Porttia Portis
The Force Is Strong With Method Coffee Barista Liam Adams’ Star Wars Latte Art.
Welcome to Unfiltered, our weekly feature that explores the Dallas coffee scene — and how it often manages to thrive in the most unusual places. Given that we live in a time when Starbucks locations are about as prevalent as the golden McDonald’s arches, when new coffee shops seem to open every other week and when almost everyone uses a ChemEx to brew their coffee, we’re here to show you some alternatives — for when your coffee shop routine becomes monotonous or when you’re just looking for something different in your caffeine endeavors.
Order a variation of espresso and milk at just about any coffee bar around, and you’re almost guaranteed to see a drawing of sorts in the foam atop your coffee. The industry term for this is “latte art,” and these fun little milky pictures can range anywhere in subject from simple heart shapes to more complex creations — depending, of course, on the skill level of your barista.
These days, it seems as if most baristas in town have at least reached the level of being able to pull off such floral arrangements as tulips and rosettas. And, hey, that takes some practice, for sure.
Head to East Dallas coffee hub Method Coffee, though, and you’ll meet a guy who truly lives up to the term “coffee geek.”
His name is Liam Adams, and the 21-year-old barista caught our attention when rumors of his Star Wars-themed latte art started to float around. It wasn’t just hype, turns out: The guy’s master pour, and he credits Method for giving him a new creative lease over his work.
“I’ve worked a lot of franchise jobs at other places that shall not be named, and locally-owned businesses are the way to go if you don’t want to feel so restricted,” Adams says, explaining just how much he’s enjoyed his time behind the shop’s famed Slayer espresso machine.
As for Adams’ Star Wars pours, they came about after a suggestion from his dad to “do more manly art” and a request from a fan-girling co-worker who’d seen the craze take off elsewhere online. Now, he’s able to serve customers drinkable pictures of Darth Vader and Boba Fett, as well as a more-complicated Death Star that’s still in the works.
His skill set doesn’t stop there, though: Adams can also our other designs featuring Batman, Hello Kitty and various other cartoon characters by request.
Next, Adams aspires to pour some of the 3-D latte designs currently storming the web, though he acknowledges that the amount of stretched milk needed for those creations could negatively affect the taste of the coffee — y’know, the reason why people come into Method in the first place.
In the meantime, Adams seems to have found his niche with the Star Wars designs. For Method Coffee’s customers, these very much are the designs they’re looking for.
