London Latte Art Smackdown - #smackdown16 - Round Two

Well we put all the beer in the fridge this time. There was no way were were gong to be caught out again. We weren’t, but we just had enough as over 60 people crammed into Eastcastle street or even stood on the benches outside and watched through our wonderful arched windows.

We were honoured to have another stellar selection of judges for this round as lead judge and superstar photographer Glenn Watson kept everyone in line and he was joined by the author of the World Coffee Atlas, Director of Square Mile Coffee and 2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffmann. Unfortunately Director of Dose espresso and coffee legend James Phillips was unable to make it on the night, but we hope he can make it for the finals, instead were were able to bring in 4 times UK Latte Art Champion and currnently ranked 4th in the world and owner of three cafes and a training academy in Winchester, Dhan Tamang to be a guest judge.

In a sure sign of the commitment of some of the UK’s baristas, we also had two of them drive four hours from Sheffield to compete, as well as a competitor from Oxford and others from Winchester. This is massive, and the quality of everyone was exemplary. Each year the standard gets higher and higher.

But we got started bang on time, so once again we killed the lights, dropped Faithless Live in Brixton for some tunes and kicked off. The standard was again very, very high and even though the judges are amongst the best in the world, they still had a difficult time and often different opinions on their choices

In the end, after two intense rounds, these guys got through to the finals.

Jack from Origin

Tom from Store Street Espresso

Csaba from Chief Coffee

Paul from Origin