The UK latte art champion, who creates Sonic the Hedgehog, dog and battleship designs from steamed milk and espresso, is setting his sights on ranking among the top six latte artists in the world.
Ben Lewis, 31, a “coffee professional” from Southampton, began working as a barista aged 16 and spent five years building his skills before leaving to study at the University of Winchester.
In 2016, a friend helped him get a job at a local cafe where he discovered a passion for latte art while being mentored by the UK latte art champion.
He continued competing over the years, and in preparation for the 2025 UK Latte Art Championship – which he won – Ben practised by making 60 cups of coffee in a single day and even gave up coffee during training to steady his hands and calm his nerves.
He went on to place 10th in the world with designs featuring Sonic the Hedgehog, a dog, and a fish, and now shares his expertise through social media, live events, and collaborations with brands such as Disney, Cartoon Network, and Kraken.
Ben told PA Real Life: “I stopped drinking alcohol and I stopped drinking coffee when I was training – I did anything you can do to make yourself not nervous!
“It’s an art and I was over the moon to win the UK and get placed 10th in the international competition – it was an amazing result.
“Day to day, when I’m not training, I actually drink filter coffee without the milk – I treat myself to an occasional flat white and do some nice art on it from time to time!”
His first taste of the barista lifestyle was a job at Starbucks when he was 16, and he worked at the chain for five years, building his foundational skills before stepping away to complete a degree in psychology at the University of Winchester.
In 2016, a friend lined up a job for him at a cafe in Winchester but Ben turned up to the interview in a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms because he “couldn’t be bothered” and did not really want the job.
But “against all odds”, he got it and it was the start of something unexpected.
His new boss happened to be the reigning UK latte art champion, and under his guidance, Ben began to discover a world far beyond basic coffee making.
“All of us in the cafe had to be able to do latte art but I ended up having a passion for it, after realising how much is actually possible,” Ben explained.
“The first designs that you learn are called the heart, the tulip, the swan, and then it was about trying to cram as many of those basic designs into one cup.
“I then started making things more complicated like people or buildings on the latte art.”
By 2018, Ben was competing alongside his mentor in the Speciality Coffee Association’s national competition.
He said: “You get judged on things that are quite specific, such as contrast, which is how defined the patterns are in the cup and how they’re positioned.
“When you can look at the design and instantly say what it is, that gains a lot of points in the competition.”
In the contest, Ben designed a Roman battleship and a line of grapes out of the steamed milk, as he is originally from Bath, a city known for and named after its ancient Roman-built baths.
His boss took first place and Ben came a close second.
Over the next few years, Ben continued to refine his technique through several more competitions.
In 2023, after four previous attempts and a “lot of lessons learned”, Ben returned to the UK Latte Art Championships for his fifth try.
“I made a lot of silly mistakes in the previous competitions like knocking over milk canisters and picking terrible designs and things that happen only because you’re under pressure,” he added.
This year, his latte art included a dog’s face, a fish, and Sonic the Hedgehog, and he spent six weeks practising relentlessly.
On April 29 this year, Ben was crowned the UK Latte Art Champion.
He said: “It felt strange, to be honest, I thought they probably needed to check the scores again.
“I didn’t expect it at all, I was just a little bit floored, and I was excited for about 12 hours and then I realised that I needed to start training for the world championships and I had to lock back in.”
Ben took on the international competition a few weeks later, from June 26 to 28, and gave up alcohol and caffeine to steady his hands, and pushed his training even harder.
On one training day, he and a friend created 60 cups of coffee in a single session.
For the competition, Ben stuck with the same winning designs from the UK finals but tried to make them even sharper.
He said: “The fish design that I have is a rosetta with big loops.
“And then I used the residual foam to create the body and the shape and the features of the fish.
“Thick espresso is really good and we use milk with a high fat content like whole milk.”
He placed 10th in the world and was “over the moon” – his sights are now set on breaking into the top six next year.
Outside of the competitions, Ben focuses on content creation, training other baristas, and hosting events.
On Instagram, under the handle @barista_benji, where he has 12,000 followers, he has worked with brands including Disney, Cartoon Network, Monin, Kraken rum and Honda.
“For the launch of the live action Lion King I created some of the lion silhouettes from The Lion King on to the coffee,” Ben explained.
“For one of Cartoon Network’s programmes, We Bare Bears, I did different types of bears on coffees for people.
“And then the Kraken one was quite an interesting one – when they launched their coffee rum, I ran classes at a pop-up show of how to create a kraken on top of a Kraken espresso martini.
“We used good colouring and etching tools and it looked great.”
Looking ahead, Ben is already thinking about his designs for next year’s competition, and hopes to continue sharing his passion for coffee.
He said: “I love creating cartoon-based designs so I will be looking to focus a lot on iconic Disney characters and video game characters for the future, but I won’t give anything away just yet as they’ll be for next year’s competition – you’ll have to follow my Instagram page to find out!”
Along the way, Gary feels his perspective on life has shifted.
“Being a doctor, you see lots of tragic and sad things and you realise life is short,” he said.
“I’m doing something scary and it might not work out, but I’ve realised life is for living and you shouldn’t feel trapped.
“I’m a much nicer person than I was last year and I feel free, I’ll never regret doing this.”
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