Okay, so it may have taken a while, but at last I have had some time to put up some of my photos from a recent event that some of you may be aware of...
I wanted to be involved as much as possible in the World Barista Championship, so I booked three days off work and answered the call for Barista Buddies from Square Mile. When I received the mail from Anette saying that I had been buddied with the Guatemalan (Raul Rodas) and El Salvador (Alejandro Mendez) champions, I was just a little excited - two buddies from coffee producing countries!
The WBC event started for me on the Sunday before, when we met up with Raul for a coffee tour around East London. Raul had WBC sensory judge Rouki Delrue and Nuova Simonelli and all-round legend Gianni Casaliggi in tow. We started off at Taylor Street Baristas (New St), then headed over to Nude Espresso, Prufrock, (picking up WBC technical judge Ian Clark along the way), and finally Penny University.
Caffeine pumping through our blood, we met up with Andrew at his Bank location of Taylor Street Baristas. He'd graciously offered to let Raul spend some time behind the machines while the cafe was closed, and - along with the Nicaraguan support team - we took over the place.
We have a special place in our hearts for Taylor Street - the second location was in a travel shop across the street from our flat back when we lived in Brighton, and we came to rely on their revolutionary coffees (and sheltered their sandwich board a few nights when they'd left it out). Andrew was incredibly helpful letting Raul pull shots behind the machines - and provided the Country Life milk for him throughout the competition.
I met up with Alejandro and his trainer Federico before the event and then again at the 'meet and greet' at Purl, a new and very stylish cocktail bar near Baker Street Underground.
Gwillym Davies and Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador
The Cafe Culture show itself, as you might expect, contained quite a lot of crap for the mainstream coffee industry at large (generic food, drink and equipment stalls) but there were a few real standouts.
- 1) WBC Brew Bar: A great range of coffees prepared by great baristas, including guest appearances by many of the champions
A slightly busy Brew Bar
- 2) Union Brew Bar: Various delicious coffees and brew methods to play with to your hearts content
Tom (I think!) from Union - very tolerant of my skills (or lack thereof)
- 3) La Marzocco: The official launch of the new Strada espresso machines
The Strada - Gives the barista complete control of the water pressure throughout the extraction
Lovely looking espresso
- 4) Nuova Simonelli: Great coffee and great guys, even after watching Italy go out of the World Cup on my MacBook (thanks for not destroying it)
- 5) Kees Van Der Westen: beautifully machined machines
A thing of beauty
6) Marco: For the Uber Boiler alone…
The Uber Boiler: Form and functionality - I will have one in my cafe, oh yes...
7) Collezione Enrico Maltoni - gorgeously restored espresso machines
Apparently, no photos allowed. Lucky I didn't see the sign until after taking the photo
- 8) Any stall that I could snag free food from when I was reaching caffeine overload
This year, the competition was split into round one on day one & two, and the semi-finals & finals on day three, meaning that the top six would have to compete three times!
After two days of competition the final twelve were announced:
Stefanos Domatiotis - Greece
Colin Harmon - Ireland
Ana Lucia Lardizabal de Hawit - Hoduras
Raul Rodas - Guatemala
Soren Stiller Markussen - Denmark
Fabrizio Sencion - Mexico
Yara Castanho - Brazil
Scottie Callaghan - Australia
Michael Phillips - USA
Alejandro Mendez - El Salvador
Thomas Schweiger - Germany
Kyle Straw - Canada
Back row from L-R: Greece, Ireland, Honduras, Guatemala, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil
Front row from L-R: Australia, USA, El Salvador, Germany, Canada
On day three, we set up our supporters area and prepared for what would prove to be a killer day! The semis were up in the morning and all of our boys had done great job in getting to the final twelve.
Reserved for Guatemala, El Salvador, and Canada (my wife is Canadian) supporters only
Kyle Straw (Canadian entry) prepping for the finals whilst sporting a Dennis the Menace top
Alejandro vs the grinders - Go Alejandro!
After a great performance by all, the final six were announced and Raul was in the mix - let the finals commence!
Colin Harmon (Ireland) mid-shot
Michael Phillips (USA): Set-up and ready to go
Raul Rodas (Guatemala) looking good
James Hoffman ordering an espresso from Raul
The finals were exciting and exhausting - and that was just from a spectator point of view. The final judgment had arrived... and James was so excited he nearly burst into song...
And then the final three were announced...
The Top Three! Centre L-R: Raul Rodas (Guatemala), Scottie Callaghan (Australia) & Michael Phillips (USA)
And then there were two - Raul & Mike. The suspense is killing me!
Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2010 World Barista Champion is MICHAEL PHILLIPS!
Michael was the deserved winner and it was great to be part of an event such as this. I will definitely be going to this event next year - it's in Columbia!
Raul, Alejandro and their support teams are some of the nicest people you could meet and, after several months with a growing passion for coffee, I find this to be true for the majority of people in the industry.
Raul's brother (Roberto) & the Guatemala Coffee Team
Me and Team Guatemala
The El Salvador Collective: Alejandro, Federico & me
Roll on WBC 2011!
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