Nick again. Don't worry, today's blog won't be a diatribe-- just having a mellow afternoon, pulling shots, watching my latte art (finally) get back to speed. Not where it was over the Summer, but it's getting there. More importantly, the shots are pulling beautifully. Which gets me to a point I wanted to make (oh no! we're in diatribe territory!)-- latte art. Being from Vancouver, I've become accustomed to latte art being no big deal. It's something you learn how to do, even take pride in, but not the coup de grace. We're still in the business of making coffee, you know? Latte art is presentation, but that's about it. I guess moving to Toronto has got me thinking again because latte art is still relatively new here, and I feel like a lot of shops are at a crossroads-- some want to forget about it, considering it an excessive, extravagant, and ultimately unnecessary accoutrement. Others want to dive in whole hoard, working so hard at their rosettes that they neglect to notice their espresso just extracted in ten seconds. So I was happy to find out today that in the upcoming, still somewhat nebulous TBA Toronto latte art competition, taste will be a factor. Bring it on! I look forward to pouring dynamite latte art into beautifully extracted shots of espresso (the best part, right?). More info on this bad oscar when it comes. And don't forget, regional CBCs are just down the road...