After many weeks of disturbed sleep, over caffeination, drinking coffee at midnight and living off take-away food, competition season is finally over (thank goodness).
The final leg of my journey was the semi-finals of the UK Barista Championships at the London coffee festival. Here the top 20 baristas in the country competed for the UK championship and a place at the world finals in Rimini, Italy.
The competition is a 15-minute presentation in which baristas are required to produce four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks to a panel of four main judges, who are backed up with a whole team of technical and ghost judges. The baristas are judged on the quality of their coffee, quality of their drinks, their technical abilities as a barista, as well as their routines, which highlights not only their skills as coffee professionals, but as talented performers as well.
The UK has one of the most competitive coffee competitions in the world, and the standard this year was insanely high. I am very happy with my result, placing 7th overall in the UK and Number 1 in Scotland.
Since working with Graham’s The Family Dairy the range that has stood out for me is the Jersey range. Graham’s Gold is high in protein, which allows for a much denser and more luxurious foam. This is the milk I chose to use for my cappuccino, which won best drink at the regional heats. Some background information of the Jersey herd from Dr Graham provided an interesting contribution to my presentation.
The standard of coffee in Scotland at the moment is pretty high, and there are a lot of great speciality coffee houses around, so you shouldn’t struggle to find a good cup (especially at Artisan Roast!)
