Café Culture International together with Almond Breeze, the low sugar Almond Milk designed by Baristas for Baristas, hosted the third leg of the National Breezey Masters tour in Melbourne at Locale Espresso, Abbotsford.
The event was held on Tuesday the 6th June featuring 15 of Victoria’s finest baristas.
Josh and Julian from Locale were the amazing hosts for the evening. Locale is a boutique roastery and educational space in the heart of Abbotsford. Their focus is bringing quality coffee and people together, but doing it sustainably and ethically to ensure future generations of coffee drinkers get to enjoy the industry as much as we do.
A big thank you must go out to the boys for again giving up their time to help the industry grow through constant support of events like ours.
Our two judges for the evening were Josh Jackson and Jen Carruthers.
The ineffable Steve Foye was the charismatic MC.
Julian was the man behind the San Remo café racer extracting shots for all competitors.
Before competition it was quickly evident that this was going to be a quality throw down with a few baristas arriving early for a short practice using Almond Breeze Barista Blend.
Latte art is constantly progressing and has evolved into it’s own coffee sub culture, it’s amazing to see that even when using an almond milk with at least 5 times less sugar then other café almond milks perfect pours are still a reality. Each and every year it seems to get taken to another level by these talented and driven baristas.
An incredibly tight few rounds of competition ensued with only a handful of points separating the top few competitors. After impressive final free pours by all competitors Victor Vu from Cocobei Docklands edged out Jodie Chan, Kien Nguyen and Junnie Phyu to be named Victoria’s Breezey Master.
Victor Vu took home the $1000 in prize money and also won a chance to compete in the National Grand Final, which will be held in Sydney later in the year.
Thanks to Almond Breeze Barista Blend, Daylight Agency and Café Culture International for putting together another fantastic event for the barista community.
Next stop on the national tour is South Australia, which will be held at Kinetto Coffee and Kitchen in Adelaide’s CBD on Tuesday 18th June.
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