Thursday Night Throwdown Will Pit Barista Vs. Barista

It may not be what you expect when you hear the event name: Thursday Night Throwdown.

It's not Bobby Flay coming to challenge a cook-off, or a Smackdown style wrestling bout.

Thursday Night Throwdown, an event that will be held this week at A&E Coffee Roastery in Amherst, is an event familiar to coffee industry professionals who gather at shops around the country on Thursday nights to throwdown in latte art design.

Latte art is created using an espresso machine and steamed milk.

It's a growing passion among coffee professionals to express creativity in their espresso and in some shops around the world, buyers expect to find artwork in their latte.

According to Emeran Langmaid, owner of A&E Roastery, this is a new event to them, though some of the staff has been dabbling in creating latte art for a while now. It takes hours upon hours of practice to learn to control a pour well enough to be creative with it, Langmaid said.

Thursday Night Throwdowns are not only a great place for people to meet other coffee professionals, but they are a great place to showcase and improve skills.

“When everyone's skills and understanding improve, it's better for the industry as a whole,” Langmaid said.

This Thursday night is the first time the Amherst coffee shop is hosting this event.

They had an in-house competition recently, but this will be the first time competing against people outside of A&E.

The skill, Langmaid said, is definitely a combination of artistic prowess and technician.

“It certainly looks easy, but it's extremely difficult to reproduce," she said.

There are two ways to pour your milk into your espresso to create designs in the top of the cup: free pour and etching.

With free pour – the style that will be used in the competition – it's you, your cup of espresso and milk, and the machine.

Etching is more complex and it it allows the use of tools to help sculpt foamed milk.

On Thursday, the public is encouraged to attend the competition, where baristas from A&E Roastery, a shop in Exeter, some expected from the Keene area and hopefully more, will compete this contest using the free pour method.

Rules vary from competition to competition, but for this competition, each competitor gets one pour however, there is no time limit for how long the design takes to create. Judging is based on things like, symmetry, how well it fits the cup, the contrast between milk and coffee, and more.

Attendees from the public can arrive at 8 p.m. and learn a bit about espresso and the art of latte art. The throwdown is expected to begin around 9 p.m.

“We're pretty much shooting in the dark,” Langmaid said. “We're not sure what to expect from this.”

Langmaid said she has committed to running this competition for several months. It is scheduled for the second Thursday of every month until May and though right now the only competition location is A&E, Langmaid said she expects to find other shops that will serve as the host so people who are driving from say Keene to Amherst don't have to be the only ones who travel.

The competition is $5 to enter, and anyone who has experience on an espresso machine like the one in the shop is welcome to participate. The event itself is free to the public, though donations are accepted. All money raised at the events go to support Coffee Kids. Winners will receive gift certificates donated by local businesses.

According to its website, Coffee Kids “works with organizations in coffee-farming communities throughout Latin America to create projects in the areas of education, health care, economic diversification, food security and capacity building. These efforts allow coffee farmers to reduce their dependence on the volatile coffee market and confront their communities’ most pressing needs."

Langmaid encouraged anyone intrigued by latte art and the idea of seeing it up close and personal to come check the event out.

“It's a great social event to support coffee professionals in the area,” Langmaid said.

And it's so new, to the area, this is a pretty unique event. Thursday Night Throwdown started in Atlanta five or six years ago, Langmaid said, and branched out to other major cities.

“The more people we have, the more fun we have,” Langmaid said.