You Gotta Respect the Swan

There was drama and there were tears. There was the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It was the best of times it was the worst of times ...

No, actually it was pretty awesome all the way around! Coffee & Crema's first ever Latte Art Hoedown went over really, really well and I want to say thanks to everyone that came out and showed such wonderful support. Ironically Ben, Danielle, Byron, Dave, Sandy, Jason and Brady all came from far, far away to help make the Greenville coffee community come alive. But there were some great locals too: Dustin, Charlotte, Connie and the couple from Coffee Underground that arrived a little too late to compete.

And of course there was Alex ...

But we'll get to his tale in a minute. First I'd like to thank the judges for doing such a great job with such little prep time. They made the competition something to talk about and fun at the same time and I can't imagine how stressed they must have been trying to give a fair decision to all the competitors. Thank you Reggie, Gary and the aforementioned from-far-away Sandy.

And then there was Alex ...

He came up against Jason Dominy, a battle scarred and milk stained latte artist of the highest caliber, in the first round. Jason's design was good, great even and Alex poured over to the side of the cup, ruining the symmetry of an otherwise pretty rosetta.

But luck favors the bold and she knew Alex had another pour in him. So it came down to the semi-finals and there were only three competitors; a wildcard was needed. So Sandy holds out the cards of the people that fell in the first round and up comes Alex's name! He had another chance!

Unfortunately, he was going up against a grand masterclass latte artist, a man whose name strikes fear into the heart of anyone foolish enough to throw down against him, a demi-god of froth, Ben Helfen. And Ben's pour was good. I mean really good. But just like in the movies, where the beaten hero has a knife in his boot or an immunity to Iocane powder, Alex pulled out the swan.

Now, in retrospect, it's debatable whether Alex's swan in fact looked better than Helfen's immaculate heart-on-wings but at that moment it was so ballsy and so Rocky-taunting-Clubber-Lang that it HAD to win. It was awesome and the crowd went wild.

After that the final round was a foregone conclusion. Alex was the hero that could do no wrong and he handily took the title, Baratza Vario grinder, and winning pot of $70.

(Who says I have an overdeveloped sense of the melodramatic?)

Congratulations to Alex for representing the local talent to so well. It goes to show that there is talent everywhere if you are willing to look for it.

Also a great success was the drink giveaway for charity. We managed to raise $115 dollars for Meals on Wheels, through fewer than 25 drinks. Everyone who gave, gave generously and I'm sure the people they are helping to feed are grateful. Thank you so very much guys.

And the great thing about it is that we've learned some good lessons for next time. Our next Hoedown, this month on the 28th should be even better. I'll announce more as we get closer to to that last Thursday of the month.

... there seems to be a problem with the file upload and I can't get any more pictures into the post. I'll try and post more later ...