Counter Culture Coffee New York

Last night marked the second official Thursday Night Throwdown in NYC. Last time we did this in NY, we were blindfolded, the CCC training center didn’t exist yet, and Danielle Glasky didn’t live in New York. My, how things have changed!

We had 20 competitors compete two at a time head to head in an instant death, bracket-style showdown. Every competitor threw in $5 and was given one pitcher of Battenkill Valley Creamery milk to steam and one chance to pour some sick latte art. We kept it to twenty competitors so it wouldn’t take forever, but there was about 50 people total in the crowd. Thanks for everyone for coming out!

Who reigned supreme? Who was judging this thing anyways? What were the toughest calls to make? Did Katie cheat and do I smell? All valid questions.

Our judges were the lovely Amber Sather of Cafe Grumpy and Katie Duris who just moved to NYC from DC

Another tough one to judge was between Sam from Everyman (l) and Janet from Joe (r). Both of those were among the best pours of the whole night! Sam narrowly won out because of that sick ring around her rosetta.

Also tough to judge were the pours between Humberto of 3rd Rail and Wiggles. (Humberto won)

seriously, which one would you pick?

Faith from Spruce St. Espresso in Philadelphia earned her spot in the finals by beating everyone she went up against with some sweet pours. Here’s her pour (l) next to Humberto’s: 

Faith and Ben went head to head in the finals and……… Faith repped the Philly coffee skillz by taking home the grand prize! Rather than show you pictures of the final pours (which to be honest weren’t that impressive) I’ll just show you a picture of Faith in her post-win glow. That’s the funny thing about these bracket-style competitions.. the winning pour is often not the best pour of the night. It just has to be slightly better than the other person’s. That’s not to take away from the awesomeness of Faith’s skills… it takes a lot of poise to pour under pressure and beat out the competition round after round. Also, after all that she’s donating her money to charity.. how selfless is that?! If you would like to contribute too to the 2-day 150 mile ride she’s doing for multiple sclerosis just follow the link.

Much more selfless than defacing the name of the person on the board who TOTALLY BEAT YOU FAIR AND SQUARE.

only one of these is true

I'm looking at you, Daryn Berlin

See you guys next time!