How To Organize a Latte Art Throwdown
Hey Y’all good afternoon, I’m deep in to my Monday admin work at Brass Tacks coffee. Vanilla Oat Milk Iced Latte in hand, listening to the album “Raw Honey” by Drug Dealer. Great like, 70’s rock type music, pretty recent release though. Someone told me it sounds like crosby and nash, I’ll have to check them out. I want to write a big long blog on throwdowns, so that’s what i’m going to do. By the time i’m done it will probably not be Monday. Oh well.
We had a latte art throwdown last night
It was awesome. We filled up the shop and the outside area. It was almost as busy as our grand opening, but this time I was ready. It never got out of control. Let me quickly outline that here. So we had a check in table by the door, where competitors could sign up and guests could buy raffle tickets. Both were given free empanada tickets, but baristas were also given stickers and raffle tickets for entering. This let us talk to everyone who came in and set the vibe. People could spread out outside or inside.
Then We had a DJ @djboborose who was able to recognize the room, flex the mood and adjust volume. This was hugely helpful, I could communicate easily without stressing about how people were feeling. When the latte art pours came out, we had a projector facing behind the bar where our menu goes, on a tripod, connected to my phone, meaning I could use my phone freely, and the projector could move, and the screen was always somewhere people could see. On our first throwdown it faced the entryway, which was easy to set up but made it weird for everyone to turn around.
Most of the night baristas hung around the outside of the bar towards the back of the cafe, and guests hung around the entrance or outside, but both could talk and see the pours. The check in table, dj, and judges hugged one wall separated by tables, while everyone else hugged the other closest to the door as they came in. dedicating that half of the cafe for our people, meant we had a sort of implied flow and walkway. Despite it being so full everyone could move around.
To outline staff. We had 6 people total. myself acting as manager, my barista on bar, my partner volunteering on check in, two judges volunteering. and a paid local dj.
As to what the staff did. I had my barista dedicated to pulling shots and directing bar flow. Resetting the espresso machine setup and explaining to baristas what to do. Calling for baristas when he was ready, and keeping them waiting when he was not. Thankfully we had an hour of practice rounds to familiarize everyone with flow including late entrants. I had my partner at the door on the check in table/pos, who also took the odd bar order (“hey can i have an almond milk latte, and a shirt“) and would push raffle ticket sales between rounds. I had a dj, and two judges who mostly did their own thing. Being from the scene they were invested in doing a good job and enjoying themselves. I mostly stood by the judges at the register to push out free lattes and survey the room. because lattes were all in to go cups it was very easy to keep messes small and clean up quick. I would sometimes back bar for my barista and sometimes walk around to check on staff. If we were using ceramics I probably would have had another staff member dedicated to back bar.
Why should you or your boss care about latte art comps?
Well what even are these things? Bluntly, they’re competitions to see who pours the best latte art. If you have baristas at these events, your shop is on that level. That’s good for your image. If you’re hosting these events, it’s even better. Right?
Well that’s my pitch to owners, maybe they don’t care about that because they’re doing their thing, and their locals will love them regardless. Hey that’s fair, but let me break it down for the culture.
When I jusst got started my city had zero /specialty/, and so traveling to these events was a way to experience that, meet great baristas, get better, and try out fancy new equipment. My boss did not care about these, and told me not to go. That was discouraging but it was my life, and I was a punk who thought I was very good so I went and used my shops name anyways. I went and met people and learned a lot. In most cases these were parties by the people, and I met others who would have lasting careers in coffee or in my city. Sometimes we won and sometimes we lost. It was significant for me as a person, and that’s why I feel like these are worthwhile even if you don’t “win.” Most people even really good baristas don’t win because they’ve got like one chance on equipment they’ve never touched before. You win by getting good on lots of machines, getting lucky, and by practicing.
If your boss would like to invest in the long term career and well being of his or her staff, community events like these are a good way to do so. It doesn’t make sense for every shop, and sometimes you as a barista will have to do all the leg work for free, but that’s how it goes. If you want to do it, below is my advice.
Here’s how you put a throwdown together, start to finish.
1st choosing a date
pick a date, I’d recommend a solid month out. You need a deadline, but you don’t need to announce it right away, just give yourself time to begin reaching out to sponsors.
some things to consider are shipping time for prizes once you’ve reached a sponsor, time it will take baristas to request off or not have other plans, and time it will take to communicate to your cafe-goers who may want to come.
For our initial throwdown it was also a grand opening, which means we had a ton of eyes and word got out quick (1-2 weeks)! 6 months out we had less attention so we had to generate it and it took more time (3-4 weeks people were still finding out)
You may also want to consider the time of year, people have stuff going on around the holidays and usually don’t during the summer for example. But your local area is subject to it’s own events and vibe. So consider that!
2nd staff and sponsors
now that you’ve got a date, talk to your staff, how is this going to look in your space and what do you need as far as workers and sponsors? When do you need to schedule that staff and when do you need those sponsors confirmed by to get them on an announcement poster?
SMALL! If you’re doing a pretty minimal “thursday night throwdown” (back when no one was very good, these weekly events were the norm.) You can go as small as, the entry fee is $5 and that’s the prize money. You don’t need any sponsors beyond your shop owner, who will have to front a few gallons of milk and a few pounds of beans. They may want a cut of entry fees to cover that. Since you’d only have local baristas in the space (about as full as your shop normally is) you only really need to work through word of mouth and your staff can be as one or two baristas volunteering. This is an event for fun, truly. Everyone should be understanding if runs a little wobbly, they’re there to hang out and work on new equipment, and practice.
MEDIUM! This is a shop event, people from outside your immediate barista friend group are showing up and it’s getting crowded. You may want to reach out to sponsors either for guest giveaways (keep people hanging around and having fun) or competitors (get people to show up), I’d recommend brands you are using on bar such as your espresso machine brand or your roaster. Go to their website and find the contact page, shoot them an email. “Hey were hosting a throwdown and we’re looking for sponsors to donate some giveaway prizes.” They’re usually happy to donate some merch or stickers and those will usually get to you in up to two weeks. For larger brands it’s easiest to get them on board at the beginning of any given financial quarter (January, April, July, October). You can also think about local sponsors, maybe you use a local milk or have local candles on the shelf, see if those people would like to donate giveaways or if your shop owner would like to donate some extra tumblers or t shirts. As for staff, you may want two people behind bar pulling shots and cleaning cups, as well as a host to announce what’s going on to the crowd and keep competitors moving. The host may volunteer, but at this level you basically have baristas working for hours and should pay them. If you increase entry fees to cover this, you may also want to have practice rounds so no one feels cheated. Which also means more labor hours. It’s critical at this level that you also have a front desk or somewhere for people to check in and ask questions like “where’s the bathroom” or “where’s the coffee bar?”
LARGE! You’re expecting and pushing for a big crowd, so you need to consider the needs of everyone involved and hand off some tasks. You could have a food truck or two and open up the space to include part of the outside area. This takes food and drinks off your back, moves people around and keeps them busy, and you could even charge the truck for using your space. You could have a DJ, which makes sound level and communication easier, puts another set of eyes on the vibe, and may help you set up a sound system for easy MC’ing. You want a fully staffed bar and front counter, and at this level you could even do a team competition depending on the size of your space. That means more staff but also higher entry fees. For sponsors you’ll want to get creative, reach out to everyone you can think of in the coffee industry from magazines to your milk brand to local coffee influencers. You may want to see if local restaurants or breweries want to provide or discount food / beer. if you end up with an excess of giveaway prizes you can do tote bags for entrants which will build hype around the event. But put in some footwork to contact brands, follow up, and follow up again. The same thing goes for entrants. reach out to the shops pages on instagram and offer discounts, go in to the bigger local shops with posters and tell baristas face to face what’s happening and why they should be excited. If you’re doing all this work to create a big party you need to let people know. Letting people know means photos and videos too! See if a local photographer wants to shoot the event or take videos that you can use to create content afterwards. At this size you’re putting in a lot of work to make the event beautiful, don’t let it go to waste.
3rd Announcing the event
Before announcing the event you need to have your ducks in a row. Make sure there’s a place online where you can sell entries, and that it’s functioning. Make it so that to sign up you need to enter your information.
Some important information to gather from entrants is: name, contact information, shop they’re representing, and maybe shirt size if you’re giving away merch.
Communicate all theevent logistics to your team too! Once it’s announced they’re all going to get questions about the event, and that may be there one chance to get people on board.
You want to make a splash, so think about the best time to post and then put a poster together. Format one for social media and one for literal posters around the shop and outside. Not everyone is online so you need eyes on both sides.
Ideally all of your information is succinctly available via the poster. Some key points in order of importance are: It’s a latte art throwdown, it’s on this date at this time, it’s at this place, everyone can come, it costs this much to enter, what else is happening at the event, it’s sponsored by these people.
putting this together in an easy to read but also visually attractive way can be tough, commission an artist or someone from your cafe if you can. There are great tools like Canva on mobile or pixlr on desktop that you can use as free photoshop alternatives if you aren’t an illustrator.
Once you do announce the event, share it everywhere, you need to start putting in work to promote it. Online and in person you can talk about it with people who come in the door or dm other cafes/baristas. Tell people to spread the word and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. For every ten people you tell you might get 1 person to come, so you have to tell at least 100 people haha.
4th Leading up to the event
think about everything you need. Did you borrow a projector? you need a projector sheet. Did you get a food sponsor? you need paper plates and trash cans out on the floor. Do you have someone donating beer? You need coolers. If there’s anything you need to order, do it early. If there’s anything you need to pick up day of, schedule that pickup in advance.
schedule staff and communicate the plan. If you need baristas to arrive two hours before the event. You should let them take off early and prepare for it. Make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them day of, and that they can perform that task.
Check in on your sponsors, is that food truck on the way, is that camera man on the way? Is everyone going to be there on time or early?
arrive early early early. Even if you have everything in your head, it will take time for everyone to arrive and get on the same page. Beyond that, people will show up early and come piling in, it will be really hard to organize yourself once you have a full room. If you need to close the cafe early to get ready, do that.
5th During the event
Try to create touch points.
Have someone or somewhere that guests and baristas can go to check in. if the room is going to be packed maybe that’s outside the door in front. Even if there’s nothing for them to pick up or buy, just someone to talk to can be massively helpful for guests
Consider that many of these people are traveling and visiting for the first time. Even if you have blind faith that everyone is able to orient themselves at a glance, you want to make a good impression. They may ask some basic questions about the shop that it’d be great to answer and leave them with positive thoughts about what you do.
Keep an eye on the tone of the room
you don’t want to miss some major mood, and the occasional check in on the music or the people who look lost will go a long way. You can do your best to cover your bases but having those pauses will fill the cracks.
If you have touch points, talk to those touch points and see if they need anything or if they’re concerned about anything. Maybe they need water or maybe a bunch of people had to leave who were supposed to be next in the bracket, and they took the projector with them, and they spilled an ice latte on the register.
Keep it tight.
keep an eye on the time and have a goal for when things should be done. If you want people to stick around you need to keep things moving. Beyond that if you want to get out of here on time you need friends who’ve stuck around to pickup.
You’re a cafe, people need to get up at 5am tomorrow, this can’t run too late. Keep that in mind when spacing out your events throughout the night.
6th After the event
Thank your friends
those are all the baristas who made this possible, all your staff, your judges, your community, your sponsors and beyond! Think about all the folks who made this possible!
Clean it like you mean it
If you get the ball rolling on cleanup immediately people will pitch in and you won’t be out too late. Remember that if you’re opening tomorrow, this needs to be as reset as it is normally or open shift is going to hate you haha.
Ask people for photos!
people will share photos, and you need to remember to ask for those photos so they don’t go to waste. Beyond just sharing the posts your tagged in, say thank you and ask for those posts especially if it’s a medium or small event with no camera man. People will happily share their photos if you JUST ASK.
Wake up two days later and post about it!
posting the next day is a waste of your followers bandwidth. It will be buried. Wait until the initial frenzy of shared photos dies down and then post. So that everyone who was patiently waiting for the photos you took can share them and talk about them.
Congratulations you just threw down.
I hope you had fun, again that’s the point! you may find it was quiet or deadly serious. I like to play loud music, talk to people, and avoid cash prizes. But sometimes that’s just the scene. What you can do to make it more fun is invite everybody and just be radically kind. Do more throwdowns make more friends and have more fun forever.
Thanks for reading - Elias
