There’s a Sailor Moon in my Coffee! Photos and Tips From a Japanese Manga Latte Artist

Latte art, created with a skilled pour of steamed milk and some clever manoeuvres, has been mesmerising coffee lovers for well over a decade. While the most common creations are heart and leaf designs in different shades of mocha, here in Japan we’ve spotted 10 hot, candy-coloured manga characters, of the Sailor Moon variety! We fell in love with these designs and needed to know how the pretty guardians and their pals came to life in coffee form. And, more importantly, whether it’s something we can do at home. Mouths watering and hearts fluttering, we asked the artist directly to find out.

The cute coffee tops below are the work of Japanese Twitter user “Sugi”. Amazingly, she only took up the craft of latte art last April. She believes a little perserverance and a creative eye is all it takes to recreate your favourite characters on a cup of Joe.

Practice Makes Perfect

Working at the pace of two to three cups every day, Sugi’s put her best into each one and made up to 800 cups so far. She creates the Sailor Moon characters free-hand with toothpicks, using chocolate sauce for the dark areas and cocktail syrups for the other colours. She says the key to practising is to treat each one like the real deal, seeing it through to completion no matter how hard it gets!

Learn From Your Mistakes

Sugi says that “drawing” on coffee is the same as drawing a regular picture on paper. She recommends looking at the subject and drawing it as you go. If you make a mistake, it’s best to look at it and figure out why you went wrong so you can improve for next time.

Ask Latte Artists For Advice

If you do give it a try but hit some hurdles, Sugi recommends reaching out to people doing latte art on Twitter. She says there’s a great community of artists there who are happy to help and offer advice. It sounds like a great way to get your coffee fix and make friends too!

Check out Sugi’s other beautiful works of art on her public Twitter profile. It’s definitely worth a look!