SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Competition
Feb 10, 2008 Illinois, coffee, general food
SCAA Midwest Reginonal Barista Competition Round 1 Day 2 that is…
I’m not yet styling a DSLR like some of the other photo snappers I saw (McCracken), so while I’m sure some better shots will come out of the weekend, what I lack in quality I make up for in swiftness to the web.
On my initial quest for good cappuccino in St. Louis Ellie and I somehow found ourselves in St. Charles at Picasso’s Coffeehouse. Alex worked there, and he was the first person in the city I didn’t have to have a conversation with about what I wanted. He just did it right.
On the weekends we knew he was working we’d go after dinner. And then one day he was gone.
Honestly, I was pissed. It was like losing a dealer; until I found Goshen Coffee that is.
So then Matt tells me he’s hiring a new barista/sales guy for Goshen a few months ago. “Alex” he tell’s us. Ellie and I churn it over, put two and two together, and sure enough, it’s Alex…”Picasso” Alex…our Alex.
You’d be pressed to find someone more enthusiastic than Alex about coffee in St. Louis, and I personally find the whole thing pretty amazing because he was barely 20 when we first met him. He’s 21 now.
If you want a good shot of espresso go to Goshen when he’s working and have him pull the single origin yirgacheffe.
He’s from PT’s Coffee. PT’s is based out of Topeka, KS, but he is the manager of their store in Overland Park.
Where Alex seemed a bit nervous competing for the first time and didn’t talk much, Licata seemed a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. And he should be. Licata came in second at the US Barista Competition last year, and was therefore the alternate in the World Barista Competition in Japan.
Though I’ve never seen one of these competitions before I can only assume he did not perform as well as he must have at the national competition last year, because his latte art was a bit sketchy from pour to pour. Still you could tell he has skills, and although I didn’t stick around to see who made it to the finals tomorrow, I’d imagine he did fairly well.
Congratulations to everyone that competed though. I’ll be the first one to tell you your coffee sucks, but I can’t even pull a shot of espresso now can I?
But then I don’t have an espresso machine either
If anybody has about $1000 extra dollars to pitch in on a used Rancillio S27, I’ll be happy to practice my heart out and pull you a shot. Another $500 for a Mazzer Mini grinder would be cool too.
Thanks to David from Kaldi’s for the rule info. He made some sort of umami heavy specialty shot with mackerel and seaweed that was far to involved for me to remember. I’m curious what it tasted like.
And here’s the rest of the flickr photo set from Round 1 Day 2:
Tags: barista, cappuccino, espresso, Goshen Coffee, Kaldi's Coffee, latte art, Midwest Regional Barista Competition, PT's Coffe
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February 10th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I really wish that I could have been around to see Alex compete yesterday. We had to leave early. He really is very enthusiastic about good coffee too, even more so than me.
It was my first barista competition as well. I have an Alexia and a Mazer mini at home that I don’t even know how to use, instead I have my own personal barista. My preferred method is a press pot, no espresso.
It’s nice to see that there are others in St. Louis who appreciate good coffee.
Jenny
February 10th, 2008 at 9:53 am
To clarify, latte art doesn’t necessarily mean that much in barista competitions. Taste is much more important than art, as is texture. It is pretty difficult to pour beautiful art on a traditional cappucino when the consistency and texture are spot on…
tyler
February 10th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Don’t they look at consistency though?
I thought one of the criteria was that everything looked consistently the same. So it’s not as much that the art was really well done, as much as the four were similar.
I completely agree with taste over style though. Latte Art is the touchdown dance of coffee. It’s the look what I just did ass-shaking moment floated atop a rockin’ latte or capp.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am
[...] Bill and Ellie were there when we arrived. Bill mentioned that they were headed over to the SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Competition, since I used to be a barista (albeit a poor one) I was curious to see the competition. But before [...]
February 12th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Bill regarding scoring at the competition, 51% of the accumlative points are solely based on taste, 49% of the score is a combination of technical, presentation and visual. The latter is intended to support the former. Although latte art is nice and visual consistency is nice is does not necessarily indicate taste quality.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Wow… you nearly made me blush lol. Thanks for the compliments!
I do love me some coffee! I’m hoping to find a way to go to Milwaukee to compete in the GLRBC, out of region(cant go to finals) but I can see how I score there, and depending… USBC??? We’ll see. Want to take a vaca to Beast country March 14-15? I don’t know a soul up there lol.
The MWRBC was a lot of fun, its amazing the sense of community that was there. Wish there was something like that every weekend.
Oh, If your curious I took 9th overall, got a 5 from each judge but one on my sig. drink, and was asked to come back sunday to prepare it for a few people, was a hit! Thanks again! It’s nice to get positive feedback from discerning customers! Hope I can keep you and yours comin back!