Coffee Fest, Seattle: Give me a ‘real’ barista contest
Posted by TheShot on 12 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista
Seattle’s Coffee Fest trade show ended yesterday. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an article announcing the winners of its “Millrock Free Pour Latte Art competition” (isn’t that a mouthful?): Artistic cup of joe brings home $5,000 prize.
Top honors and $5,000 of prize money went to Layla Emily Osberg of Vancouver, BC’s Blenz Coffee — where I first discovered that the default “macchiato” can be colloquially defined as something far scarier than I ever imagined. (Second place for “Draw Tippy the Turtle in milk foam” went to the award-winning Canadian barista, Colter Jones.)
Now I generally find it difficult to get excited about latte art — or even the US Barista Championship these days. However, the best suggestion for any kind of barista competition came from April Pollard, a finalist from Seattle’s Espresso Vivace with “real world” sensibilities about the spectacle. From the article:
She compared the event to a “beautiful baby” contest, and she added that a “real barista contest” would include having 10 customers in a line, one person being a jerk, something going wrong and a person a wanting a muffin while talking on a cell phone.
“They should make it like a normal day,” Pollard said.
Bravo, April. Now we’re talking. Oh, but wait — I first gotta take this call.
1 Comment »
on 13 Nov 2007 at 10:51 am +00:00T 1.SB said …
I’m a pro barista and I completely agree with Pollard.