A co-owner at Coffee Code, her family’s cafe in Buena Park, the 32-year-old took first prize at the 2015 U.S. Coffee Championships in Long Beach and will compete in another tournament at Coffee Fest Anaheim at the end of this month. When Chun first tried creating elaborate designs atop coffee, she found her experience from college art classes wasn’t much help in whipping a flower design out of foam. “It’s different from drawing with a pen. Controlling the milk is difficult.”
Your brother and sister also are entering the tournament. What’s that like?
I’m nervous because they are way better than I am. We practice together and help each other because we want to know what we’re doing wrong.
How do you prepare for a tournament?
We have a high volume of orders at Coffee Code, so that’s practice for me because I make at least 200 cups a day.
Most difficult part?
Designing a new pattern is really hard. One of the designs I made looked like an angel with hearts as wings, and it took me about
a month to perfect it.
Who’s your competition?
Mostly guys. People always think guys are better at most things, but I don’t care because my sister won a competition in 2013 where she competed against all guys.
Speaking of guys, would you date a fellow latte artist?
I don’t think so. I’ve been single for the past five years since I started this. I don’t have time for anything else. It’s more like I’m dating coffee.
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