Melanie Marcee-Ducayet has dedicated her career to coffee.

So it’s no surprise that the former Jo’s Coffee and Caffe Medici barista was in her element on a recent Thursday night at Texas Coffee Traders as she crafted a heart on top of a latte in front of a roomful of cheering spectators.

"(Coffee) is kind of my world," she said.

Once her heart latte was finished, she set her cup next to her competitor’s and waited the excruciatingly long minute for the three-judge panel to make its decision.

Soon, the verdict was in. Marcee-Ducayet had advanced to the second round.

The Austin Coffee Society’s Thursday Night Throwdown, a latte art competition that pits baristas from around the city against one another, started in 2009 as a fun way to build camaraderie among local coffee shops. In the years since, it’s transformed into a raucous monthly event that draws hundreds of spectators and has helped to bolster Austin’s reputation as a tight-knit, coffee-loving city.

Competitors create heart-shaped designs in lattes during Thursday Night Throwdown at Texas Coffee Traders on Aug. 30. ANA RAMIREZ / AMERICAN-STATESMAN

American-Statesman Staff

"People are cheering for each other and high-fiving," said Beth Beall, a judge in the August throwdown and the owner of Texas Coffee Traders, which hosted last month’s event. "A lot of times these are competitive coffee shops that go head to head in the community, but they’re all rooting for each other. If you walk in, you’re like, ‘Whoa, this is louder than I thought it was going to be.’"

The throwdown, which functions as sort of a poetry slam for baristas, is limited to 32 participants and consists of five latte art rounds — hearts, tulips, rosettas, free choice and judges’ choice. Participants pay a $5 entry fee and compete in two-person brackets, with each winner moving on to the next round.

The first-place winner receives all of the entry-fee cash as well as additional prizes that typically include "nerdy coffee things that coffee professionals love," said Randi Hensley, director of operations at Epoch Coffee and an organizer of the throwdown.

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Hensley said she was first drawn to the throwdowns because of the outlet they provide for coffee professionals.

"Coffee shops are all about community and bringing people together," Hensley said. "They offer a safe place for people to be themselves, to be in public alone or to talk to strangers or to meet a friend. They provide a space for people to gather in a way that I think is really important and beautiful. The latte art throwdown offers that for our own community."

Hensley said that while the format of the throwdowns is typically the same, sometimes there are twists. Past October throwdowns have included Halloween themes, for example, such as pouring a latte into a pumpkin or incorporating red dye for "blood lattes." Every quarter, the throwdowns benefit a charity or cause, she said, adding that past beneficiaries include the Central Texas Food Bank, the International Women’s Coffee Alliance and Hurricane Harvey relief.

"The coffee industry, one of the things I love about it is that it asks itself some pretty tough questions," Hensley said. "Where does our coffee come from? Are the farmers being paid a fair wage? How is the customer experience? Having space for those conversations to happen is really important."

Beth Beall, left, Traci Armstrong and David Hudson judge latte art during Thursday Night Throwdown at Texas Coffee Traders on Aug. 30. ANA RAMIREZ / AMERICAN-STATESMAN

American-Statesman Staff

Beall said latte art is judged on criteria such as contrast, symmetry, balance and definition. Each pair of lattes critiqued by the judges are broadcast on a large screen so spectators can see, too. The events are always open to the public, and typically alcohol is available for purchase.

"You can see some amazing coffee poured," Beall said. "Just experience it. Sometimes we get locked in our own world of whatever we’re doing and forget about this whole other big community out there. This kind of takes you out of yourself."

By the end of the throwdown, Marcee-Ducayet, who had her 7-year-old daughter, Zella, in tow, had made it to the top eight, being knocked out in the rosetta round. She said as a latte art veteran, she frequently finds herself offering encouragement to less-experienced baristas.

"They’ll say, ‘Oh, my latte art isn’t very good,’ but even if you can barely pour those designs, even if they barely look like a heart, you’ve got to come out and start competing," said Marcee-Ducayet, a sales manager at Texas Coffee Traders. "Somebody could spill, somebody could do the wrong design. It’s more fun and community-building than it is an actual competition."

Hensley encouraged the public to attend a throwdown and also urged people to consider the role that the barista you see every morning can play in your life.

"As a barista, you are making the coffee, you’re the dishwasher and you clean the toilets, and you do this emotional labor of serving a customer," said Hensley, who has worked at Epoch for 12 years and started on the graveyard shift. "A lot of us are meeting people at their most vulnerable part of their day, before they’ve had their coffee, and we’re able to — in a small way, but I think it’s profound — shift the way somebody’s day goes."