Little Seed Coffee Roasters hosted a tournament style Latte Art Throwdown on Feb. 28 to raise money, in tandem with other local businesses, for the Middlebury Skatepark Project.
A celebration of small town charm, the throwdown featured both impressive and unexpected milk foam art ranging from a seahorse to a human face. The atmosphere was vibrant with a well-caffeinated, standing audience. Given Little Seed’s commitment to sustainability, every latte carefully crafted for the competition was given to the audience members and participants, despite the late hour.
Daniel Gutierrez, owner and roaster at Iluminar Coffee and a former Middlebury student, served as a judge of the competition, the fourth latte art showcase he has judged. Gutierrez told The Campus that when he lived in Jacksonville, Florida, he competed every month in various latte art competitions of varying sizes.
“I think there might be eight competitors tonight. I’ve been to latte art competitions that are just four people and I’ve also been to competitions with 128 people,” Gutierrez said.
A Latte Art Throwdown is structured similarly to many other competitions and sports.
“It is a head-to-head competition that’s bracket style,” Gutierrez said. “Two competitors go up against each other. They steam milk, and then they go ahead and pour their design into the cup. After they pour the design into the cup, a really important part of the process is being able to then carry the cup and place it down on the counter…whoever wins that goes to the next round and then it continues that head-to-head style.”
To avoid bias, the judges look away while the competitors pour their designs, ensuring they do not know which latte belongs to which competitor. Once the three judges turn around, they take a few minutes to observe, formulate an opinion and then point to the latte they think should win.
The judging criteria includes several factors including how much the milk contrasts with the espresso, symmetry, cleanliness, complexity and difficulty of the design attempted, and the surface tension.
Little Seed Coffee Roasters previously hosted a latte art throwdown in 2022, a year after the café was first opened by Maggie Keith and Anthony Gerakos, partners and business co-owners. Maggie said that the event came back this year because of passionate Little Seed team members who got excited to bring it back.
“It's a good opportunity to have interaction between people in the community and students. And then also at Little Seed we take pride in our latte art. So I think it's cool to be able to kind of showcase that,” said Henry Chambers ’27, one of the staff members who competed.
Alex Milley ’25, an employee at Little Seed who has worked there since it opened, won the throwdown despite his round one elimination in the 2022 competition. He won an electric pour-over coffee kettle and a bronze milk frothing pitcher trophy.
“I think I've done better when I'm not nervous,” Milley said. “The nerves definitely play a role. Just breathe a little bit. I don't know. You don't really get to deal with it. You just pour, go back to the basics.”
Little Seed collaborated with local businesses for the throwdown, providing local Drop In Brewery Beers as concession. They were supported by Sparrow Art Supply, the Middlebury Inn and others to provide enticing prizes for the different raffle packages.
All funds went to the Middlebury Skatepark project as a fundraiser to support their mission. Former Little Seed employee and Middlebury Skatepark Project Board Member Kristen Carra was the brains behind the collaboration.
“We talked a lot about wouldn't it be cool if one day we did a little event for this? And the Latte Art throwdown we did a few years ago was so successful we thought, hey, this would be a nice little spring treat to bring to the community,” Carra explained.
Jill Quakenbush, treasurer of the Middlebury Skatepark Project and roller skater herself, was also instrumental in helping this event come to life.
“It's to provide an alternative recreation option, in particular for adolescents and teens and kids… And so we're trying to provide a safe, purpose built place to practice wheel sports,” Quakenbush said on the importance of the Middlebury Skatepark Project.
The mission of the Middlebury Skatepark Project is to build a 7,500 square foot concrete skate park in Recreation Park near the swimming pool. Right now, they are working on fundraising to break ground on this vision, replacing the temporary mini ramp holding its place.
“My collective friends were very much my skatepark homies… It was a nice place to go as a teenager where I felt like I could be with my friends. It was safe, it was fun. We were active and we just were kind of hanging out and making really great friendships,” Carra said.
Events like the Latte Art Throwdown are examples of classic, eccentric small town fun with an essential purpose for the community.
