For Canadian latte art champion Arthur Chu, coffee wasn’t originally in the books.
The Markham barista was recently crowned champion at the 2026 Canadian Latte Art Championship, taking back the title he won two years ago in 2024.
Chu started his coffee journey three years ago in Hong Kong when a friend asked if he wanted to start a coffee shop business together, where Chu became a part-time barista.
He says the friend took the endeavour seriously, hiring a trainer who taught them the proper way to make specialty coffee.
“[My friend] hired a trainer, who provided coffee beans for us, and as well as proper training going through how to taste coffee, how to do proper latte art, and how to dial in your espresso.” Chu explains.
Nine months later, Chu packed up his life and moved to Toronto to study business management at the University of Toronto. During his search for a part-time job, he was hired by the Brick Room in Union Station.
“That was a life changing moment for me,” he exclaims.
In spending time building his brand as a coffee expert in Toronto, he realized business management wasn’t a career path he liked anymore. He decided to pursue coffee full-time.
Next year will be Chu’s second time competing internationally in the World Latte Art Championship. He’s deferring to the 2027 competition to have more time to train.
The sport of latte art
Chu says latte art is more like a sport than an art due to its competitive nature, especially when the whole world is watching him strategically pour foam in less than a minute.
“You have to make sure your mental state and your physical state is up there whenever you’re trying to compete because stepping onto the stage with a lot of people watching you do latte art is stressful,” he says.
Training for competition
Training for a latte art competition takes months. For Chu, the process of preparing designs, modifying them, and training like a robot to pour perfectly takes about four months.
So far, he has come up with 12 designs, with his favourite being the stag he created for the Canadian Latte Art Championship. His second favourite is the bison.
“I design for myself and people pay me to create designs as well. The stag is the best piece of latte art that I’ve ever created.”
Chu learned to pour latte art starting with the tulip and the rosetta — two fundamental elements to almost every design. He says once you’ve gotten the basics, you can start designing stuff like “animals or a tower, or a building, or a car.”
