May 24, 2019

Thursday Night Throwdown– Carabello's First Latte Art Throwdown!

May 9th. What an incredible night for a Throwdown. We had 32 Baristas from the region show up to compete! From Louisville to Cleveland, we had a ton of reputable roasters and shops present!

Austin Childress, Director of Coffee Education and MC of the evening shares his thoughts:

The Throwdown took place inside of Carabello Coffee at the Analog Bar. What impressed me the most was the wide variety of baristas who attended - from both a geographical & experience perspective. We had several people drive an hour or more to be at the event!

The format was head-to-head with the first rounds having the competitors roll dice in order to determine the size of the pour & the design. This brought a fun chance dynamic & kept the baristas on their toes. In the championship round we did best two out of three pours, each one being a different design, showing that the winner had to be a master of all designs in that moment. The winner was Alex Evans of Landlocked / La Grassa, runner-up was Rachel Diaz of Flatlands coffee near Cleveland.

I love the way that the coffee community comes together to celebrate & challenge one another. I walk away on a high after every coffee event I've ever been to, & this one was no different.

Thank you to our judges, Keaton Neely of Rohs Street Cafe, Melis Aydogan of Ruya Coffee, and Caleb Stanko of FC Cincinnati .

Thanks to our sponsors, La Marzocco, Tinker Coffee, Quills Coffee, Fellow, Ritual Chocolate, Prima, Baratza, Cafe Imports, and FC Cincinnati! We couldn't have given our participants amazing gifts without your sponsorships!