London Latte Art Smackdown - #smackdown15 - Round Two
This week we move into heat three of the London Latte Art Smackdown and as expected, the pressure is rising each week as we witness the fitness (sorry) of the baristas of London and their skills, steady hands, passion, enthusiasm and care for their coffees and the coffee industry. It is brilliant to watch.
Last week in heat two, Eastcastle street was once again packed to the hanging lights with supporters all drinking our cheap beer and cheering on the competitors as they battled each other to get through to the finals. We had James Hoffman from Square Mile Coffee and the author of the World Coffee Atlas, Ben Townsend formerly of Espresso Room and our usual lead Judge and photographer Glenn Watson assessing the quality of the pours.
So Yan – Attendant
Chloe – Kaffeine
Dean – Artisan
Nico – Noble
We also had great news in that Victoria Arduino, the makers of the Black Eagle espresso machine, are also sponsoring the event with prizes and trophies as well as the crew from Minor Figures with supplies of the brilliant Cold Brew coffee.
Attendant
Curators
Department of Coffee and Social Affairs
Timberyard
Prufrock
Kaffeine
Gails
Store Street
Notes and
Piotr the Peanut Vendor
Judges for this week are Glenn Watson, last years winner from Artisan David Urbinati and someone formerly from St Ali and Seven Seeds in Melbourne who has seen the London Coffee scene since early 2005 when he was a barista at Flat White, then going onto Climpson and Sons, then in key roles at Intelligentsia in Los Angeles, Square Mile in London and then Workshop, now with his own company in coffee sourcing, Tim ‘Styles’ Williams.
Heats start at 7:30 pm, entry is from 7 pm, beers are £2 each and you are welcome to come along and support your staff or check what is happening.
For more photos, check out the link below to Glenn’s flickr account.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/getnoticed/albums/72157656043480153
In other news and linked to this, is that International Coffee Day has been announced as being on October 1st and is organised by our good friends at the International Coffee Organisation. They have a great video which promotes it, as well as a website/blog with all coffee events happening on the day.
http://internationalcoffeeday.org/
Peter Dore-Smith
Director
Kaffeine Ltd
66 Great Titchfield st.
15 Eastcastle st.
