Long time viewers will notice a major change in color and layout of the blog and, most importantly, the addition of PHOTOS! A little disclaimer: the photos of the latte art are not my photos nor my art. But you can imagine what it would be like if they were. My digi-cam died this year and I have no photos of my own art. I hope to change that sometime, but no promises.

All this as a lead-in to a discussion of latte art.

Latte art was originally inspired to draw attention to the high quality espresso beverages at Espresso Vivace. At least, that's the story by The Schomer. But I sometimes wonder if the art hasn't become an end in itself. This is most apparent in the traditional cappuccino (6.5 oz). In my pre-art days, I poured some mean caps with lots of foam and no art that tasted quite exquisite. But with the introduction of latte art to my repertoire, I stopped making the the caps as foamy so that I could pour art. I've noticed this at Stumptown and other places as well. Have we lost sight of taste in an effort to impress people visually? Not that these less-foamy, artful caps don't taste good, because they're also delectable, but they aren't quite, well, really caps by my former definition (at least 1/2 foam). At most, they are 1/3 foam.

Then there is the question of, just what makes a cappuccino a cappuccino? Is it simply it's size (6.5 oz)? Or is it the ratio of foam to liquid milk? I kind of suspect that it's more the size than the foam ratio, but that we who pour art in caps are pouring less foam than they would in Italy. I really need to go to Italy and study this...