2013 World Latte Art finals round will commence on 28 June from 10am European Summer Time in Nice, France [that's around 8pm our time tonight].

Finalists: Korea, Poland, New Zealand, Japan, The Netherlands and Spain [Sam Low from NZ].

Should be able to watch finals from livestream http://new.livestream.com/worldcoffee/WLAC2013

best wishes to all six!

The winner's rose was something special.

The ability to replicate what's on the supplied photo, presentation as well as innovation in design was what's  required to win.

Scottie,s 5 leaves that won him the 2006 championship would not stand a chance in today's competition.

Competition is achieving higher standards every year. Not just Latte art but also evident in the WBC as well.

Ok here's an extract from the official WCE press release concerning World Latte Art champs at MICE this weekend:

"Melbourne, Australia (May 12th 2014): This year's World Latte Art Championship, World Coffee in Good Spirits and World Cup Tasters Championship, produced by World Coffee Events, will be the highlight of the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, from May 15-18, 2014, at the Melbourne Showgrounds.
 
The World Latte Art Championship (WLAC) brought to you by its 2014 Title Sponsor PURA, the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship featuring the 2014 Official Liquor Sponsor, Grand Marnier, and the World Cup Tasters Championship will cover 2000sqm during the four-day show, attracting an estimated 10,000 visitors. A total of 31 national latte art champions, 17 coffee in good spirits champions, and 36 national cup tasters champions will compete, with only one world champion emerging from each competition.
 
With coffee communities from all 56 nations tuning in to watch live from WCE's Livestream broadcast, over 44,000 online viewers (figures from 2012 WBC) are expected to be ready and watching their own national champions compete - http://new.livestream.com/worldcoffee."

^^^^^^ But can he make a good coffee???

Did any forum members attend MICE and watch this? I did ... and I was really confused as to what was meant to be happening.

I drove down from Sydney on Friday under the somewhat misguided idea that I was going to see the most awesome display of unbelievably creative Latte Art on the planet in 2014. I used Saturday to see exhibits thinking that I'll attend the finals to see the best, and sat through the finals on Sunday thinking ... WTF??

Don't get me wrong, they ALL poured with great precision from what I could see sitting right smack bang in the middle of the stand in front of the LED screen. The camera work was quite poor, lots of shots of the competitors faces, the photos, their eyes from across the top of the espresso machines, wrong aspect ratio on one camera, and plenty of partially obscured shots of actual pours at the same level as the rim of the cup. Not very enlightening.

The MC could have taken any number of opportunities to explain the point of the competition, what the judges were looking for, scoring, etc, but no. All he wanted to do was get us to clap and make noise.

I left at the completion of the final round and didn't bother going back for the presentation. I know "SACRILEGE, HERESY, stone him to death"! But hey, I was expecting to be stunned and wasn't.

The rest of my two day visit to MICE was truly excellent so I have no regrets in going, but would I attend another Latte Art Championship based on my recent experience? No.

I'm going to contact WCE and ask them to explain the event, see if I can get any useful insights for a total latte art competition dunce like me. Somehow I suspect not much will be forthcoming.