Is this response still in review?

Taking away protections for people wanting to join/form unions may make it harder to make that decision, and we should fight against those trying to remove those protections, but let’s not forget that they can’t take away the power that a unified workforce has. If every worker at Amazon decided that they were all going to stop doing their jobs at the same time and demand better working conditions it doesn’t matter what Congress says, it’s a matter of business for Amazon. Even if Amazon technically has the right to fire everyone because of the shitheads in Congress taking away all protection for unions, it is simply not a wise financial decision to try to rehire an entire workforce and train them all at the same time without anyone left to do the training, all while not making any money during this time and making their customers mad. It is much easier to just give some concessions and improve the working conditions to get their current workforce to come back. Of course this is an extreme example but it doesn’t take literally the entire workforce doing this to functionally cripple a company. And of course the demands can’t be so unreasonable that the company is unable to provide them. But this IS possible to achieve in reality. It takes a large group of people working together for the benefit of everyone but it is absolutely possible, even without protections which didn’t always exist by the way. So even if those protections go away temporarily, don’t give up on the idea of unions. That is what they really want. Fight for fair working conditions. And fight to elect politicians who will put in place/keep protections for unions. Don’t give up because that’s the only way that they win. Even a king has no power if his subjects refuse to kneel.

Rip

As someone that has used ad blockers for just about as long as I have been able to, I would like to think that this is true. However, I’m not entirely sure that it is. I’ve heard that a surprising percentage of people just don’t even know that ad blockers exist. If that’s the case then they may be very well aware of what is happening. (Using made up numbers for the sake of argument since I don’t have real numbers) Like if only 5% of users use ad blockers and doubling the number of ads they show only brings that to 10% then it is certainly worth it financially. I doubt that if you were to graph that curve it would be linear - there is certainly a point where you inundate users with so many ads that even non-technical people will start learning about ad blockers. Regardless of what the real numbers are, I would be very surprised if they are making decisions this big without at least being aware of what those numbers might be. And if they can make a small amount of money indefinitely but they have evidence to suggest that they can make even more money also indefinitely then the financial motivation is obvious. Not all infinities are the same size.

There are tons of great content creators in the coffee world. One of the one’s that I felt I learned a lot from in the beginning especially was Lance Hedrick. Here’s a shorter overview sort of video that will help a lot to get started (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohzsOjkYf5M). And a slightly longer more in depth guide that he’s made as well (https://youtu.be/kVEvII6YalE?si=1VZG48hkWNszD-kN). Emilee Bryant is another great content creator that makes similar videos.

As far as what equipment you need goes, it sounds like you probably have everything you need to get started. I don’t know what the milk jug looks like that comes with that machine or if it even does or if you’re using it, but I will say that I think that having a quality milk pitcher can make your life easier. That’s not to say that you can’t use what you have because you almost certainly can. But if you’re looking for cheap ways to improve your setup that might be where I would start but again, it is almost certainly unnecessary to see improvement. Ultimately, making latte art is just something that you have to practice. Where the videos and advice from other people comes into play is knowing how to practice. But you’re still going to have to put in the work.

Some general advice that I can give: latte art is a result of many small variables all being controlled at once. Some of the variables have a smaller impact on the final product and others are much more crucial to focus on, especially in the beginning. Knowing what went wrong and how to fix it is a skill all on it’s own, but in order to get to that point, first you have to even be aware of what those variables are. Some of the big ones off of the top of my head that I think would be good to focus on as a beginner

-Milk texture: If you don’t have good milk texture it will be much harder or potentially impossible to make art. There are plenty of videos talking about how to steam milk and what good texture looks like for latte art. I would recommend looking that up if you are interested in learning more about that. In fact, as a beginner I would say that you should really put most of your effort into working on this before anything else. Here’s a video on the topic to get you started (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTC3dJvwgUI)

-Spout proximity: When you are adding your initial milk to the espresso before you start your art you want the pitcher to be high up so that the milk builds up speed from the fall and sinks below the surface and incorporates with the espresso to make your drink. When you start your art you want the pitcher to be very close (think approximately 1 cm) to the surface of the drink so that you can gently “place” the foam on top and it doesn’t have time to pick up speed and fall through. I see many beginners try to make art with the spout of their pitcher way too high and no design appears as a result. In fact, if you place a blob of foam down first and then intentionally lift your pitcher up, you can actually sink that blob of foam.

-Flow rate: the velocity of the milk coming out of the pitcher at various stages of the pour is an important factor in your art. I won’t go into how and when and why you should be pouring faster or slower since it’s honestly really not the thing to focus on now and there are plenty of videos that could do a better job anyway. Just be aware of flow rate as a concept and notice how flow rate affects the way the milk behaves in different situations.

-Timing: This is a bit of a broad category, but generally speaking, there are several critical moments when pouring latte art that we should be thinking about. First of all, when you let milk sit in the pitcher the foam will start to separate from the more dense liquid. We don’t want that. So as a general rule of thumb, once you’ve steamed your milk you should be trying to keep it moving by swirling it in the pitcher to prevent that separation. What you described as “a blob circle of foam that pours into the cup at the very end” could very well be caused by letting it separate before pouring. What happens when you do that is the liquid all comes out first and only at the end does the foam come out. It could also be a milk texture issue or spout proximity issue though. Once you’ve actually started pouring, knowing when to stop incorporating milk and to start your art is very important too. If you do it too soon, you won’t have added much foam in the cup yet and the design will flow across the surface of the mug like water and hit the far wall. If you do it too late the foam will be stiff and you won’t have much room left in the cup meaning you will have a hard time getting any momentum at all, causing a small design.

Anyway… I’m done rambling now I suppose, lol. Apologies for the wall of text. To summarize, you don’t need any more equipment to see improvement. I would focus on milk texture as a pretty high priority, but also at least start thinking about these other things as you’re pouring even if you can’t control every variable at first (hint: you won’t be able to and that’s okay). At least that way you have something to actually think about and ask yourself afterwards, “was the milk too foamy? did it separate too much? how was my spout proximity? did I start my art too early/late?” etc.

Good luck!