Nervous anticipation last Tuesday night as we rolled up to Square Mile roastery for the final of the London Latte Art challenge. We knew we had arrived at the right place as stereotypically, there were quite a number of fixed wheel bikes, tattoos and bearded men hanging around. Square Mile’s new events room was ready, the two group Synesso was set up in the corner, and importantly, the free beer stand was just as you entered the room.
When you are talking about the legends of coffee in London, you could not get many more in the room at one time. We had the 2007 and 2009 World Barista Champions James Hoffman and Gwilym Davies, 2011/12/13 Dutch Latte Art Champion Esther Maasdam, 2010/11/13 UK Barista and 2009 Latte Art Champion John Gordon, 2013 UK Latte Art Champion Dhan Damang, 2012 UK Aeropress Champion Shaun Young and 2009/10/11 US Cup tasters Champion Ben Kaminsky amongst the crowd, and probably other champions in their field that I cannot remember or had the chance to say hello to.
Importantly, we had over 100 industry people packed into the room ready to rumble. Technical difficulties stopped us from projecting the first heats onto the white walls, but Ben and John got this going in time for the finals.