The crema of the crop: Sarah Veasey in action at the the Atomic Latte Art Throwdown.

LAURA WILLIAMSON

There are those of us who really believe that making coffee is an art, and now Wanaka can claim to be home to one of its top artists.

Sarah Veasey, a barista at Florences Foodstore & Cafe, beat out 32 competitors to win the Atomic Latte Art Throwdown at World Bar in Queenstown on Thursday (June 22).

The Throwdown is an annual event which tours the country, challenging New Zealand’s top baristas to create their best latte art. The designs are created by pouring steamed milk into espresso, and are judged on factors such as the position of pattern in the cup, the sheen and texture of the milk, and whether there is a high contrast between the white of the milk and the brownish crema. The Queenstown event was the last stop of this year’s tour.

Sarah said the competition, which is run in a series of head-to-head knockout rounds, was "nerve-racking”. For the first round, the baristas had to create one of five patterns chosen at random from a stack of cards: a swan, a three-tier tulip, a five-tier tulip, a rosetta or a heart.

A overhead camera recorded the action and projected it on a large screen, while the judges were seated directly in front of the competitors and pointed at their favourite design - the majority winner went through to the next round. 

For the next three rounds, the baristas were able to choose their own patterns, but were not allowed to repeat themselves; in the final round, a pattern was chosen at random again, but the design had to be executed in a smaller, more difficult, espresso cup.

As for her win, which came with a $1000 winner’s purse, Sarah said, "I was very surprised”. She said she was so nervous she couldn't even bring herself to watch the judges: "I turned around and waited until I heard my name over the microphone.”  

Sarah has been making coffee for "quite some time” - she worked at Soul Food when she was in high school, and has been doing latte art since she started working at Florence’s, about 18 months ago. Rather than going for overly-intricate designs, Sarah told the Wanaka App she tries to stick to the basics, and do them really well. It’s a strategy that obviously worked. 

Her win aside, Sarah said she enjoyed the fact that three of the four semi-finalists were from Wanaka, with Sarah joined at the coffee machine by Sumin from Alchemy, and Bonnie Lam, who is planning to open a coffee shack next to the crepe truck on Brownston Street. 

Bonnie even knocked out the winner of the Christchurch Latte Art Throwdown, who had come down to have a crack at the Queenstown contest. 

Sarah said in this sense the competition was really positive for Wanaka. "The MC was going on about how we’ve got some of the best baristas in country,” she said.

PHOTO: Supplied