SALON

Great coffee art

Thursday, Mar 31, 2011 5:01 PM UTC

Salon’s coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

Each day, we'll share one of our favorite entries until it's all over. Get jittery!

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Salon's coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

When we kicked off our little latte art contest last week, we thought it’d be fun … but we had no idea how many responses we’d be getting! So, to keep inspiring great shots, pours and pictures, we’re going to run one of our favorites each day until the deadline of April 6. Fun fun! And keep them coming!

Today: From Andrew Lynn, a beautiful photo of a coffee at Patisserie Valerie on High Street in Oxford, England, made by a barista named Francesca. And, in a pleasing bit of film geekery, Andrew notes, “I was packing my trusty Nikon and, judging by the grain, it must have been Kodak T-Max 400 film.”

Andrew Lynn

Coffee made by Francesca at Patisserie Valerie on High Street in Oxford, England

To enter your own …

Snap some pictures of your favorite baristas’ latte art skills and send them to us. We’ll pick our favorite shots, and the top five entries will win fabulous prizes from Bodum, makers of super sweet, design-y coffee gear.

Four winners will get a set of Canteen insulated glasses (made of lovely-to-hold, super-light borosilicate glass – no, I’m not shilling; I just date an architect who gets really excited about cool materials). One super-extra winner will get the Canteen glasses and a classic Chambord French press. And, if you’d be so kind, please go and “Like” Bodum’s Facebook page. Yes, I am shilling now, but they’re kind enough to hand out some sweet prizes for our goofy little contest, so why not?

How to enter:

Take a picture — or several, or many — of latte art, and email it to <strong>coffee@salon.com. Please include the name of the coffee shop, date, and time you took the picture, and, if you’d like, the name of the barista who created the art. (Don’t you like to see people recognized for their work?)

Photos should be 400×600 minimum size, 72 dpi, but bigger is better. Please put “Foaming at the mouth” as the subject line of the email. And please know that by sending these photos in, you’re agreeing to give us permission to publish them on Salon.

All entries must be received by 1pm, Eastern time, Wednesday, April 6th, 2011. Winners will be announced Monday, April 11th.

 

More Salon Staff.

Wednesday, Mar 30, 2011 8:31 PM UTC

Salon’s coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

Each day, we'll share one of our favorite entries until it's all over. Get jittery!

By
  • more

    • All Share Services

Salon's coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

When we kicked off our little latte art contest last week, we thought it’s be fun … but we had no idea how many responses we’d be getting! So, to keep inspiring great shots, pours, and pictures, we’re going to run one of our favorites each day until the deadline of April 6th. Fun fun! And keep them coming!

Today: From Gabriel Kory, a lovely photo of classic latte hearts taken at Madcap Coffee in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

To enter your own …

Snap some pictures of your favorite baristas’ latte art skills and send them to us. We’ll pick our favorite shots, and the top five entries will win fabulous prizes from Bodum, makers of super sweet, design-y coffee gear.

Four winners will get a set of Canteen insulated glasses (made of lovely-to-hold, super-light borosilicate glass – no, I’m not shilling; I just date an architect who gets really excited about cool materials). One super-extra winner will get the Canteen glasses and a classic Chambord French press. And, if you’d be so kind, please go and “Like” Bodum’s Facebook page. Yes, I am shilling now, but they’re kind enough to hand out some sweet prizes for our goofy little contest, so why not?

How to enter:

Take a picture — or several, or many — of latte art, and email it to <strong>coffee@salon.com. Please include the name of the coffee shop, date, and time you took the picture, and, if you’d like, the name of the barista who created the art. (Don’t you like to see people recognized for their work?)

Photos should be 400×600 minimum size, 72 dpi, but bigger is better. Please put “Foaming at the mouth” as the subject line of the email. And please know that by sending these photos in, you’re agreeing to give us permission to publish them on Salon.

All entries must be received by 1pm, Eastern time, Wednesday, April 6th, 2011. Winners will be announced Monday, April 11th.

 

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More Salon Staff.

Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 10:01 PM UTC

Salon’s coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

Each day, we'll share one of our favorite entries until it's all over. Get jittery!

By
  • more

    • All Share Services

Salon's coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

When we kicked off our little latte art contest last week, we thought it’s be fun … but we had no idea how many responses we’d be getting! So, to keep inspiring great shots, pours, and pictures, we’re going to run one of our favorites each day until the deadline of April 6th. Fun fun! And keep them coming!

Today:

From Stephen Graham, a photo taken at Urth Coffee House in Santa Monica, CA.

Stephen Graham

Made at Urth coffee house in Santa Monica, CA on March 10, 2007

To enter your own …

Snap some pictures of your favorite baristas’ latte art skills and send them to us. We’ll pick our favorite shots, and the top five entries will win fabulous prizes from Bodum, makers of super sweet, design-y coffee gear.

Four winners will get a set of Canteen insulated glasses (made of lovely-to-hold, super-light borosilicate glass – no, I’m not shilling; I just date an architect who gets really excited about cool materials). One super-extra winner will get the Canteen glasses and a classic Chambord French press. And, if you’d be so kind, please go and “Like” Bodum’s Facebook page. Yes, I am shilling now, but they’re kind enough to hand out some sweet prizes for our goofy little contest, so why not?

How to enter:

Take a picture — or several, or many — of latte art, and email it to <strong>coffee@salon.com. Please include the name of the coffee shop, date, and time you took the picture, and, if you’d like, the name of the barista who created the art. (Don’t you like to see people recognized for their work?)

Photos should be 400×600 minimum size, 72 dpi, but bigger is better. Please put “Foaming at the mouth” as the subject line of the email. And please know that by sending these photos in, you’re agreeing to give us permission to publish them on Salon.

All entries must be received by 1pm, Eastern time, Wednesday, April 6th, 2011. Winners will be announced Monday, April 11th.

 

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More Salon Staff.

Monday, Mar 28, 2011 7:01 PM UTC

Salon’s coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

Each day, we'll share one of our favorite entries until it's all over. Get jittery!

By
  • more

    • All Share Services

Salon's coffee art contest: Our daily shots!

When we kicked off our little latte art contest last week, we thought it’s be fun … but we had no idea how many responses we’d be getting! So, to keep inspiring great shots, pours, and pictures, we’re going to run one of our favorites each day until the deadline of April 6th. Fun fun! And keep them coming!

Today:

From reader Ben, a photo taken at The Treehouse Hotel in Santa Elena, Costa Rica

To enter your own …

Snap some pictures of your favorite baristas’ latte art skills and send them to us. We’ll pick our favorite shots, and the top five entries will win fabulous prizes from Bodum, makers of super sweet, design-y coffee gear.

Four winners will get a set of Canteen insulated glasses (made of lovely-to-hold, super-light borosilicate glass – no, I’m not shilling; I just date an architect who gets really excited about cool materials). One super-extra winner will get the Canteen glasses and a classic Chambord French press. And, if you’d be so kind, please go and “Like” Bodum’s Facebook page. Yes, I am shilling now, but they’re kind enough to hand out some sweet prizes for our goofy little contest, so why not?

How to enter:

Take a picture — or several, or many — of latte art, and email it to <strong>coffee@salon.com. Please include the name of the coffee shop, date, and time you took the picture, and, if you’d like, the name of the barista who created the art. (Don’t you like to see people recognized for their work?)

Photos should be 400×600 minimum size, 72 dpi, but bigger is better. Please put “Foaming at the mouth” as the subject line of the email. And please know that by sending these photos in, you’re agreeing to give us permission to publish them on Salon.

All entries must be received by 1pm, Eastern time, Wednesday, April 6th, 2011. Winners will be announced Monday, April 11th.

 

Continue Reading Close

More Salon Staff.

Friday, Mar 25, 2011 3:01 PM UTC

Salon’s Great Coffee Art contest

Send us a snap of your favorite barista's foamy brilliance, and become eligible for cool prizes

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Salon's Great Coffee Art contestLatte art by Chuck Betz / Culture Espresso Bar

Update: So sorry if the entry you sent to coffee@salon.com bounced back. Everything’s fixed! Please give it another shot.

Latte art, pouring “textured” milk into espresso to create designs — and in some cases full drawings — is one of the branches of the barista’s discipline. We’ve enjoyed our milky coffees topped with hearts, roses and leaf shapes for years, but a recent smiley bear face finally got all of Salon to wonder, How does that work?

“The point is to learn to control everything at the coffee bar — the beans, the roast, the right grind, the water, the timing, the machine — everything. So part of that means learning how milk behaves, and how to control it,” says Ken Nye, owner of Ninth Street Espresso, and the man many credit with popularizing latte art in New York City.

And controlling the milk means, in short (because it can get very, very long), to 1) heat it up, which brings out its sugars, 2) “stretch” and infuse it with air, inflating it like whipped cream and 3) “roll” it to pop all the bubbles. If you get it right, you have a “microfoam” of thick, sweet, glossy milk that can hold its form when poured into espresso, allowing the barista to shape and stream it into lovely, graceful, whimsical designs. Well-textured milk tastes like magic, creamy but light. It has a visible sheen and makes a splat, like oil paint, when spilled. It’s miles away from the stiff, dry foam that floats on top of many a chain-coffee cup.

“It’s really not easy,” Nye says. “It’s a good first sign for your drink, because the barista’s taken the care and effort to learn the skill.” (“But,” he’s quick to add, “it’s one point of a complex process. It doesn’t really tell you anything about how properly made the coffee itself is, or how the drink is going to taste.”)

A CONTEST FOR YOU, WITH PRIZES!

To celebrate this aspect (yes, it’s just one point, but it’s a fun point!) of the coffee arts, we’d love for you to show us the handiwork of your favorite coffee slingers. Snap some pictures of your favorite baristas’ latte art skills and send them to us. We’ll pick our favorite shots, and the top five entries will win fabulous prizes from Bodum, makers of super-sweet, design-y coffee gear.

Four winners will get a set of Canteen insulated glasses, made of wonderful-to-hold, super-light borosilicate glass. (No, I’m not shilling; I just date an architect whose geekiness about materials rubs off.) One super-extra winner will get the Canteen glasses and a classic Chambord French press. And, if you’d be so kind, please go and “Like” Bodum’s Facebook page. Yes, I am shilling now, but they’re kind enough to hand out some sweet prizes for our goofy little contest, so why not? Winners will be chosen purely based on the subjective whim of our staff judges!

HOW TO ENTER

Take a picture — or several, or many — of latte art, and email it to: coffee@salon.com. Please include the name of the coffee shop, date, and time you took the picture, and, if you’d like, the name of the barista who created the art. (Don’t you like to see people recognized for their work?) By sending us the photo, you grant us permission to publish it on Salon.

Photos must be 400 x 600 minimum size, 72 dpi, but bigger is better. Please put “Foaming at the mouth” as the subject line of the email. And please know that by sending these photos in, you’re agreeing to give us permission to publish them on Salon.

All entries must be received by 1 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Winners will be announced Monday, April 11.

Francis Lam

Latte art by Trey Wrange / Ninth Street Espresso

Francis Lam

Latte art by Trey Wrange / Ninth Street Espresso

Francis Lam

Latte art by Trey Wrange / Ninth Street Espresso

Ross Satchell

Latte art by Ross Satchell / Naidre’s Cafe, Brooklyn

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Francis Lam is Features Editor at Gilt Taste, provides color commentary for the Cooking Channel show Food(ography), and tweets at @francis_lam. More Francis Lam.

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