Do them

A local cafe held a latte art contest a while back. They even let you go there and practice pouring before the event. The dude would steam the milk for you, and all you had to do was practice the pour. But after a few years of owning an espresso machine complete with steamer, I’ve realised the most important part is, as you’ve guessed already, the steaming part.

If the milk isn’t steamed properly, there’s no way you can pour the latte art properly. In other words, I don’t think it was by design, but by taking away the necessity to steam the milk yourself, the cafe was paradoxically ruining any chance you had at practicing at home.

The lesson? Do as much as you can yourself. The hard parts may well be the most important.

A side note:

It wasn’t until my barista friend came to our house and showed me that I realised I had been steaming the milk either wrong, or in a non-conducive manner the whole time. I would adjust the height of the cup depending on the temperature and bubbles, when you don’t really need to do that (I think you do for foamy milk, I haven’t gotten that far yet).