Brasilia Barista Challenge 2009
The Brasilia Barista Challenge 2009 Finalists
2009 saw the first Brasilia Barista Challenge, aimed at rewarding and recognising shop Baristas, It was designed to be light hearted, fun and relaxed and was open to anyone in England, Scotland and Wales. Using Brasilia’s Opus Sublima, entrants for the regional heats just had to turn up to the venue as everything they need was supplied. Entrants were judged on basic technical, presentation skills and speed of service, just as if they were at work.
The finals were held on the 18th November at Caffe Society’s head office in Leeds. The five finalists were Hannah Davies from Broderick’s Love Coffee at Manchester Airport, Richard Dixon-Teasdale from Coffee Aroma in Lincoln, Howard Barwick from J & S Ventures (Costa Coffee) in Leeds, Will Corby from The Caffeine Kid in Cardiff, and Naveen Bisht from Carluccios in Reading.
Paul Meikle-Janney, Managing Director of Coffee Community and Head Judge for the World Coffee in Good Spirits and World Latte Art Championships commented “Brasilia set out to host a competition that encouraged working baristas, from all types of café and catering establishments, into competition for the first time. They wanted to test the skills and pressures they experience every day in their jobs, maintaining quality when against the clock. To this aim they succeeded.”
Richard hard at work in the ‘Your Blend’ round
The final consisted of five rounds, the first of which was called “Your blend”. The finalists were given a 5 minute explanation about five single origin coffees by Jeremy Wood from Masteroast Coffee Co. They then went on to blend a batch of coffee which they used to produce two espressos to present to the judges. They went on to use their chosen blend throughout the day.
Round two was The Coffee Quiz. The finalists were given time to relax during the quiz which consisted of 15 coffee related questions, increasing in difficulty – just like on ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’!
If you would like to have a go at the quiz for yourself follow this link Brasilia Barista Quiz
Judging the ‘Make it your own’ round
Up next was “Make it your own”, a challenge where all the contestants had to create there own signature drink from a set of secret ingredients. They had 30 minutes to do this using their own blend.
Sudden death at full pace
The next round-“Sudden Death” was not quite as severe as it sounds. Each finalist had 3 minutes to produce as many espressos as they could. A sensory judge had to pass or fail the drinks as they were produced, looking for minimum standards.
The quality was high in the ‘Made to order’ round
Last of all was “Made to order”. This was where the judges could taste to see if the finalists own blend worked across the board as an espresso, Cappuccino, Latte and Mocha.
The day came to a dramatic end after the 5 intense rounds leaving the final scores extremely close, however there was one clear winner.
The winner of the first Brasilia Barista Challenge is Howard Barwick of J & S Ventures (Costa Coffee). Howard, 28 from Leeds is the Store Manager for Costa Coffee and amazingly has only been a barista for 12 months! He left a promising teaching career to become a barista because of his love of all things coffee; this was the first competition he had entered. Howard wins a trip to the Brasilia factory in Italy and a training session at the 9 Bar Training Academy.
Congratulations to the winner Howard Barwick
In 2nd place was Hannah Davies, 3rd place Will Corby, 4th place Richard Dixon-Teasdale and 5th place Naveen Bisht.
Paul Meikle-Janney commented “Howard proved to be a worthy winner. He demonstrated great barista skills a good understanding of the coffee he was working with, and a great depth of knowledge about the wider coffee world”
Helen Ostle from Beyond the Bean said ‘It was a great pleasure to be involved with the competition, all the barista’s enjoyed themselves and we seem to have found even more UK barista talent with Howard and the four other finalists!’
David Locker from Bunn commented “I thought the competition was a great starting point for Baristas to enter the competition arena. The day was as expected fun, relaxed and well structured. The standard of the top 5 in the BBC final was very high and all should consider entering other competitions in 2010”.
Clive Danby, Caffe Society’s Trade Sales Manger said “I am extremely pleased that we have achieved what we set out to do from day one which was to recognise the standard shop barista. Howard has never entered a competition before and with only 12 months experience behind him as a barista, he has done exceptionally well. I wish him the best of luck for the future and he has my full support if he wishes to enter the UKBC next year.”
“I would personally like to thank all the entrants, finalists, partners and judges involved, without all of their time and effort, none of this would have been possible. My thanks to out partners Lavazza, Beyond the Bean, Arla/Cravendale, Boughtons Coffee House, Café Business and Café Culture magazines and Coffee Community. Thanks also to the judges David Locker (Bunn), Jon Skinner (M.A.D.), Stuart Hargie and Jeremy Wood (Masteroast), Kenneth Cooper (SCAE UK National Co-Coordinator) and especially to Paul Meikle Janney (Coffee Community) and Helen Ostle (Beyond the Bean) for everything they have done and the support they have shown to Caffe Society and the Brasilia Barista Challenge from day one.
“The Brasilia Barista Challenge will be back in 2010.”