A hot cup of coffee in most neighbourhood cafés is typically topped with a dainty design, usually a heart or a flower. The art of creating designs on the surface of your favourite hot drink is called latte art, created by pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso or a cup of coffee in such a way that a pattern or design is created.

For coffee lovers like teacher Dr Payel Dutta Chowdhury, the patterns on the surface of her creamy coffee lift her spirits. "When the waiter brings my cup of coffee topped with either a smiley or a heart, it always puts a smile on my face,” says Chowdhury.

Latte art is said to have first started in Italy; thereafter it developed independently in various other countries. In the United States it was popularised by café owner David Schomer in the 1980s and 1990s.

With a huge jump in the number of cafes and coffee shops — chain ones as well as stand-alones — in Bangalore, this ‘art’ form has become popular here as well. Most cafes patronise it, though a majority of them stick to simple designs such as smileys and leafy or flowery designs.

Yet, there are a number of intricate and complex patterns that one can make.

There are two styles of creating in latte art. They are ‘free-pouring’ in which the pattern is created during the pour and ‘etching’, using a tool to create a pattern after the pour. In India, the free-pouring style is commonly used.

In many cafes in the West, baristas use a pin as a paintbrush and drag the melting chocolate over the foamed milk to create even words with the picture embedded in the coffee.

Though the art has not reached such sophistication in India, it is fast catching on as a trend. "We do common designs like leaves and hearts. They are the easiest and are practised on a regular basis. The barista delicately allows the milk to pour freely on to the hot coffee foam. It is a delicate job and takes about five-six years of practise and experience to master,” says Girish Babu, store manager of Matteo, a café on Church Street.

"Although abroad, most baristas undergo training in creating latte art, there are no courses for learning it in India,” says Saket Kumar Jaiswal, coffee manager, Café Coffee Day, Brigade Road.

However, the Blue Master training undergone by any barista before joining a coffee house which gives information on how to operate coffee machines, knowledge about various coffee beans also includes a few tips on creating design details on coffee surface, informs Jaiswal.

William, manager of Cafe Coffee Day, Koramangala, says, "We take milk, steam it in a 500ml steamer, pour it onto the hot coffee and the design comes automatically.”

Customers aren’t complaining for sure. "It’s very tough to create these designs and it needs a lot of skill and creativity. Sometimes I don’t even feel like ruining the designs by sipping on my coffee,” says student Angela Alexandra.