This Saturday in Oslo, The Barista League kicks off their 2018 season with another round of rambunctious, coffee skills-testing events. Now in its third year, The Barista League is taking place at Espresso Spesialisten featuring 12 teams of two, three rounds, and one very cool prize.
For the Oslo event, a total of eight countries are represented by the 12 participating teams, including UK/Ireland team “Petesy & The Brain” consisting of 2017 World Barista Champion Dale Harris and 2014 Irish Barista Champion Pete Williams. No pressure, everyone else.
For this competition, each team will have to make two espresso and two Oatly-based milk drinks using La Marzocco Linea Minis and a mystery coffee, followed by a sensory round, where teams will have to correctly guess the infused flavor in five different cupped coffees (“if it’s not on the [SCA flavor] wheel, it’s not in the cup”). Finally, each team will get tested by a “mystery round,” which a little digging revealed to be similar to the compulsory round of the Brewers Cup, only competitors are required to use the 3Temp Hipster brewer (what a name). All coffees will then be blind cupped by judges and competitors alike.
After the dust has settled, the winning team will be awarded a trip to the World of Coffee in Amsterdam later this year.
Doors for the event open at 6:00pm this Saturday, March 24th with the competition getting underway promptly at 6:30pm. Spectators are obviously welcome at this party/skills competition hybrid, and tickets can be purchased through the Barista League website for kr50.00, which sounds like a lot of us Americans but is really only around $6.00 USD. For more information about the event, the competitors, or where the afterparty will be (hint: Brygg Oslo), visit The Barista League’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
*top image via The Barista League
