A cafe in the Philippines is serving customized coffee to patrons who would like to take a sip of art.
Customers of Bunny Baker Cafe in Manila can ask to have their coffee etched with any caricature they want at no extra cost — provided that the owner is there to do it.
Graphic artist Zach Yonzon, who runs the cafe with his wife, uses steamed milk and froth as the canvas and creates the image in the coffee froth with a spoon and a barbecue skewer dipped in dark chocolate.
The service started out as simple novelty when they topped their coffees with bunny rabbits to highlight the cafe’s theme, but it has since grown as customers started asking for more complicated images.
“They’ve never seen anything like that. The most that they’ve ever seen is a leaf or a heart, and that already makes them happy, but I want to go one step further. I want to go one step further and give them a picture of their baby, their boyfriend, or their favorite cartoon character. If that makes them happy, that makes them smile, that’s cool,” Yonzon said.
Yonzon said he has no barista training and learned everything online in three months. His biggest challenge is to get the picture done as quick as possible since the froth does not last long and the coffee might get cold.
Most of the requests were pictures of cartoon characters, but some customers had bigger demands like a caricature of Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao or portraits of their family members.
“I’m actually amazed because it’s not often, you usually see the hearts, you’ll see the normal, simple decorations, but you won’t see art in the coffee,” said Angie Yu, one of the customers who requested to have the face of her child in her coffee.
The cafe’s special service has drawn a lot of interest, prompting Yonzon to offer small workshops at night for those who would like to learn the craft.
“My parents love to drink coffee, so maybe I can do latte art whenever they drink,” said Abi Radilla, a college student who enrolled at Yonzon’s workshop.
Yonzon said his art can be done with almost any type of coffee drink and can even be created using a simple coffee maker at home, but its turnout will depend on the beverage’s thickness and amount of froth.
He plans on expanding his special service with more workshops and to explore other avenues like producing three dimensional caricatures to improve and add more sparkle to his frothy creations.
(Reuters)
