The 2013 United States Barista Championship circuit is heating up, and Sprudge.com is here to bring you best-in-the-business live coverage and event preview goodness from throughout this year’s competition cycle. The Northwest Regional is in just two short weeks, while the South Central and North Central regionals will do battle in Kansas City in only 3 more days. All this leads up to the big kahuna, the 2013 United States Barista Championship in Boston, April 11th through the 14th.
In advance of these upcoming events, we teamed with up with NWBarista Guild of America Chapter rep Laila Ghambari, a team of certified barista competition judges, and a few choice sponsors to hold a series competition preparedness events in Portland and Seattle. Our “PrepFest 2013” events took potential barista competitors, judges, and volunteers on a whirlwind wild ride.
Audiences in Portland and Seattle watched as Laila Ghambari (Caffe Ladro) and Sarah Dooley (La Marzocco USA) performed a real-live authentic 15 minute barista competition routine. This was followed by a judges’ calibration like no other, as PrepFest gave the audience carte blanche to ask questions and get answers as sensory and technical judges went through the scores line-by-line. Calibrations are normally extraordinarily private, closed-door affairs; PrepFest blew the doors off that situation, offering a truly unique level of insight into the authentic judging experience.
We coagulated a ton of info from PrepFest and turned it into the Sprudge Pop Video you see above, which was filmed at the PrepFest event in Portland. Below you can find complete score sheets for each judge. Taken together, we hope these sheets and the video will serve as a competition training tool, a source of inspiration for those considering competing, and a document of just how odd and fun competitive coffee can be.
Scoresheet Scans (right click to download)
Sensory Judge – Phuong Tran
Sensory Judge – Heather Ringwood
Sensory Judge – Will Hutchens
Sensory Judge – Alex Pond
Technical Judge – Carllee Curran
Technical Judge – Nathaniel May
Head Judge – Marcus Young
PrepFest 2013 was made possible by Nuova Simonelli, Caffe Ladro, The American Barista and Coffee School, Visions Espresso, Espresso Supply, and by our individual judging volunteers and their sponsor companies. Thank you.
Further reading:
SprudgePop Video:
Original routine:
