The first round of the national ALMOND BREEZE Breezey Masters competition for 2017 was held on the 30th March of the newly fitted out North Melbourne, Roasting Warehouse.
The competition consisted of many of Victoria’s best baristas, an interstate raider and an international intruder.
The baristas competed on the new Slayer steam espresso machines and were appraised by judges – Tony Macri of Coffee Brothers, Melanie Mokken of UTZ Certified and Ainsley Harrison of Peak Coffee.
Each competitor had 5 minutes set up time to dial in their coffee followed by 10 mins comp time to produce 6 cups, pouring a number of set latte art designs and free pour beverages.
5 mins Set Up Time – 6 Cups in 10 mins
• Cup 1 Heart
• Cup 2 Rosetta
• Cup 3 Tulip
• Cup 4 Swan
• Cup 5 Free Pour
• Cup 6 Free Pour
I particularly like this format as it presents a challenge for the baristas to produce the requested patterns whilst demonstrating their creativity. A key component is flavour with each competitor choosing a coffee to compliment the Almond Breeze Barista Blend. There is no technical scoring as we focus on what’s in the cup.
Emerging victorious was Lucky Cabrera Salvador of Common Man in Singapore narrowly out pointing Kayla Hanna of Extraction Coffee Solutions in 2nd Place and Aum of Hardware Societe in 3rd Place.
Lucky chose to use the Lucky Basterd 2 Bean Blend for the competition – Ardi Sidama, Ethiopia Natural Process
– Veracruz, Mexico Washed Process
Taste Profile – Sweet Fragrance, Juicy and fruit forward. With a large proportion of Ethiopian Coffee in the mix it’s a party in the cup with stewed fruit and jasmine aromas and layers of vanilla, blueberry and biscuit flavours.
Lucky will now progress to the national Grand Breezey event and represent as the Breezey VIC champion. Roger Ringwood, Country Manager for Blue Diamond praised the baristas and thanked them for supporting Almond Breeze Barista. He also mentioned “We believe in giving back and supporting the industry so we’d like to offer Aum a position at the Grand Breezey Masters final too as the highest scoring Victorian competitor.”
Click here to find out when the Breezey Masters will be held in your city. Next stop Brisbane May 2nd for Breezey Masters QLD.
Step up to the tools or join in on the breezey fun as a spectator.
