Coffee Latte Art Tips for Beginners_ Champion's Experience Sharing_ Coffee Bean Selection Guide

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1. What were the composition and challenges of the three Latte Art patterns in this Hong Kong competition?

The most skillful part of Macchiato is mixing, because it's different from the usual free pour or design art. It uses a 2.5oz cup, so if the espresso portion is larger, the space available for creating patterns becomes smaller. Therefore, for macchiato, I used less than a single shot portion to create this pattern. This is an inverted pattern, so I start with the swan part because the swan's position affects the slow pour position when doing it backwards. As I mentioned earlier, the position where you first pour the milk foam in free pour is quite important. If the swan is placed too far forward, the space for creating waves with slow pour backwards becomes too narrow. This is the difficulty of free pour.

As for design art, I think it's a balanced pattern between technical skills and etching. If free pour takes up too much time, it consumes time; if there's more etching, the difficulty score becomes lower. So this time, in my creation, I tried to use a more balanced method to create, adding more etching to continue between pouring techniques. This design art would first create the dorsal fin, then use slow pour to create the mouth and tail fin, then start etching. I used colors in my design art pattern because in the World Latte Art Championship, colors are becoming increasingly popular in design art. If you want to connect with world competitions, you need to incorporate the use of colors, hoping to enhance the contrasting colors.

2. Is there a story framework behind these three patterns?

I didn't use a story framework concept. My approach is mostly to think about free pour first, then do design art. But I've also experienced times when after thinking about free pour and doing design art, I found that the free pour wasn't good enough, so I went back to think about free pour again, then felt the design art wasn't working, and started over again... constantly alternating like this.

After thinking about these two patterns in the preliminary round, I had to think about macchiato for the finals. Initially, I thought about whether it would be better to make it more complex, but then realized that simpler is better.

Finally, I chose a relatively simple but more stable pattern - the swan.

3. In the pre-competition conception, did you think about which cup, which type of pattern, or which key points to use to score points?

My focus is on stability. This year's patterns slightly reduced the difficulty score compared to last year, striving to improve my stability. Because this competition isn't done cup by cup, but making two cups simultaneously.

If you create an overly elaborate pattern but can't present it well in the end, it's just a pattern that won't help you. So the patterns I chose this time are all based on stability as the primary consideration.

4. How much time did it take to finally decide on these three competition patterns?

The pattern conception began in June, and after some trial and error, the free pour patterns were decided in July and August.

But when all patterns were truly stable was just a few weeks before the preliminary round, then I started practicing crazily, from 9 AM to 11 PM daily.

During peak milk usage, I used one case per day. Same as when practicing last year - training muscle memory to achieve stable pattern creation.

5. During the conception process, did anyone else help with these three patterns?

My coach - Chris. I was like submitting homework, taking photos after completing each pattern and sending them to him.

He would judge whether this pattern could be easily completed when making two cups.

Because both the preliminary and final rounds only have 8 and 10 minutes respectively. We ultimately need to see if the entire workflow has enough time to complete the patterns, so it's really like doing calculations.

11. After participating in HKLAC for two years, what do you feel you've gained from the competition?

Personal patience and that stubbornness.

When you practice to a certain point and the patterns aren't mastered yet, your hand muscles start to fatigue, and the more you practice, the less accurate it becomes. It's actually frustrating, plus you're not the only one practicing.

Like when practicing workflow and predicting preparation time, you have colleagues and coaches accompanying you. When this happens, I can only perform at this level.

Actually, it becomes even more frustrating, quite a lot of pressure. I'm okay though, because even when I encounter pressure, I wake up the next day and start over again.

12. After entering the finals, did you feel who was the strongest competitor? What adjustments did you make to face opponents?

Of course there are competitors, but I feel that no matter how strong the opponent is, you can never defeat yourself.

You are always your biggest enemy. If you can't overcome your inner demons, and can't perform at your usual practice level on stage, then you're actually disrespecting your opponent.

With such a great venue and such a good opportunity to compete with high-level opponents, yet you can't deliver your level, you might even get angry at yourself.

13. Are you starting to prepare for the World Championship?

I need to start from scratch with pattern conception. Because the Hong Kong competition doesn't have the art bar from the World Championship.

We'll first prepare the art bar for the preliminary round, then see if my existing 3 patterns need significant improvements, or even need to change patterns.

Time is limited, so I've already started conceiving. Basically, I'll still use the current pattern for macchiato, but free pour and design art still need consideration.

14. Who do you want to express gratitude to?

First, my boss. His full support, covering so much milk and beans, and last year's special training in Taiwan was also arranged by my boss.

Speaking of latte art, I want to thank a very talented latte art teacher from Taiwan - Teacher Peng Siqi. I was fortunate that from the very first time I learned latte art, he was my instructor, and every competition I met him teaching me.

This year I didn't seek him for special training, but what I learned from him last year, I can finally demonstrate completely this year.

From teaching me how to foam milk, how to make tulips, how to divide milk when making two-cup patterns, how to keep the milk foam smooth... etc., all were taught by him.

The third person is Chris, my long-time technical and rules coach, how the workflow should proceed, which parts need to score points - he helped me adjust all of these.

Finally, of course, all the company colleagues, who acted as my technical judges during my practice, helping me notice bad habits and even mistakes made.

15. What advice do you have for friends who are beginners in latte art?

Don't think that latte art is a simple matter of "just pouring milk and getting it done." I've actually encountered some friends who came, full of joy thinking they could pour milk to make a pattern in one or two hours. It wasn't until they attended class that they realized latte art involves many things: first, the milk foam must be prepared well, then there's mixing, and then you need to look at the angle of pouring milk foam... every aspect is involved. So if you don't mind starting from the basics, latte art is quite a challenging thing.

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