Here's one I made earlier

Okay, so I didn't necessarily do this one, but I work with the barista who did. And I drank it.

Also I ate the rugala (pastry wrapped round crushed apricots and dusted with icing sugar, made in the kitchen at the back) on the plate.

As for my coffee-making progress... well, there's more to steaming milk than meets the untrained eye. So rather than waste the annual output of a cow, I've been practicing with water and washing-up liquid.

Why? Believe it or not, cold water in a jug with a squirt of washing-up liquid behaves in a similar way to milk - it steams and froths to the same texture.

And once it's steamed to the correct texture (more foamy for a cappuccino, less so for a latté) and the temperature's around the 70ºC mark, then there's the all important pour. A flat white just wants a thin covering of foam to keep the coffee in the cup, a latté a finger's worth and the foam in a cappuccino should top out at around a third of a cup.

Only the professionals make it look easy. Here's one of them - David.

When he's not making coffees look as good as they taste he's equally adept at piling washing up in the sink for me.