Amy Zhang of Archer Specialty Coffee Roasters in Pinkenba, Queensland has won 2022 Northern Region Latte Art Championship.
The event was a clean sweep for Archer, with Jake Yue Huang runner up and Ramon Marrero taking third place.
This was Amy’s first time competing in the regional competition after she started working for Archer in February. She says this win is only the beginning of her success.
“For me, this is a great achievement but only the first step in my journey. It was really important to me to share my designs with people because I enjoy creating and communicating through latte art,” says Amy.
For her routine, Amy bases each design around her favourite Disney movie, Toy Story.
“For my first pattern I designed the ‘Lots-o-Huggin’ Bear. He’s actually very grumpy in the movie but has a warm, pleasing smile, which I thought would really brighten people’s day,” she says.
“For my second pattern, I choose to design the Slinky Dog, a very playful, friendly dog in the film. I also drew him with his toy ball, showcasing that I want to share my story with people just like Slinky Dog shares his toy ball.
“And finally for my original design pattern, I choose to create everybody’s favourite character, Woody, to show people that ‘you’ve got a friend in me’ [just as the movie’s theme song celebrates].”
Although Amy ultimately finished with a win, she says her biggest challenge on the day was the time constraints of the competition.
“I would’ve loved the chance to explain my performance to the judges and finish by saying, ‘you’ve got a friend in me’, as well as to clean my bench, but unfortunately I ran out of time. Because I chose such intricate sketches, especially my Woody design, in which I used etching to create the pattern, I struggled to finish within the designated timeframe.”
Amy’s advice for people who are passionate about latte art is to never stop practising and always look to improve.
“Stick with it, the results are so rewarding,” she says. “I think creating fun and interesting latte art can have such a positive effect on the café industry as it encourages interaction with customers and may even persuade them to buy some coffee and try it out themselves at home.”
All competitors used Riverina Fresh, the official Milk Partner of the competition, to create creative and original latte art designs.
Throughout the weekend’s event, all competitors used Mythos M1 grinders supplied from Victoria Arduino as the official Coffee Grinder sponsor and Cafetto product as the qualified cleaning Product Partner.
The Central Region Coffee Championships will next take place from 21 to 22 May at Grinders in Leichhardt, New South Wales.
The combined Southern and Western Coffee Championships will take place in Melbourne in June 2022.
