Mercury Organic Espresso Bar
915 Queen Street East
647-435-4779

Bulldog Coffee
89 Granby Street
416-606-2275

“Don’t play with your food,” my mother snarled as she snatched away the ketchup dispenser. I never completed the clown face I was squeezing onto my meatloaf. And so my efforts at creative food presentation were squelched at a tender age. I was only twenty-nine. It’s tragic really. Had my mother encouraged me, I may have grown up to be a great barista, a latte artist producing masterpieces out of milk foam.

Latte art is the art of creating designs with milk poured onto an espresso. Hearts and rosettas and are the predominant designs. Real masters can pour out a swan. Patterns can also be etched using some sort of stylus. But the true barista artist pours out the design free form from a jug. Latte is the preferred drink because of its ideal foam to milk ratio, although patterns can be produced on cappuccino as well.

The Mercury Organic Espresso Bar and Bulldog Coffee both retain talented baristas who can create delicate patterns with steamed milk and crema. Amber Roga, from the Bulldog Café was voted best overall in the Toronto Life 1st Annual Latte Art competition, taking away $250 for her efforts. Latte art is just beginning to establish itself in Toronto and these are the two cafes where customers can expect to find a milky, magical image atop their espresso.

The Mercury, on Queen near Carlaw, is friendly, unpretentious and very environmentally conscious. The take-out cups, supplied by Greenshift, are biodegradable and that includes the lids. Customers who bring their own mugs receive a discount. All the coffee is fair trade and organic.

My latte has a swirling rosetta on the surface. It’s lovely to look at and am I tempted to frame it rather than sip it. As my server explains, making pictures in latte is a difficult and delicate art: the steamed milk needs to break into precisely the right sort of microfoam to contrast with the crema. To become proficient takes thousands of hours of practice. And to think I’m proud that I can write my name in the snow.

The staff at the popular Bulldog Coffee on Granby Street also knows how to pull an expert espresso. My latte comes with two endearing hearts on top of it. A warning though, if you want to endear yourself to the staff here, do not use small change to pay for your drink. Stuart Ross, the owner and Central Ontario barista champion, adamantly refuse to accept anything smaller than a quarter.

His coffee is blended from North African and Central American Arabica beans and provides a powerful caffeinated charge to the entire Church and Carlton neighbourhood. There’s a small but agreeable patio out the front and modest assortment of baked goods – scones, biscotti, cookies – to accompany the espresso beverages.

I can see now why my ketchup faces earned so little respect from my mother. And the less said about my sausage sculptures the better. Like Aphrodite and latte art, the most beautiful things are born from foam.