The Art of Hawaiian Coffee at Waikiki DFS Galleria

The first Art of Hawaiian Coffee event at the Waikiki DFS Galleria started on August 9th. The event runs through August 16th with complimentary tastings of Hawaiian coffees between 7p-10p. During this week long event, the mall also features all sorts of coffee related art displayed through out the lower level.

I checked out the first night because that is when they had the latte art contest. It began at 8pm with a few demos by Pete Licata then proceeded to the finalists competing.  I took a few videos of Pete doing the demonstrations and explaining to the audience how they would be judging the latte art.  By the way, Pete is the 2011 US Barista Champion and the Runner Up in the World Barista Championships.

In this first video, Pete started with the "easiest" common design for latte art, the heart.


He progressively demonstrated the designs that require more skill.  This video is the rosetta.


After the rosetta, he demonstrated the tulip.


The final level of difficulty that he demonstrated was the multiple rosetta.  In this video he went for three.


I know those weren't the best videos, but oh well.  I was there in person to enjoy the demonstration and just thought having video to share might be cool so I shot it with my phone.

If you get to check out The Art of Hawaiian Coffee, be sure to sample some of Rusty's Red Bourbon.  I had a cup of this when Beach Bum Cafe had a secret stash of it.  This is an award winning batch of coffee and when I saw the Rusty's Coffee booth sampling the Red Bourbon, I had to get a sample cup.  Yum!

Of course, you'll also get to check out some of the art on display and read about coffee at all the displays.  I think some of the displays change daily.  The latte art photos are from the competitors of the contest.

I met up with Melissa Chang, blogger with NONSTOP Honolulu, there.  She wrote about the experience here: The art of Hawaiian coffee.  She also has more photos of the coffee tasting booths and the art that is on display.

We also met up with @S4xton that night.  He also took a few photos and those can be found here: Shots from the Art of Hawaiian Coffee event & Latte Art Contest at DFS Galleria Waikiki.

I hope to get back to The Art of Hawaiian Coffee this weekend so that I can taste the Greenwell Farms coffee.  When we were there, there was nobody at that booth and that was a recommended coffee to sample.  At least I got another few sips of the Rusty's Red Bourbon.  :)

After all this coffee talk, I am definitely going to walk over to Beach Bum Cafe for a delicious cup of micro-brewed Hawaiian coffee after I get out of here this morning.