Welcome to Day Two, Round One at the 2013 United States Barista Championship – 20 competitors from across the USA, representing the very highest levels of knowledge, service, and presentation in the specialty coffee industry. Tweets in this feature are taken from our @SprudgeLive Twitter feed, providing competition play-by-play for every last competitor of the 2013 USBC regional and national cycle, with international coverage coming this May at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne.
Coverage of the 2013 United States Barista Championship is made possible by direct support from our partners at Counter Culture Coffee and Nuova Simonelli.
Gold standard original competition photography by Charlie Burt for Sprudge.com.
22. Josh Taves, Dogwood Coffee Company, MPLS
10:24 “we get to take these mysteries of nature, and experience them in a cup” – @coffeeuphigh on coffee as chemistry
10:27 organic acid extraction, monoglycerides, oil & water mixing, cats & dogs getting married, emulsions, espresso building blocks…it’s hard to tell whether or not @coffeeuphigh is nervous on stage, because said nerves would have to first filter through his giant brain.
10:35 mr. taves competes with @dogwoodcoffee Finca Miranda, a coffee from Colombia’s Huila department – producer Elsias Munoz
23. Collin Schneider, Sterling Coffee Roasters, PDX
10:43 mr. schneider competes using @sterlingcoffee‘s Colombia La Palmera – learn more here.
10:46 conceit here – multiple roasts of the same coffee. a more acidic one & a more developed one “our guests might enjoy” … what our guests want when they say “developed” are really just “more compounds that we perceive as sweet”
10:48 the folks at sunshine dairy in PDX kindly shipped milk out to Boston for @sterling_collin and @Devchap – very cool.
10:52 mr. schneider’s sig drink uses the distinctive Glencairn glass – traditionally for scotch, but used for espresso at Sterling’s bar in NW PDX
10:55 deconstructed coffee sig drink: skimmed crema cream, gastrique solution, mallic apple vinegar, espresso in glencairn
24. Brian Gelletly, Ultimo Coffee, Philadelphia, PA
11:01 mr. gelletly competes in the 2013 using @counter_culture‘s Bolivia nueva llusta – learn more here.
11:04 this is a change in coffee from NE regionals to today – he used a Burundi back at the RBC, has switched to Bolivia today
11:08 “coffee lots are only able to be kept separate because of the hard work of farmers, exporters & importers”
11:13 sig drink: fresh pink lady apple juice, honey toasted almond syrup, oolong tea, sparkling water, espresso
25. Cole McBride, Visions Espresso Service, Seattle, WA
11:20 mr. mcbride’s stage set dominated by these kind of like…hi-lighter green bar toweles and table settings
11:23 52 grams out for his cappuccinos – “i’m doing that because i want to calm the epsresso down a little bit”
11:25 mr. mcbride’s coffee comes from the Panama 90 Plus Gesha Estates – learn more – and was roasted in Seattle by Velton Ross of Velton’s Coffee
11:28 mr. mcbride serves espresso in a wine glass, demitasse tilted atop the bell – unique service, high degree of difficulty
11:30 sig drink: espresso, honey, warm coconut oil, yuzu drinking vinegar, orange blossom water, grapefruit, sparkling water
26. Michael Ryan, Caffe Ladro, Seattle
11:44 mr. ryan competes using @LadroRoasting‘s Colombia La Plata – learn more, take some home!
11:44 he’s serving his judges a 50/50 blend of lighter & darker roasted la plata, roasted on different days.
11:50 sig drink: espresso, orange simple syrup, warming spices, drinking chocolate, berry juice – layered
27. Michael Harwood, Independent, Carrboro, NC
11:58 @bluebarista competes using @counter_culture‘s Rwanda Buf Cafe natural – a CCC exclusive & the first Rwandan natural process export
11:59 we visited Buf Cafe in Rwanda in 2012 – check out pics and info about this gorgeous washing station and read more about the Buf Cafe Natural from @counter_culture on our “Fruit Bombs & Fermentation” tour
12:06 “drinking chocolate body, fruit acidity, and a tannic acidity dryness” – Michael talks the judges through his espresso sip by sip
28. Zaida Dedolph, HalfWit Coffee Roasters, Chicago, IL
12:16 ms. dedolph competes using @HalfWitCoffee‘s Huila Colombia Finca Santana
12:19 ms. dedolph repeatedly talks about floral aromatics, mentions cut flowers as one of colombia’s main exports
29. Katie Carguilo, Counter Culture Coffee, NYC
12:32 “coffee gets made 3 times – at the farm, at the roastery, and when it’s made into the beverage”
12:33 ms. carguilo competes using @counter_culture‘s Aida Battle El Salvador Finca Kilimanjaro – bourbon variety
12:38 “what i like about being a barista is, we’re the people who get to romance people into the world of specialty coffee”
12:43 ms. carguilo becomes the 2nd competitor at #USBC to discuss roya – it’s slightly affected @aidabatlle‘s finca kilimanjaro
12:44 sig drink for @katiecarguilo – wine sap apple juice, shots sweetened with maple syrup, oolong tea, sparkling water … each ingredient is anchored with a narrative, and the drink is served in french cider ceramic bowls
30. Andy Atkinson, Intelligentsia Coffee, Chicago, IL
12:53 “there’s nothing more comfortable for a customer than coffee and milk” – Andy Atkinson
12:57 conceit here – talking judges through “developing a curiosity” for coffee as he would a customer
12:59 mr. atkinson’s sig drink: muddled blackberries, mint & cane sugar simple syrup, lime juice, soda water
31. Devorah Freudiger, Equator Coffees & Teas, San Rafael, CA
1:11 ms. freudiger competes using @equatorcoffees Ecuador El Batan – learn more here – roasted in two very different styles and with different parameters
1:14 there’s something so darn charming about how Devorah competes – the old timey country music classics, the polka dot apron…
1:23 two distinct sig drinks from Devorah, both taking honey and pear, just VERY different kinds of honey and pear.
1:24 drink one from Devorah: coffee blossom honey from El Batan, d’anjou pear juice, sparkling water, egg white. … sig drink #2 from Devorah: bosc pears, “smokey” italian chestnut honey, deeper roasted espresso
32. Scott Lucey, Alterra Coffee Roasters, Milwaukee, WI
1:32 mr. lucey competes using @AlterraCoffee‘s Colombia Nelson Melo – capps are “clean and dry, like a white wine”
1:37 mr. lucey explores a very specific grapefruit variety with the judges, one that “excels in its sweetness” … by giving the judges different tastes of different grapefruits, he’s able to narrow down just EXACTLY what his notes mean
1:42 “acidity is often a frightful word – i hope i’ve presented it to you today in a friendly manner”
1:43 haha a great moment here after @scottlucey finishes…he’s making an espresso for his producer, Nelson Melo, who’s in the audience
33. Josip Drazenovich, Dallis Bros. Coffee, NYC
1:57 Mr. Drazenovich competes using @DallisCoffee Colombia Huila San Agustin – 100% caturra
1:58 espressos: “notes of peaches & plums, sugars, caramels, from syrupy & creamy to juicy, then again finishing juicy”
2:06 sig drink: emulsified lecithin, mallic / citric / tartaric acid distillates, @DallisCoffee Brazilian espresso
34. Stacey Kock, Verve Coffee Roasters, Santa Cruz, CA
2:16 Mr. Kock competes using @vervecoffee‘s Colombia El Faldon here at #USBC – learn more! take it home
2:21 “Caturra produces coffees that are sweeter, with more acidity, than the more common castillo you find in Huila”
2:23 sig drink is two different approaches to raspberry – including juice, egg whites, a bartender shake… two separate services
35. Truman Severson, Portola Coffee Lab, Costa Mesa, CA
2:31 mr. severson competes using @PortolaCoffee‘s roast of coffees from Ethiopia’s Kochere processing station
2:33 this routine is oriented around the concept of synergy – a thousand synergistic moments in a coffee’s life
2:40 truman’s got a full bubble lab up on stage with him, to “distill” coffee used in his sig drink – a very high degree of difficulty in this routine, turning at lot of heads.
36. Colin Whitcomb, MadCap Coffee Roasters, Washington DC
2:49 mr. whitcomb competes w/ @madcapcoffee‘s Colombia Luis Reinoso, in the Herrera region of Colombia. learn more!
2:52 @colinwhitcomb has judges to hold first sip of capps in their mouth, then breath in fresh ground coffee – “the inverted whistle”
3:00 he’s creating aromatic bubbles with a like, bubble pump contraption. air bubles of flavor in his sig drink … looks like a bubble bath. a bubble bath of flavor and aromatics.
37. Jacque DesMarais, Kaldi’s Coffee, St. Louis, MO
3:13 ms. desmarais working w/ layered shots in her routine, as she did back in her SC regional finals run
3:16 the two coffees @jacquedesmarais competes with here were grown 75 miles apart from each other in Huila, Colombia
3:17 sig drink: dried peaches steeped in water, muddled & strained, w/ brown sugar, black plum, shaved white chocolate
38. Brett Felchner, BARISTA, PDX
3:46 mr. felchner competes w/ a Rwandan coffee from the Karenge mill, roasted by @heartroasters
3:47 for more on @brettboywonder, check out this perfect interview we did with back at NWRBC, where he finaled
3:54 complex signature drink from @brettboywonder – sweetened citrus cream, fig & madndarin orange reduction with espresso & orange rind … exploring ideas of “heavy & light”, bringing them together as one in a sig drink
39. Kevin “Tex” Bohlin, Saint Frank Coffee, San Francisco
4:00 mr. bohlin is serving “a brand new coffee that no one has ever tried before” from the Santa Barbara mountains, Honduras
4:07 there is a woodneck dripper on stage, people. first woodneck of #USBC courtesy of @kgbohlin
4:12 2 part sig drink from @kgbohlin: cloth brewed Honduran coffee with lima fruit & candy zest; espresso with added acids & lima
