Latte art is the meeting of
these two viscous foams
that's taking a snapshot
of that fluidity
and representing it as a still picture.
And if there's something wrong with
either one of those foams,
with either one of those mediums,
the design's not gonna come out
with the intended clarity
or the intended design
or just any intention all.
This entire tournament is
a head to head bracketed
single elimination. Expect to see
a lot of passion, a lot of baristas,
a lot of geeking out about everything
having to do with coffee,
A fair amount of beer, some smack talking 
and just like in general sense of camaraderie
and community building
which is really the primary
focus of these kind of events.
The judges will compare the two
drinks in regards to contrast,
symmetry, balance, and definition. Whoever gets
the most votes will then proceed on to
the next round. The other person goes
home with a tail in between their legs.
There are essentially 3
basic latte art designs. 
The simplest design
ostensibly, that we have, is called the heart, 
which is exactly what it sounds like.
It looks like a heart in the cup.
The second design that we have is a
tulip, which is a natural progression
from the heart in that it's
a stop-start to then continue and put several hearts 
together in a layer that resembles the tulip flower.
And then the third design that
we have is called the rosetta.
It's a very intricate, complicated design
with many leaves and layers
that resembles kind of a fern.
There's definitely technical skills required,
but there's also a certain
touch that one has
to have in it's place
In that way it's really not dissimilar
from masonry or welding
in that there is specific
ways that compounds need to be mixed
in order to form appropriately
but at the same time, you have to put
some kind of asthetic into it in order
to have anything that anybody ever
wants to look at. So I think
it's a fairly equal mix of both
art and science. The really amazing
thing about latte art
is that harkens back to a much
earlier time in painting.
I always think of Monet
when I think of latte art
because I think he's such
a fantastic artist
and he made all of his own oils,
while you know that wasn't a choice, it was is something that he
had to do was to create his own medium
and the baristas here are essentially
doing the same thing.
They're creating their own espresso,
they're creating their own milk,
and based on their skill
in being able to create
these mediums and then their skill to be
able to combine these two mediums
produces something
that's either extraordinary
or, sometimes, kind of laughable.
It's just been many moons.
I think the reason they we are seeing it's increase
in popularity is because it's a very srong indicator
of a quality beverage, and the industry
more and more
is being focused towards
quality verses consumption
or speed, as I think is true 
with craft industries all over the place.
