George Giannakos, partner and general manager of Revolver Coffee in Vancouver, British Columbia, teamed up with Annabelle Choi of Elysian Coffee to create a stunning Aeropress poster/trophy for the British Columbia AeroPress Competition, made entirely of LEGO. The trophy took twelve hours to build, using just under 1000 pieces, including childhood pieces from George Giannakos’ personal collection.
Take a look at this masterwork of LEGO artistry:
We spoke with Annabelle Choi, self-described “part-time front-of-house Elysian Coffee cheerleader, full-time self-employed caterer, creative consultant, and entrepreneur”, about this year’s British Columbia AeroPress Competition.
Did you organize it? Is this your first AeroPress competition?
I was approached by my friend Nathan Welland from Elysian Coffee a couple of weeks ago for advice on how to organize such an event, as I do catering full time, and have been known to link communities together through events. Being a coffee fan/long-time industry friend I really wanted to see a fun event happen for the Vancouver coffee community, so when Devin Lily (co-owner of Notch Coffee and long-time barista) brought it to my attention, we decided to just go for it and see what would happen.
Devin has been the driving force of industry and AeroPress knowledge (as I had no clue how one made a competition out of aeropressing) and has been a great co-organizer, as we both want to see more events happen that bring not just BC’s coffee community together, but also those in the food, hospitality, and creative industries who also strive for excellence in their craft, service, and product.
This will be my first Aeropress competition.
How do people sign up?
We will be approaching coffee bars near and far (Victoria to Whistler) that have expressed interest, and those who might not know about it via e-mail and store visits, and asking companies that are interested in competing to submit one contestant and a runner-up by March 10th. Once we hear back and still have spots open (out of 18 available spots), we’ll open it up to non-industry and runner-ups.
What do you think about the trophy?
As soon as Devin asked if I would design the poster, I wanted to figure out how to build a LEGO version AeroPress for it. I noticed the best posters that were being submitted on the WAC’s website were the ones that held a bit of nerdy nostalgia (not a big surprise considering who makes up the coffee industry, I include myself as one of them).
I was inspired by constantly seeing George’s Instagram posts on his LEGO creations, so naturally I reached out to him to see if one could be built. The fact that we could also use it as the trophy was a major plus.
The Canadian National AeroPress Competition will be held March 22 at Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters in Calgary. Learn more about national AeroPress championships at the official website.
Sprudge is proudly partnered with Aerobie, makers of the AeroPress.
