Some of Australia’s best baristas and latte artists came together in Martin Place on 27 July to compete in Soul Origin’s National Barista and Latte Art Championship for 2018.
Victorian barista Kevin Lim from Chadstone proved he has the company’s best latte art skills, winning the Soul Origin Latte Art Championship and Eddy Siew placing second.
Along with his title, Kevin has won a personal latte art master class with 2018 Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) Australian Latte Art Champion Shinsaku Fukayama of St Ali.
This year marked Soul Origin’s largest internal competition with a total of 154 baristas across the country participating in the barista and latte art competition.
The top 10 baristas and top eight latte artists from across Australia were flown to Sydney to compete in the national finals. The event culminated with a latte art smack down where Kevin produced his best latte art.
Finalists were critiqued by a panel of notable judges including former World Barista Championships Head Judge Ross Quail, ASCA President and World Accredited Latte Art Judge Brent Williams, and Shinsaku.
“Soul Origin was thrilled to celebrate our National Barista Finals in Sydney last week. Thank you to all of our talented baristas, judges and the hardworking Soul Origin team for organising such a wonderful world class coffee event. It was great to see so many coffee lovers and Sydney-siders there to celebrate with us on the day. We were so impressed with the extremely high standard of competitors this year which reflects Soul Origin’s commitment to excellence,” says Soul Origin CEO Chris Mavris.
The winners of the Soul Origin National Barista Competition will be announced at the network’s Franchise Awards Night on 18 August.
“We take our coffee very seriously at Soul Origin and are proud to invest in personally training our baristas across all 98 stores across Australia. The systems that Soul Origin has instilled in the business from weighing every shot to consistent tampering and the training we provide to teams across Australia ensures we are consistently delivering the best coffee to our customers. Our highly trained baristas and a strong understanding of the coffee delivery process is a real and genuine point of difference for us at Soul Origin,” says National Barista Trainer Sam Taylor.
Since opening its first store in 2011, Soul Origin has opened more than 98 stores across Australia.
For more information, visit www.soulorigin.com.au
