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People

Story/Photo: Coffee t&i Malaysia
Barista Feature / Lucas Eng Boon Hong

Malaysia’s First Ever National Latte Art Champion 2015

Introducing Malaysia’s first Latte Art Champion for
the year 2015. The nation recently organized its first national
Latte Art Championship in conjunction with Café Malaysia
2015.
The competition witnessed 15 participants pour it out
to become the first ever champion to represent Malaysia in
Gothenburg, Sweden this coming June 15th to 17th at the
World Latte Art Championships.
Orginating from Johor and currently working at Just
Want Coffee, this talented 22 year old has already had ex-
perience in winning local latte art throwdowns and is ready
to take on the world.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you first got
into coffee?
I come from a city called Johor Bahru, which is located
on the southern state of Malaysia. Back in 2013, Latte Art
attracted my interest when I was working as a barista in my
friends café. I now work in Just Want Coffee and must thank
them for allowing me to participate in this recent competition.
How many years have you been in the coffee industry?
I have been a barista for 2 years now since 2013.
Congratulations on being the first ever Malaysia Latte Art
Champion! You have made history! How does this feel?
I am still a little overwhelmed by the results. I am
tremendously happy that I’ve won and still dreaming of the
day when the emcee announced my name as the 2015 MLAC
champion.

Tell us a little bit about your designs chosen for the
competition, what inspired it?
To be honest, I am not really sure what inspired it.
Through all that training, I decided to choose this particular
design because it was my favourite.
What do you wish to achieve in the World Latte Art
Championships?
I hope we are able to expose to the world about Ma-
laysia and what we do here, and show my capabilities as the
Malaysian Champion in the World Stage. Certainly hope to
make all Malaysian’s proud of our nation to be able to compete
in the such a prestigious competition.

What would be your favourite coffee at the moment, blend
or single origins, tell us why?
I definitely enjoy blends better because I know it is not
easy to come up with a good blend for espresso based drinks.

Any major plans for WLAC? Eg. Changes the routine or
new designs?
I hope I will be able to maintain myself mentally, to
be calm and not nervous. We are planning to design a new
routine for WLAC to try and intimidate the other com-
petitors with the designs. I am planning to go through some
intensive training in the next couple of days to improve my
performance.
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