Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you’re one of probably many that wouldn’t necessarily consider specialty coffee art, well think again!
Latte art has been around for some time now, though its origins come naturally from the birthplace of espresso, Italy (not too far from our coffee farmers in Nepal). Social media no doubt gave latte art and professional baristas the boost they needed to share their inspiration with the world - but the underpinnings of latte art make specialty coffee, well, so special.
Ingredients - from the milk temperature and percentage, water type, and quality of coffee - are the essential of what makes the best latte art so special. It’s kind of like imagining what Van Gogh’s Starry Night would have looked like if he had used crayons instead of oil paints - good but nowhere near what it would have been.
So before sharing our five favorite world class latte artists changing specialty coffee culture with Instagram click bait blowing up social media - we just wanted to remind you that great latte art is only born from great coffee. Enjoy!
- Caleb Cha - Caleb is best known for his famous Caffeinated Zebra latte art that won him the 2015 Australian Latte Art championship. You can see his presentation here.
- Giuseppi Fiorini - From the epicenter of espresso, Giuseppi has a hand for intricate designs and use of colors in his latte art outside of the traditional spectrum.
- Kazuki Yamamoto - Japan has a long history with specialty coffee - after all they import roughly 80% of Jamaican Blue Mountain grown annually. Yamamoto has built on this history and uses 3D printing and design techniques to create a breadth of anime inspired latte art that takes you into comic book world.
- Melannie Aquino - With latte art as unique as her background, her Filipina/Hawaiin Melannie’s latte art is inspired by her island heritage and her lattes commonly feature the likes of whales, monolithic sea side cliffs, and even pop cultures most beloved cartoon characters.
- Angie Chun - Intricate. Delicate. Floral. Complex. Clean. A variety of words could be used to describe Chun’s latte art, but her expansion of the classic flower and heart that have become common place in specialty cafés is easy on the eyes to say the least.
Art is whatever you make it, and for us at Himalayan Coffee Importers it’s exciting to see the possibility of what can be made with high quality, specialty coffee like ours from Nepal.
So if you’re new to the world of latte art or like to play around with your own creations, enjoy the gallery of our five favorite artists and don’t forget to try our rich coffees from Nepal that will make your art, and morning cup of coffee, that much more beautiful!