Vancouver: That Barista Thing

That Barista Thing is Vancouver's international latte art competition held at Library Square downtown Vancouver.   Even though it's been running in its 4th year, I had never been and this year I decided to bring my niece there to enjoy in the festivities.

First we stood in line at Blenz for our free hot chocolate and latte.  It was busy but we were lucky because the line moved quite quickly.  People were grabbing their drinks and leaving making room for others to come through.  Hot chocolates were not as popular and so my niece got her drink sooner.  She had the choice of dark, white, or milk with whipped cream.  Of course the whipped cream topping was the first to disappear.

After we had our drink we walked past the crowd of people watching the Latte Art Competition stage so we could go over to the activity tables.  Since this event was downtown it wasn't crowded with kids so we didn't have to wait long to be able to do some of the activities.


The first activity that we did was the Cup Mug Painting.  For a minimum $2 donation, you can paint and keep your own painted coffee mug and all of the proceeds are donated to Make a Wish Foundation.  Now if you have enough drinking mugs, you can do what my niece did which was think of an alternative use, she made her mug for her lip gloss.


 
After that activity we headed over to the button making activity table to make your own button.  They had pictures you could colour or you could make your own.  My niece decided to make her own.  Making buttons is fun and doesn't take long.  Great for decorating your purse or handbag.

Emi & Aki were great button making hosts.

 There was also a formal matcha tea ceremony table where  you can watch them make traditional Japanese matcha tea so that was interesting to watch.  The hosts were dressed in kimonos serving the tea in pottery.  Another table had regular tea samples.

The last activity we did was the temporary tattoo which looks real. There was also a public art canvas that you can paint a square and a cartoonist drawing free caricatures.  That was the longest line up.  Since we went straight to That Barista Thing without eating lunch, we decided to not wait for the cartoonist and instead go off to lunch.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon with my niece.  There were lots of activities to keep her busy.  I would return again next year and definitely go early.