USBC Competitor Stephen Latham, Box Kite NYC

SprudgeLive’s coverage of the 2015 United States Barista Championship is made possible by direct support from Nuova Simonelli, Cafe Imports, and Bonavita.  All of SprudgeLive’s 2015 barista competition coverage is underwritten in partnership with Square and Urnex Brands. 

We’re proud to serve as official media partners of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, who produce these extraordinary events.

We reached out to each of the 2015 US Barista Championship competitors prior to their routines, to learn a bit more about them as competitors and coffee pros. We hope you enjoy these interviews!

STEVEN LATHAM

Company: Box Kite NYC
Number of years behind the bar: Prob around 10, at least 5 in specialty
Number of competitions: 1
Big East 2014 — North East — 6th

Coffee: Kanzu Rwanda from Madcap

Milk: not sure

Signature Beverage: “Winter Is Going” 
Bee pollen, mirabelle plum puree, meyer lemon juice, Fever Tree tonic water, chamomile infused simple syrup… and Kanzu espresso of course… over sphere-ified ice

Secret Weapons: bee pollen!

Playlist: not sure yet… prob some D’Angelo… prob some Toumani Diabate… we’ll see

Theme: Not really tho there is an implicit dialectical structure leading to a celebration of the coming Spring 🙂

Total Practice Hours: ?

Coach(es): I had a lot of help from the Madcap guys and various NYC coffee luminaries back during regionals

Fashion: apron from Tillet Chef Goods 🙂

Trivia: This is my first year competing. I worked my ass off for regionals and yet was genuinely surprised that I made it into the top 6! So my approach this time in preparing this time has been a lot less intensive–I’m honored just to be in attendance and my plan is to just have fun with it!

Social Medias: ig: stevenlatham