The smart course would’ve been this: Stick to rosettas until I’ve truly perfected them, then go back to hearts — which, by all accounts, are far easier than rosettas — and perfect those.

Alas, the tulip has pulled me into its deceptively simple blooms.

Here’s a good example of a great tulip pour (courtesy Louisville’s fine Quills Coffee):

The tulip presents a major challenge because it isn’t poured like the others. With hearts and rosettas, it’s all about gentle, graceful motions: Letting the foam slide out of the pitcher, swaying it from side to side with smooth motions, then tying it all together with a slow, fine-line ending pour. In contrast, the tulip takes techniques from both heart and rosetta and blends them, but forces the pourer to do everything with FORCE. The simplest explanation is that the tulip is made up of heart atop heart atop heart, each new one pushing the one below further “down” (toward one rim edge) of the cup and thus creating the circular shapes you see at the bottom. In practice, this “forcing” requires aggressive shoves of foam, yet mixed with the same accuracy and graceful hand motions associated with the others. It’s not hard to make a bad tulip, but it’s very difficult to make a good one.

Not sure I’ve made a good one yet. But here are a few I made in the past couple days, which are at least tulip-esque. (Scroll over for caption, click for bigger view.)

APPENDIX: That last one is a novelty pour called the Hanging Heart, which isn’t as common as the rosetta, heart or tulip. I haven’t messed much with it, but I got close enough once that I figured it’s worth sharing.