Prufrock latte art class

23-25 Leather Lane, London EC1N 7TE

I was lucky enough to be given a voucher for one of Prufrock Coffee’s Saturday school classes for Christmas (after a certain amount of pre-Christmas hinting...). So keen was I to use it, I got my butt along to the London ‘BRAT’ (Barista Resource and Training centre) the second week in January to try out their latte art class.

If you’ve read the ‘about me’ section of this blog, you’ll know I’ve worked in a couple of coffee shops so assumed I’d be ok with the basics and could jump right in with the fancy stuff. Turns out I may have been a little over ambitious - despite expert tuition from the wonderful Jeremy, even after a few attempts my latte art looked like this:

 Although three hours wasn’t nearly enough time to master the basics of latte art, it was great to hear the theory (...something about muscle memory?) and watch an expert at work. Plus I got to meet a group of other coffee enthusiasts and we had a laugh at our disastrous attempts.

As well as showing us the basics of heating and aerating milk to create the sought after ‘micro-foam’, we were taken through the various elements necessary to make the perfect coffee. The amount of coffee you use, the coarseness of the grind, the temperature of water hitting the coffee, and the time it’s left to filter through all affect the overall taste (apparently).

These guys take coffee EXTREMELY seriously and do things to a much higher standard than your average coffee shop, and way beyond what you’d ever do at home. However, it was really good to see how things should be done by the real experts. £65 might seem a bit pricey but for a three hour small group tutorial it’s more than worth it.

Find out more on their website.