USBC/BREWERS CUP PROGRAM
Happy Friday, everyone! We here at Barista Magazine are sure glad it’s finally come… we’ve had an especially busy few months with the production of our anniversary issue, as well as the official United States Barista Championship/U.S. Brewers Cup event program. The program is at the printer right now, and we can’t wait for you all to see it when we give it away at the SCAA show in Houston.
As we’ve done with the USBC program in years past, we’ve included profiles of every Regional Barista Champion, as well as a schedule, list of parties and events, list of competitors, informative articles, and even a profile of outgoing USBC and WBC champ Michael Phillips, with advice he has for the next champ, and also news about what the future holds for him.
Because this is the first year of the U.S. Brewers Cup, and therefore, the first year we’ve included it in the program, we decided to give it its own special section, and that section includes profiles of all six of the Regional Brewers Cup winners, a list of the other competitors and some info on how the competition works.
We sure hope you guys enjoy the program, and that it helps you navigate the USBC and Brewers Cup with ease. And for those of you who won’t be in Houston, but will be following the competitions online, we’ll post a pdf of the program on Barista Magazine’s home page on April 28 so you, too, can follow along.
COFFEE FEST SAN DIEGO LATTE ART COMPETITION!
Thanks to Matt Milletto for posting this to Barista Exchange today, as it’s timely news you should know!
The next Coffee Fest Latte Art Championship is approaching! While many will be in Bogota, Colombia, for the World Barista Championship during the weekend of June 3-5, lots of us will be celebrating coffee at Coffee Fest San Diego at the very same time. Below is a pdf for the registration form which will be due later this month. Please send in your form soon to make sure you are registered in time. Best of luck!
The 64 Competitor format will feature head to head competition as “a match” between the competitors. The competitor receiving the highest score from the three judges will advance and the loser will be eliminated. Competitors will be given three minutes to produce one drink for the judges to be scored against the competitor at the facing machine on the tournament stage.
Judging will be based on five categories:
1) Aesthetic Beauty
2) Definition
3) Color Infusion
4) Degree of Difficulty and Creativity
5) Speed
Each Drink will be judged by Coffee Fest veteran judges: Matt Milletto of American Barista & Coffee School and Barista Exchange, Sarah Allen of Barista Magazine and Chris Deferio of Defurios Coffee Consulting, using a ten point must scoring system.
Each of the judges will compare the drink presented by each of the two competitors in each match and award 10 points to the competitor with the best presentation in each of the five categories. Judges will award nine points in each category for the drink they consider to be the lesser of the two. The competitor receiving the most points on each of the judge’s scorecard will be the winner in that judges opinion. The competitor advancing will advance by virtue of the judge’s scores of 3 to 0 or 2 to 1.
We look forward to seeing you in San Diego in June!
IN THE NEWS
I first heard about one of the Bay Area’s most awesome new cafes when I was in Berkeley for the La Marzocco Out of the Box event, and it’s getting more and more attention all the time! The place is called Remedy Coffee, and it’s in Oakland, and it’s awesome. They serve coffee from Ritual.
This is a terrific article about Remedy that I recommend you read. It’s so nice to see the strength of the San Francisco Bay Area coffee scene continue to grow! READ ARTICLE HERE.
