it is time to unite again! This one from Norpor has the same holding capacity as the Teocera Jumbo Coffee Cups with 16 oz of coffee holding ability. However, unlike the eye-catching multicolored set from Teocera, these are white. The classic colored cup to make some delectable coffee and an attempt to make latte art, what could be a better trio? Let’s look at why else this should be likable.
Key features:
- Comfortable: These cups are shaped with a wide upper and a rounded bottom, making them comfortable to hold on your palm. Even in cold weather, you could sit beside your fireplace and warm your hands with a cup of your favorite coffee with these large, convenient cups!
- Multipurpose: You can use them for anything between good coffee, latte art practicing, apple cider drinks in fall, and single servings of salads, oatmeal, or even pasta thanks to its large size.
- Easy to clean: Being dishwasher safe, you could chuck them in instead of having to spend time scrubbing and wiping to get clean, beautifully white cups.
Coffeezone Barista Latte Art Cup and Saucer
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
And we are back with another pastel option with this one from Coffee Zone! But instead of an entire set, you have a single cup and saucer set here. And what’s more, you have the option to pick your capacity! So if you didn’t like the compact 6 oz size of the Sweese 403.403 or the jumbo size of the Teocera Coffee Cups, you could easily pick the one you prefer here.
Key features:
- Professional: Unlike other cups, which are made for normal coffee drinking and using, these are made for professional use to make latte art. So you will be practicing with the professional cups here!
- Attentive Design: The design features a thick body. This not only lets your drink stay warm for long but, along with the optimal width, contains the coffee flavors within, without the surface losing it to the environment.
- High Quality: It is made of high-quality porcelain in both the cup and saucer so that you can expect a durable, long-lasting set that doesn’t break easily.
Teocera Store White Porcelain Jumbo Coffee Mugs Set of 4
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Here we have another one of the jumbo options from Teocera. How is this different from the previous latte cups by them? For one, these are white porcelain options. Not multicolor. So if you are a lover of traditional colors in your latte cups, you will absolutely love the simplicity of the cups. No fancy colors, no shine or gloss, just good old white base! This often accentuates the latte art you make in your cup and is the number one reasons this set is included in the list!
Key features:
- Huge Capacity: Since these are giant mugs, you would be expecting giant capacities from it! And you rightly get a 16 oz size, which is perfect for the cold winter mornings to wake you up from laziness completely!
- Multipurpose: The size allows you to use the cups for not only coffee but also for hot cocoa, oatmeal, cereals, stew, etc. You can even have your soup in here without the heavyweight of holding a soup bowl.
- Premium construction: This one is made from long-lasting porcelain, which means that you can use them for hot or cold beverages without staining, breaking, or spilling from them. The shape of the cup also allows you to hold them with ease.
Coffeezone Latte Art Cup and Saucer
Last update on 2024-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
If you were looking for cups that are made especially for doing latte arts Coffee Zone will provide this one. Made especially by keeping in mind the shape of latte cups, you will never fail to do the right design with these as long as you keep practicing. So why would you waste time trying to match your regular cups with latte cups and failing miserably when you can have professional options? Besides the perfect width, full-to-the-brim measurement, and rounded bottoms, these have much more to offer. Let’s see!
Key features:
- Holding Ease: With the holding capacity of 9 Fl. Oz., these are neither too big nor too compact to be held and carry the right amount of coffee.
- Durability: Being made of new bone china porcelain, these will last you long without any fear of breaking them with prolonged use.
- Construction: As these are designed for latte arts baristas, and you will find that these will fill 100% to the rim without any spilling. In that case, you get more than 10 oz of latte art, including coffee. However, for regular drinking, you will have a nice and easy 9 oz. size.
What Do You Mean By Latte Art?
Latte art is, simply put, art made on your cup of hot latte. This is mostly the case when we speak of latte art. The latte art actually happens when you pour microfoam into espresso to create different shapes, designs, patterns, and sometimes an entire scenery! The most common things and thereby popular things created by steamed milk on black coffee are teardrops, hearts, and flowers.
Your barista can go freestyle on his or her latte art, and hence you will see more shapes and sizes than just the three mentioned above. Some go as far as imprinting the picture of their loved ones with the stream of milk, and that is the best form of such art!
Things You Need to Do a Latte Art
If you want to make sure that you are doing a good pour into the cups, you need more than just the cups. Here are 4 major things for it:
A Killer Espresso
Art is nothing if you don’t have a good base-the same is the case for latte arts. Your foundation, aka your espresso for the latte art, has to be strong. This will build for your canvas for the art and the flavor that will hit your tastebuds.
Now here is an issue. If your espresso is thin or has more water into it, your milk and coffee will mix without giving you any art. Again if your espresso is too thick, you can’t carve out the pattern or design from the thickness. The fix? Making an optimal espresso foundation with the ideal tampering pressure, grind, dose, and extraction for your espresso beans.
The Perfect Microfoam
Now that you have the base, you will need the paints! This paint will be your microfoam. But what is microfoam? It is actually finely textured milk. When you steam your milk, aerate and thicken it, the milk is called microfoam and is ready when the steam wand of the espresso machine is too hot to handle by your hand.
The Right Mug
The right latte art cup shape is the one that has a wide upper portion, with a big round for a circumference and a narrow bottom. This latte cup size is considered right because this allows the microfoam to be as close to the coffee as possible.
If your cup was a regular one instead of Italian latte cups, as long as you have symmetry and shallowness, you should be able to create good art. The right mug for some may also be the one that comes with a saucer; in that case, prefer Coffee Zone latte art cups!
Do you want to know about the best double walled coffee mugs? Then you have to check this article.
An Attentive Sleight of Hand
For this, you need great body control. Remember when we were children, our teachers made us practice hand coordination by making two hands move likewise? The case is the opposite here. While one of your hands needs to be steady, the other needs to pour the microfoam in a swirling motion. Mastering this needs a lot of practice!
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How to Make the Best Latte Art
With the right things and patience, making the best latte art can be like making a cup of tea for you. Once you master this element of the coffee culture, you would hardly need to pay visits to fancy coffee shops for fancy arts and insta-worthy pictures. So here is how it is done:
Mediocre Milk
Your milk or alternative to it needs to have the best texture. For this, you need to groom your milk properly. The consistency that we are after is that of wet white paint. If your milk is mediocre, the design wouldn’t even sit but mix with the rest of the coffee.
Arm Movement
When you make slower arm movement with your pouring hand, you will get bold strokes on the latte. Again when you are quick with your pouring arm, you will get clean, delicate lines. A fast movement can be used to sink parts of the microfoam, to cut through designs, etc. While a slow movement can give you fronds, petals, etc.
Common Mistakes
- If you let the milk rest for as long as 30 seconds after steaming, you will lose the homogenous blend of foam and milk. This is why always make your microfoam and espresso at the same time.
- Never wait for the espresso to happen when your frothy milk is sitting idle to cool down. Make the two together or nearly together.
- Always begin with a slow pouring speed and move your way up. It can vary throughout the process, so don’t worry much.
- Don’t begin pouring with the spout of the pitches close to your cup. Move up a few inches and start the pour here. But when you make drawings, take the spout super close to the crema to create your drawing with low velocity and lateral flow.
- If you want your design to be in the center of your cup, do not start at the center. Always go beyond more than half of the center.
The Pouring Process
In order to make the best latte art, you will need to follow these steps:
- Prepare your espresso and frothy milk or milk alternative by making them simultaneously or at close cooking times.
- Groom your milk. Swirl it inside the steaming pitcher for the right texture and consistency. It should expand up to 35% depending on the fluidity you want to start working with.
- Tilt your cup without spilling espresso on yourself. It should be at 35-45 degrees from above your waist.
- Start pouring at 6-9 cm above your cup according to where you are comfortable at first. Pour into the more deeper part of the cup. Keep pouring by changing the height till you see the milk rising to the lip of the cup.
- Now bring your pitcher very close to the level of espresso (as close as the pitcher can get!) and start creating your design. Do high and low pours and slow and fast pours, wiggles, zigzags, and straight lines to create a design of your choice. You will falter at first. But don’t let this ruin your chance to become an at-home barista!
- As you see the shape happening, tilt the cup away from you and make it horizontal to the ground while holding the shape. Your latte art should be sitting ready!
How to Choose the Best Latte Cups
In order to choose the best latte cups, you only need to be aware of three things that are of the most importance. Here they are:
Size
The size of your cup is super important. It will determine the size of your drawing. If you are making simple hearts and teardrops, it may not matter as much. But when you move on to more complex designs like the swan or rosetta frames, you will see nothing but blobby shapes on the cup without being able to tell the coffee from the milk. This is why, for the drawing to bloom perfectly, you need the right size of the cup.
So whether it is 12 oz latte cups or 18 oz, get the right width that you are comfortable holding. Beyond 18 oz is uncomfortable for anyone.
Material
You could have the best latte glasses, but it wouldn’t be enough for you to make the right art. As some say, they would rather not make latte art than make it in glass cups. This reduces the aesthetics a lot and hence isn’t quite preferred. However, Ceramics and porcelain are quite a hit when it comes to latte cup materials.
Shape
Wider cups can give you more volume of milk on your latte. And more volume means more intense designs. So always go for wider shapes. The ones you see in Turkish cafes and most coffee shops are the demitasse cups. But if you are only starting now, a large surface will help you figure out how your design works.
Heat Retention
We have told you that the right shape combines shallowness and width. But what about heat retention? You don’t want to hold the most beautifully done latte cups if it feels tepid on your hands two seconds after you touch it! This is why bone-china porcelain or borosilicate glass is an excellent choice for well-insulated and well-held latte cups.
How to Master Latte Art
To master latte art, you need to know some basic skills and some designs to get you started. Once you have got the hang of them and have practiced them at home, you will naturally master the latte art-making.
Skills
The basic skill of matte art-making is formed of three pillars: dot, sway, and drag.
Whether you are doing easy hearts or complex swans, your design will always start with a dot. This is the basic, fundamental requirement of any latte art-making. To start at the very basics, you could do with a Monk’s Head. A Monk’s head is great for you to learn symmetry, control, placement, and further improvement.
So what is a Monk’s head? This is a single large drop in the cup with an intentional indentation at the top. For this, you will simply need to follow steps 1-4 of our process mentioned above. Now that you see the milk hold the pitcher more than halfway away from the center and finish the drawing by leveling the cup.
Now onto the sway or wiggle, which creates ripples in your microfoam design. For this, you need not move your entire arm, but the wrist, and more importantly, the fingers. Follow the motions of a pendulum, smoothly and steadily. You can do slow pendulums for broad waves and quick pendulums for tight waves.
Lastly, to the drag. For the cut to happen, you will have to bisect your drawing with a drag. Three things will happen here; you will slow down the microfoam flow, you will drag the pitcher, and level the cup for the perfect ending!
When you master these three pillars, you are done with the basics and can move on to intermediate and complex latte art.
Designs
Now, what designs do you want to create in your latte? Here are some basic ones described:
Heart
In order to do the heart in the center of the cup, you will have to start with beyond the center. First, create a dot as your milk reaches the top. Now, cut through the large dot from the middle by slowing the speed. This drag does not need to be deep but on the surface of the latte.
Rosetta
The rosetta is the one you frequently see in coffees from your local cafes. How to create a rosetta on your latte? As opposed to the heart, start at the center and let your frothy microfoam reach the top. Now use quick swaying or wiggling motion to get your rosetta base. Continue this base to the top of your cup. At the top, create a heart with steady, slow pours and cut through it. There you have your rosetta!
Tulip
To make the tulip, again start the center with a dot. Now make another dot and push it to your first dot. Now keep stacking these dots till you get your final dot and drag through to create a tulip with stern on your latte!
Barista Latte Art Training: Hearts, Tulips, and Swans (Easy for beginner-intermediate)
FAQs
Which milk is best for latte art?
Whole milk that does not thin easily when boiled and has full fat would be the best choice for latte art. But it could also depend on your milk preferences. You may check this one!
How can I make my latte art look better?
You can make your art look better with plenty of practice! Practice will help you put the art in full bloom and appear visually prettier.
Does latte art affect the taste of the coffee?
Definitely in a positive way! It increases the taste of your coffee with frothy milk. However, if you do not like so much milk in your coffee but still want art done, you can opt for simpler, delicate designs.
Which ground coffee is best suited for latte art?
An optimal, moderate robusta content of 20-30% is a good blend for latte art, but there is no specification.
If you want to know about the best coffee beans for superautomatic espresso machines then you may check this article.
Which latte machine is the best for an at-home latte?
The Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista is a good choice to make a latte at home. It is lightweight, convenient to operate, easy to control, and makes a lot of other drinks too!
Final Words
And this brings us to the end of our best cup for latte collections! Our top recommendation in this regard would be the professional and gorgeous Sweese 403.403 Cappuccino Cup and Saucer Set for a sleek design, premium and harmless construction, and zero stainings. If you like a lot of color options and want something different from the good old white latte cups, you could try the multicolor option from Teocera Store. They not only give you options on color but also add comfort, ergonomic shape, and durability to you. So you could easily practice with this one!
You can have your pick anywhere between borosilicate glass to porcelain as long as they are comfortable to hold and convenient to work with. What truly matters is your practice and skill in latte art-making that will give the perfect design on the perfect cup! So follow our guide, skim through our recommendations, and have your pick!
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