Barista from Liberec named Czech Republic’s best coffee artist
Who makes the prettiest looking lattes in the Czech Republic? According to the results of this year’s annual Latte Art competition it is Jakub Souček from the North Bohemian city of Liberec. His impression of a two-winged swan on the top of a coffee cup was voted the best in the Milkdown category.
If regular visits to coffee shops are your thing, you may want to think about traveling to Liberec and visiting Pražírna Nordbeans. Its barista, Jakub Souček, is officially the best coffee artist in the Czech Republic after becoming the Milkdown Champion of the 2020 Latte Art contest.
Speaking to Czech Radio’s Jana Pšeničková, he said that this year’s competition took place online due to the coronavirus epidemic and consisted of four rounds.
“Eight pairs were set up from a total of 16 candidates. We always had to send our art creation by a certain date. The video could not exceed 30 seconds. It had to include our faces and an image of the coffee cup before the picture is made. The jury decided that the first picture had to be a heart. Then, in round two, we had to make a tulip with six leaves.”
The rules then loosened in the semi-finals and the baristas were given a free choice of what milk drawing they wanted to create, says Mr. Souček.
“I had no idea what to make. I was thinking that maybe I could make a swan, but then thought that might be too easy, so I was considering making a seahorse. However, the seahorse didn’t work out, so I ended up going for a bit of a more complex looking swan. In the finals I made a swan again, but this time with two wings.”
The more complex looking swan was enough to win the competition against the other finalist, who also made a swan.
Humble in victory, Mr. Souček says that the reason why he is the champion is because his colleagues helped him in promoting his art and not all baristas in the Czech Republic were aware of the contest. This year’s competition will certainly be more challenging, as the number of contestants has already been doubled to 32.
Asked about how good Czech coffee art is when compared internationally, Mr. Souček says that Asian countries, especially Japan, are far ahead in this respect. Apparently thanks to a long tradition of mixing coffee with milk.
For aspiring artists he says that the easiest picture to start with is a heart, with seahorses and unicorns being at the top end of the scale.
