Thanks Dan for the results. Incredible that less than 8 points separates no. 2 from no. 5. We also heard that several competitors' points dropped significantly from the open round to the semi-final round.

BTW, SCAA still does not have the complete results posted on their public website as of May 18 - a full 10 days after the competition ended.

Congratulations to all the competitors! This wraps up my notes and Larry Licata's great photos of the 2007 SCAA US Barista Championship. A last photo of the top three competitors:


Heather Perry (c), Pete Licata (l), Matt Riddle (r)

And finally, a photo of the master of ceremony, Nick Cho:

Ugh. That's it.

I'm starting a diet... now.

The little LM trophies are nifty.

I noticed that Pete Licata joined HB today and have to ask...

Pete espresso preparation was unorthodox: The shots were drawn into shotglasses and transferred to white demitasses. He explained this would help mix the drink's heavy and lighter notes. Judges were asked to taste the delicious chocolaty body, floral acidity, and warm lingering spice.


Espresso is drawn into shot glasses and transferred to demitasses

Pete, I'm curious. Wouldn't transferring from shot glasses as reported lose points on the crema's color / consistency / persistence score? I don't recall anyone doing this in competition, let alone the USBC finals. Would you elaborate on the benefits?

cannonfodder wrote:The little LM trophies are nifty.

I heard that Reg Barber manufactured them.

HB wrote:I noticed that Pete Licata joined HB today and have to ask...

Pete espresso preparation was unorthodox: The shots were drawn into shotglasses and transferred to white demitasses. He explained this would help mix the drink's heavy and lighter notes. Judges were asked to taste the delicious chocolaty body, floral acidity, and warm lingering spice.

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Espresso is drawn into shot glasses and transferred to demitasses

Pete, I'm curious. Wouldn't transferring from shot glasses as reported lose points on the crema's color / consistency / persistence score? I don't recall anyone doing this in competition, let alone the USBC finals. Would you elaborate on the benefits?

I'm not Peter, but I'll offer my take ...

Have you noticed the difference in flavour between the first sips of an espresso and the very last? The top of the cup is where the 'spro starts to thin out, whereas the bottom has more ristretto-like qualities. Now ask yourself how many times you have sipped the bottom of an espresso when judging. I'm guessing that the idea is to mix it all together. Of course, this wouldn't be necessary in a cafe because your customers will (you hope!) finish the whole thing. But I wonder if directing the judges to stir the espresso thoroughly before tasting it wouldn't have the same effect, without losing as many points for crema ...

Cheers,

Luca

"Swirl before drinking" was a popular instruction to judges this year; for the same reason apparently.

HB wrote:Pete, I'm curious. Wouldn't transferring from shot glasses as reported lose points on the crema's color / consistency / persistence score? I don't recall anyone doing this in competition, let alone the USBC finals. Would you elaborate on the benefits?

I'm glad you asked Dan. Luca is pretty right on with what he said. Espresso is a layered drink when you think about it, and "flipping" the shot is something that we at PT's came up with especially for tasting at the barista competition this year. If you haven't done it before try pulling a shot between 3 separate shot glasses filling 10ml in each until the extraction is done. If you taste them, you should find the first 10ml to be very sweet and heavy, second hits more acid and body, and third is quite thin in comparison with more of the floral and bitter notes. Now think about how the shot pours and you see that the thin, less preferable flavors are in the first sip. I have to thank our roaster Marty Gish for the initial idea for flipping the shot. Back to your actual question, we did have issues with losing crema points when practicing this method. What it came down to in my mind is speed of service. You don't want your shots to sit anyway, but just stepping up my haste helped preserve the color and persistence of crema. In fact, one of my judges in the finals wrote "great crema!" on my score sheet. So in my opinion, the gain on the flavor side completely outweighed a very small loss if any on the crema components. I would encourage everyone to try the "PT's flip" as we have been calling it. Pull a double shot, one straight into a demi and the other into a preheated shot glass and pour it into a second demi and try them side by side. Doing a blind tasting is even better. You might just be amazed that both shots, especially on that first sip, came from the same portafilter. On a final note, I don't feel that this is a step that should always be done especially at a cafe. As I said before, espresso is a layered drink and I find that part of the enjoyment is tasting the changing flavors as you drink it down.


Pete

Thanks Dan, for the best coverage of the USBC!

Did you (or anyone else who could reply) catch Eton Tsuno's performance? I heard (pf.net) that his judges could not be vegetarian. I know at the GLRBC he was working on a savory drink, did this one include meat?

From Flickr photos, Scott Lucey appeared to include the Ethiopian coffee ceremony in his signature beverage- were the beans ground by mortar and pestle? Was there an espresso element? (was the hall equipped with smoke detectors?! )