The second annual Sacramento Public Latte Art Tournament had its first round of participants compete in one on one latte art creations on April 30 at 7 p.m. at Chocolate Fish Coffee on Folsom Blvd. in Sacramento.

The turnout for this event was huge.

People were gathered shoulder-to-shoulder as they watched the baristas at work.

Some people crowded near the counter to observe, others peered over the judges’ shoulders, and some stood near the back wall where there was a projected image of the battles taking place.

“I heard about the competition from a friend. It’s crazy to see how talented these baristas are. There’s well over 60 people here showing support and having a good time. The latte designs are interesting to see,” said Sacramento State death studies major Tony Castro.

SPLAT serves to shine a light on the skillful latte artists in the Sacramento area while giving people the opportunity to observe their local coffee house baristas living out their passion.

Baristas gathered from coffee houses all over Sacramento, including parts of Roseville such as Bloom and Shady.

Some were there competing for the first time, others were returning participants. The winner of last year’s SPLAT, Cole Cuchna with an accumulated 710 points was present Thursday evening and also competed again.

The highest scoring contestants from the first competition included: Christian Winger from Chocolate Fish, 2nd Christopher Ortega from Temple, and 3rd Lucas Elia from Insight.

SPLAT will continue on through the summer.

There will be a competition held every last Thursday of the month that welcomes up to 60 participants per tournament. These events will consist of one on one challenges of local baristas striving to display their most skillful latte art designs.

Total, there will be a predicted 6 tournaments, one at each coffee house also known as a Roaster, and then a finale. The coffee houses that will be hosting the tournaments include: Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters, Temple Fine Coffee & Tea, Old Soul-Weatherstone, Insight Coffee Roasters, and Naked Coffee.

Each monthly competition will have three rounds of specific designs the artists must create.

The first three are hearts, tulips and rosettas and then it will be a freestyle for the remaining pours.

This allows baristas to showcase their ability to meet expectations of the judges and also implement their own creativity into the competition expressing a little more of who they are.

Each latte will be judged on contrast, texture, foam, symmetry of pattern and achieved difficulty.

Jeremiah Frazier, who was the facilitator for the event held at Chocolate Fish, expresses what he is most looking forward to for this year’s tournament.

“Participation; last year we saw a lot of participation from Sacramento and Northern California,” said Frazier. “This year I really am excited about how we’ve already hit our capacity and we did that in three or four days. More and more people are gathering and wanting to participate which is really why SPLAT exists.”

Baristas who have entered this tournament are very skilled and have trained for at least a year leading up to this.

The purpose of SPLAT is not only to bring attention to the specialty coffee houses of Sacramento but to focus on the baristas themselves.

This event allows baristas to gather and express the talent they possess.

“It’s exciting because it’s showing our community how passionate our baristas are about what they’re doing,” said facilitator, Edie Baker. “Many of the baristas have been training for this for at least a year. They have chosen to do this for their life — they’ve decided to be in coffee. People don’t get that it’s a huge profession and it takes a long time to master. It is a craft and its a profession and were trying to raise some awareness about it.”