Monday, February 23, 2009

greatlakes regional barista competition aka liquid swords

right now i'm sat on the floor behind the competition area. the finals don't start for an hour and i'm killing time by watching the final round of the latte art competition....its always confused me as to why the winner of the latte art competition wins $5,000 for making something look nice. and the winner of the glrbc, or any barista competition, wins very little in comparison, for so much more time and energy.

its been an exhausting few days, judges certification on thursday morning, a 10+ hr day of tests and calibration and i don't even know what, it seemed harder than last year. maybe i was just less prepared. or maybe the test actually was harder. or maybe it was a little of both. who knows?
i saw some old friends, and met some new ones. this is what these things are really all about for me. meeting people who share common interests. other people who get geeked out over, seemingly silly things. the new single origin guatemalan espresso from intelli. the new brew system that so-and-so are using in their cafe. the new direct trade coffee from stumptown. people who understand when i say, this is what i want to do with my life. i don't want to get a 'proper' job. they understand because they are doing the same thing. the professional barista. we're few in our numbers. but we few know that this is it. coffee is what we love. coffee is what we do.

over the last few days many of us have taken the stage. competing. judging. emceeing. running. score keeping. none of us being paid. simply doing it for the love of it.

....................................................................................................................

so. that's it. the final regional competition of the season is over. the final round has been and gone. a winner has been crowned.


all six finalists performed fantastically. it was a pleasure judging all of them. some familiar and some new faces.

Les Stoneham (LaTerza Coffee, Cinti, OH)
Mike Phillips (Intelligentsia, Chicago, IL)
Scott Lucey (Alterra, Milw., Wisc)
Trevor Corlett (MadCap, Grand Rapids, MI)
Chris DeMarse (Coffee Alliance, Muncie, IN)
Jesse Crouse (Intelligentsia, Chicago, IL)

after all of the points had been counted the top three were as follows;
3rd Trevor Corlett
2nd Jesse Crouse
1st Scott Lucey


scott's performance was fantastic. as was his coffee. a colombian cauca grow by nelson melo, who just happened to be in the audience. bright. fruity. grapefruit and ginger tones. it was outstanding.
really, it was scott's performance and signature beverage that separated him from the other five finalists. he was confident. relaxed. focused. passionate. knowledgeable. these things were pretty much a prerequisite to make the finals. but scott simply raised the bar.

"this drink is my machete"

what could have been a relatively simple sig bev was turned into something quite extraordinary by careful planning. stellar explanation. and near perfect execution.
liquid swords. grapefruit juice and melo espresso. separated by a layer of whipped sweet cream. we were instructed to, confidently, drink the juice first. then break through the cream layer and sip the spro from underneath. the juice and espresso combo worked perfectly. the juice further enhancing the existing grapefruit notes in the melo-spro.

sL, the drink truly was your machete.

photo's by twitchy

oh... one thing i forgot to mention is that scott's winning score was the highest in the country this year!

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