Jen at the Veneziano Coffee Roasters stand (no. 60) at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo on Thursday May 23:
-Chemex brew bar in the morning
-Espresso bar in the afternoon
Melbourne, Australia, May 2013 – Jen Marks, Australian Latte Art Champion 2013 and one of Melbourne’s favourite baristas, will pour up some Chemex filter brews in the morning and appear behind the espresso machine in the afternoon MICE visitors may be lucky enough to see some of her beautiful latte art creations, on Thursday May 23 on Veneziano’s stand.
Also a roaster, Jen is currently preparing to compete as Australia’s representative in Nice, France, at the World Latte Art Championships next month. Any spare time she has is put towards practicing on the Dalla Corte competition specified machine, kindly on loan to Jen by Zarraffa’s Coffee, in a gesture that demonstrates the true spirit of Australia’s coffee community supporting their own.
Jen’s personal preference in latte art is the classic, simple look of a free pour pattern. However, she has been known to do some etchings for her friends from time to time, although more for the fun and enjoyment of it. If combining the two methods, Jen’s says it’s best to complement the free pour art with etching.
In choosing a design, it’s particularly challenging to come up with something new to use in a competition. It seems as though everything in terms of patterns and designs has already been attempted, but of course it hasn’t! Jen’s advice for selecting patterns is that it’s important to be confident whilst practicing the design so that when the time comes to perform it under pressure you are less likely to make any errors.
“When trying to come up with something really creative I look for inspiration in everyday shapes and images, looking for things that incorporate either round, tulip, heart or rosetta shapes because these are the foundation patterns you are more or less limited to,” says Jen. For example, she used a stylised rosetta to create a flowing mane on a unicorn in one of her patterns.
In her World Latte Art Championship 2013 campaign, Jen would like to thank and acknowledge the generous support from:
– Zarraffa’s Coffee for supplying a Dalla Corte (official World Latte Art machine)
– David and Greg from Appliance Maintenance Co (NSW) for the loan of Mahlkonig grinder
– D’Ancap cups provided by Antony de Fina of Casa Espresso
– Peter from Cafetto for providing her with the cleaning cloths
