Top Latte Artist in Vancouver – 2018
September 25th, 2018
for more in-depth coverage go to Barista Canada
September 1st, 2018
Top Latte Artist Special Guest Judges:
Cole Torode 2018 CDN Barista Champ from Rosso Coffee Roasters, Sammy Piccolo 4-time CDN Champ, Laura Perry a perennial Barista Judge from Lüna Coffee, Tristan Mapstone a perennial Barista Competitor from Fernwood Coffee Co, Aaron Kafka from Kafka’s Coffee and Les Kuan co-founder of the Canadian Barista Institute
Cole Torode
Cole is the Director of Coffee at Rosso Coffee Roasters. Splitting his time between origin countries, while establishing relationships with producers, and his hometown of Calgary, while training baristas and focusing on quality control. Cole is a proud member of the specialty coffee industry and a perennial barista competitor. This year, Cole was crowned the Canadian Barista Champion and most recently finished 5th in the World Barista Championship.
You can follow Cole on Instagram and Rosso on Instagram and learn more about Rosso here at their website
Sammy Piccolo
Sammy is a Vancouver coffee legend and Broncos fan for life. He was the World Latte Art Champion in Singapore and a Coffee Fest Latte Art World Champion way back in March 2003. He is a four time Canadian Barista Champion and the only barista to ever finish in the top 3 in the World Barista Championship 4 times! Sammy is the owner and operator of Prado Cafe and the most recently opened Spade coffee.
You can follow Sammy on Twitter and on Instagram
Laura Perry
Laura is the co-founder of Lüna Coffee in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her MO is sourcing delightful, articulate coffees and a focus on light roasting to maintain vibrancy and sweetness. She loves good design, delicious food and floral natural wines.
Laura has spent more than a decade of her life in specialty coffee as a Barista, Cafe Manager and eventually a Barista Trainer of a 3rd Wave Specialty Coffee Chain in Ontario. Laura has been a Cup of Excellence Juror/Observer, certified as a Q grader and before opening Lüna Coffee in Vancouver she was a Supply Chain Manager and Green Buyer for 49th Parallel.
Laura competed as a Barista in the Eastern Regional Competitions in Canada and participated as a Judge for numerous Canadian Barista Championships.
You can learn more about Laura and Lüna Coffee on Instagram @enjoylunacoffee and here at their website www.enjoylunacoffee.com
Aaron Kafka
Aaron is the owner of Kafka’s Coffee. In addition to a passion for making coffee he also loves the conversation that goes along with it. Aaron has traveled to origin many times and strives to connect the consumer to the farmers. He has judged competitions at the regional and national level multiple times and always enjoys chatting with baristas. You can follow Aaron on Instagram and on Facebook
Les Kuan
Les is a Canadian Barista Institute Co-founder, Head of Curriculum and the Dean of the Vancouver Campus and a keen student of all things coffee since the 90’s helping many baristas and business owners realize their dreams.
Les was part of that first group of Canadians to be certified as SCAA Lead Instructors in 2012. He was the Canadian National Body Representative for the Canadian Barista Championships from 2004-2015 and the Head Judge of the Canadian Barista Championships for several years before retiring in 2014.
Tristan Mapstone
Tristan has been a barista for over ten years and with Fernwood Coffee Co for more than five years now, where he trains and roasts when not on bar. Tristan has been a competitor many times over many years in local and national competitions. Tristan’s long history of competing and training gives him a keen eye when it comes to Latte Art and will offer a sound opinion to this event.
You can follow Tristan on Facebook and on Instagram
August 15th, 2018
LIVE FINALS FOR TOP LATTE ARTIST COMING SOON
Congratulations Sua for finishing 1st and winning $1,500 in the online qualifier for the Top Latte Artist in Vancouver! WOW
The Top 16 qualifiers will compete for another $2,500 at the Live Finals, September 21st, 630pm at The NEW Kafka’s Coffee Shop by Emily Carr University
Each competitor will be filmed live by Starbeat. You can watch and vote here or see it live at Kafka’s!
Different from the online qualifier, there will be 4 expert judges. These expert judges and your votes will determine who will be champion. You can follow along and vote here.
Tickets and more info coming soon.
For more info follow Starbeat on instagram / facebook
August 1st, 2018
Here are the Results
The top 16 are:
- Sua Hong from Nemesis Coffee who wins $1,500 !
- Arisa Fukuhara from Hey Happy Coffee wins a $800 Voucher from Canadian Barista Institute for their “Opening a Coffee Business” course.
- Lauren de Silva from Propaganda Coffee wins a beautifully hand-crafted Reg Barber Coffee Tamper !
- Misaki Yoshihara from Cafe Mira
- Cole Trepanier from Nemesis Coffee
- Luka Kawabata
- Yasmien Khan from Nemesis Coffee
- Stephaine Ng from Fresh Cup Roastery
-
Kazuma Go from Great Dane Coffee.
- Replacement for Kazuma is Clement Ip from Propaganda Coffee
- Gavin Tong from Rocanini
- Kunie Ibana from Platform 7
- Kyoung Jun Min
- Yoyo Li from Rocanini
- Daniel Chang from his own home
- Hitomi Fukuda from Propaganda Coffee
- Remi Ho from Origo Club
Hey, it’s not over yet!
All 16 latte artists will compete at the live finals for a grand prize of $2500 and the prestigious title of Top Latte Artist in Vancouver for 2018.
If you haven't yet, then head over to Starbeat.tv to watch the Top 30 Video Submissions here.
Stay tuned for the 'Live' Finals to be held on September 21st. Follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed.
June 1st, 2018
This contest is brought to you in partnership with ECM Espresso Coffee Machines Co., Breville and approved by the Canadian Barista Institute.
FREE to Enter – Online Grand Prize $1500! and In-person Grand Prize $2,500 totalling $4,000 total cash up for grabs to the top latte artist!
The Online Qualifier competition will officially launch at Midnight on July 1st 2018 and be open for voting until July 31st 2018 at 11:59pm PST where the Top 16 voted competitors will then be announced.
The Top 3 Qualifiers will win Cash and Prizes (Top Qualifier will win the Grand Prize of $1500) and ALL 16 Qualifiers will be invited to compete for more Cash and Prizes at a LIVE Event in Vancouver, BC with a Grand Prize of $2500! (Finals Date and Location to be announced)
To find out more, visit http://starbeat.tv/latte-vancouver/ 
