The New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association (NZSCA) has crowned the 2025 Aotearoa Cup Tasters Champion and the 2025 Aotearoa Latte Art Champion in a packed weekend of competitions.
After finishing 19th in the 2024 edition of the competition, Atomic Coffee Auckland’s August Hislop overcame a strong pool of 36 competitors to take home the 2025 Aotearoa Cup Tasters Champion title in her fourth attempt.
She correctly identified all eight cups in just one minute and 53 seconds in the final round, which was close to a full two minutes faster than her first-round time and the fastest final of the day.
Flight Coffee Wellington’s Oliver Chen remained in the top four positions for the entirety of the competition and came in second place as runner-up. He finished exactly one minute behind August in both final rounds.
Third-place finisher Woohyung Lee and fourth-place finisher Joshua Kim were both representing Holiday Coffee Auckland.
The NZSCA has also crowned its 2025 Latte Art Champion, with winner Dennis Huesh set to represent New Zealand at the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego, United States, in 2026.
Dennis, representing Demi Café Hamilton, defeated a field of seven competitors to be named Aotearoa Latte Art Champion.
Olivia Lee (Independent), Daniel Woodhouse (Grey Roasting Co. Hamilton), and Bill Zheng (Independent) were the other finalists.
