Like that 'silver fern' you get on your latte in the morning?

Well, there's far more, and better, where that came from, as 15 baristas from cafes around the country - and one from Australia - showed on Sunday at the New Zealand Latte Art Championship.

The event, held at Wellington's Mac Brewery, attracted top baristas showing off their skills as they tried to impress judges and their peers with a visual flair forged in foam.

New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association executive director Aymon McQuade said the skill was highly prized among baristas - who took the visual craft seriously.

"These guys take a huge amount of pride in surprising and delighting their customers with their latte art - there's an amazing amount of talent," McQuade said.

The field was narrowed down to six and those finalists were given 10 minutes to twice replicate three different coffee designs.

Calvin Ko, of Melbourne's Little Rogue cafe, won the championship.

Runner up was Leo Li, of Auckland's Mojo Coffee, with Isaac Yu, of Mt Eden's The Return of Rad in third place.







