The landscape painting in the coffee cup the barista should decorate the artistic conception expressed by the pursuit pattern with a carved needle.

Coffee pull flower "sunset"

The barista needs to decorate the head and feet of the crane with carved needles.

Li Qi, a "post-90s" barista, has been in the profession for only two years.

The breeze blows the willow leaves, the leaves hang on the lake, the swans swim gracefully, and the mouth of the small coffee cup condenses the vibrant "spring"; the setting sun reflects the faint clouds, and two cranes fly over it, depicting a beautiful "sunset"; the surging water waves are layered, and the freehand brushwork is "waves". This is the work of "post-90s" barista Li Qi, who won the first prize in the 2016 World pull Flower Art Competition (World Latte Art Championship) China Competition, which ended not long ago. the picture of each cup of coffee has a rich superposition combination, which is suitable for plants, animals, natural scenery and so on.

"everyone has a way to record beauty. I use coffee." The handsome girl from Malone Coffee said. Compared with the 60 contestants competing in the same field, Li Qi has been in the profession for only two years, but he can interpret the art of flower drawing finely and creatively. When it comes to coffee flowers, the four most commonly used patterns are leaves, hearts, layers and wheat ears. On the other hand, she tries to break the limitation of the pattern by means of superposition and combination. "the flower can not only be limited to the completion of the pattern, but also pursue the artistic conception expressed by the pattern."

However, to draw flowers is not to draw. "pen" and "paper" are both flowing liquid, so it is not easy to draw a few strokes. The limited cup mouth presents not only beautiful patterns, but also many criteria. The quality of the foam, the color contrast, the harmony of the picture, and the similarity with the previous works are all the criteria for grading by the judges. In order to make an ideal cup of coffee, Li Qi needs to practice far more than "painting". From the handling of coffee beans to the final presentation of a cup of flower work, the whole process needs to be studied and considered.

In order to enhance the contrast between brown and white, the beans in the competition usually choose deep-roasted coffee beans. This gives rise to a critical problem: the fat of deep-roasted coffee beans is too rough. "the normal grease is smooth and uniform, and there will be star-like light. Coffee with rough fat is difficult to make delicate. " Li Qi himself studied the method of "pre-soaking". He soaked the coffee powder one more time in advance to disperse the gas that would affect the texture of the coffee. When it is really brewed, the water will soak the coffee powder more completely, making the coffee more smooth and delicate.

The process of flower drawing is a great test of the safety and precision of the barista's hands. Milk and coffee are both liquids and can be easily fused. Nevertheless, Li Qi ventured to make lines close to each other. There are two water ripples under the swans, which seem simple, but they are actually very difficult. If you make a mistake, the water waves will burn off. In her interpretation of the waves, she also studied a set of dragging techniques by herself. Drawing the overall pattern does not count, but also the details of the outline and description. Li Qi blends colors with food pigments to create a sense of visual pleasure in the brown and white tones. She will not let go of the details such as the crane's head and feet, and should be decorated with carved needles.

Due to the difficulty of the design, her production process needs to turn the cup many times, which brings disadvantages to the performance of the work. Because each shaking of the rotating cup may lighten the color of the coffee in the outer ring, affecting the clarity of the pattern and color contrast. However, Li Qi pursues extreme expression and does not care about difficulty. In her opinion, as long as more practice, the difficulty will always be surpassed. Making a hundred cups of flowers a day is her most basic practice.

Of course, the most important use of coffee is to drink, not to watch. No matter how beautiful the coffee seems to be expressing art, in fact, the first thing is to satisfy the taste judgment. "if you make a beautiful flower pull, it will give people a psychological hint that the good-looking one is the best to drink." Li Qi said that baristas can use such a small cup of drink to please the vision, mood and taste buds.

Source: Sina Finance

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