This Chongqing 90s guy may be the best coffee artisan in China

"Wow--"

Almost everyone who received the coffee made by Liang Fan would exclaim in surprise and would be reluctant to drink it. Rather than being a barista, Liang Fan is more like a painter who can perform "magic". A cup of espresso plus a portion of milk can create a beautiful picture.

Liang Fan is about to prepare for the 2020 "World Latte Art Competition" China competition, and is ready to launch an attack on the world championship of this competition known as the "Olympics of the coffee world."

From washing coffee cups to falling in love with latte art with a dream in mind

It was a little hard to believe that this frail and quiet young man had once stood on the stage of the top international latte art competition. He was also the best latte art master in my country. He skillfully extracted coffee and made milk foam. With a slight shake of his wrist, the snow-white milk foam swayed smoothly and blended with the coffee. Rich and beautiful lines immediately appeared on the coffee. Then he used the latte art needle to outline. With just a few strokes and a minute or two, a cute giant panda appeared in the cup, with delicate bamboo leaves beside it.

Liang Fan was born in Chongqing in 1993 and has been in the coffee industry for 9 years. He chose to enter the coffee industry because he was attracted by the name "barista" - "It should be an easy job to brew coffee leisurely with beautiful music, right?" So, after learning the basics of coffee product production at a vocational training school, he went to work in a coffee shop. Starting as a waiter, he washed cups, cut fruit plates, and later became a bar manager. When he first came into contact with latte art, he was stunned by this magical skill: such beautiful pictures can be created on coffee!

At that time, the art of latte art had just been introduced to China, and most of the patterns drawn were simple patterns such as leaves, feathers, and peach hearts. There were few teaching videos on the Internet, and people basically had to learn by themselves. The principle of latte art is actually very simple: using the rich oil extracted from coffee, control the shaking of the latte art cylinder by hand, let the milk foam and oil blend to form multi-layered lines. However, if you want to show a complex pattern, it will take a lot of skill. Liang Fan repeatedly pondered, drew decomposition figures, tried again and again, and finally became proficient in drawing various lines and patterns to form beautiful patterns.

Liang Fan began to participate in various latte art competitions to gain experience. He said, "I am usually introverted, and I want to break through and challenge myself through competitions, and communicate and learn with other barista friends."

Crazy practice, more than 300 cups of latte art every day

Every coffee artisan probably has a dream, which is to be on the stage of the "World Latte Art Competition". This is sponsored by the World Coffee Association and is currently the highest-level competition in the global coffee industry. Liang Fan insisted on participating in the competition in the Chinese region. His best result in the first three years was fourth place in the Chinese region. He was very sad that he did not advance to the finals in 2016. Liang Fan thought that he lost to himself, such as not checking the water supply status of the coffee machine, not wiping the milk tank clean, and a series of mistakes, all of which were caused by insufficient preparation.

After that, he practiced harder. Finally, in 2017, he won the Chinese championship and got a ticket to participate in the world championship. However, in the competition in Hungary that year, Liang Fan did not perform well. Among the players from more than 40 countries around the world, he only got 11th place.

Liang Fan was unwilling to give up and actively prepared for the competition the following year. Three months before the competition, he began to train intensively, almost "crazy". He locked the door, turned off his phone, and worked on the latte art for up to ten hours a day. This process was lonely, but he had to maintain this extremely calm state of mind, to be absolutely focused and free of distractions.

He said that the daily latte art practice is to train himself into muscle memory, so that even without thinking deliberately, he can complete the actions of making coffee and latte art like flowing water. In case he did not rest well before the game or was nervous on the field, he could still complete the game smoothly through muscle memory.

During the period before the competition, Liang Fan had to pull 50 to 100 cups a day, and sometimes even practiced 300 cups a day! Until his arms were so sore that he couldn't lift them at all. Because of maintaining the same posture for a long time, Liang Fan's wrist joints were strained, and a thick layer of calluses formed on his fingers where he pinched the flower pot.

Liang Fan repeated the same action hundreds of times, and his heart sometimes broke down, but he told himself again and again: I can do it again, I can do it better!

In 2018, Liang Fan once again won the first place in the Chinese competition and represented China in Brazil. Due to the difficulties in obtaining a visa, he did not get it until the day of departure. After flying for more than 30 hours, Liang Fan had no time to adjust to the jet lag and only took a nap before immediately entering the competition.

The competition was full of experts and the rules were harsh. The contestants had to prepare three cups of coffee for two judges within ten minutes, and the latte art was required to be exactly the same as the one they had designed before.

Those ten minutes were short yet long. Liang Fan was so focused that the whole world seemed to disappear, leaving only the coffee and milk in front of him. The turtles leisurely under the coconut trees, the African giraffes, the birds flying with flowers in their mouths... In the end, Liang Fan won the third place with his outstanding and stable performance.

Want to inject more Chinese elements into coffee latte art

Now, Liang Fan can "draw" almost any pattern on coffee. He and his friends opened a small coffee shop in Jiefangbei, which also serves as a training room. He "draws" the most cute little animals and mythological images, such as squirrels, giraffes, koalas, unicorns, fairies, and warriors, and can also customize them according to needs.

Once a young mother asked Liang Fan to draw a cup of coffee with a squirrel pattern for her daughter. Liang Fan immediately designed a pattern of a little squirrel playing. The little girl took many photos with the cup of coffee and was reluctant to drink it even when it was almost cold.

Another time when I was doing coffee training in Malaysia, a female customer walked into the store and watched curiously for a long time. Liang Fan made her a cup of coffee with a panda pattern on it. She exclaimed and gave him a thumbs up.

Liang Fan said that seeing customers smile when they receive the coffee he made is the happiest moment for him, which is more satisfying than winning a world award.

Currently, he is studying how to make coffee present patterns with more Chinese characteristics, such as the giant panda and landscape latte art he designed.

The 2020 World Latte Art Competition is about to kick off, and Liang Fan will also begin the arduous preparations. His goal is to represent China on the world's highest podium, spread the Chinese coffee culture, and let the world hear the voice of Chinese baristas.

Upstream News·Chongqing Morning Post reporter Ji Wenling photographed and reported