Sweetland’s Latte Art Throwdown: Celebrating 100 Years!

In celebration of 100 years serving this great community, we hosted a latte art throwdown this past Saturday at our location in Rockford. Barista connoisseurs alongside beginners competed for some spectacular prizes; we couldn’t think of a better way to commemorate 100 fantastic years than spending time with those who helped us get to where we are today and hosting the throwdown of the century!

The shop was packed full of people ready to party. Everyone was eager to cheer on the baristas and see some fantastic latte art. In total, fourteen people eagerly entered the completion. We saw talented baristas from local coffee shops like Madcap, Ferris, Lyon Street Cafe, Stovetop Coffee Roasters, and our own baristas from Sweetland. Among the fourteen competitors were seasoned baristas, people who hadn’t tried their hand at latte art in years, and one person who practiced his craft at home on his own espresso machine. The competition was fierce and everyone brought their A-game.
​
The latte art throwdown had a total of six rounds and kicked off with Round 1: Tulip art in a latte. As the competition continued, the art got more sophisticated and more difficult. The judges had a hard time deciding because all the art was so well done. Halfway through, we changed it up and challenged baristas to do their best art with their non-dominant hand! The final round required extreme skill and concentration: Swan latte art.

After lots of hard work, laughter, and tough competition we crowned our first, second, and third place winners; in first place Colin Russell; a Madcap barista, in second place, Ben Martin, also from Madcap, and in third place our very own Mikayla Scogg from Sweetland’s Rockford Location.

We are so thankful to all the people that participated in our first  latte art throwdown; you all did amazing! It was such a great way to celebrate 100 wonderful years of business. Thank you to everyone who came out to watch; Sweetland had such an excellent time celebrating with our community! We love serving quality chocolates and coffee, but most of all, we love the people we serve. Thank you to each one of our community members who have supported us at some point in the past 100 years; cheers to 100 more!

If you were at the event, tag us in your photos @sweetlandcandies on instagram; we would love to see them.

Written by Haliegh Beasley