Mentness

The Photos From Cafe Culture that John Sherwood took are now up to look at

http://www.scae.com/gallery/list/30/caffe-culture-london-olympia-2008-photos-by-john-sherwood/

The latte etch is mine…. not Phil’s! 

Seeing as Mr Hoffmann is running around the globe, kissing babies and opening supermarkets these days I thought he might appreciate this T-shirt. I knocked it up in my lunch hour and can make some copies should anyone want them (With Mr Hoffmann’s consent of course).

EDIT - T-shirt available at cost from www.mentness.shirtcity.com if you’re a geek like me!

Hello again and Sorry Guys!

As you may or may not have seen, my absence on the net has been somewhat apparent. In the last three months I haven’t Blogged, TMC’d, Barista Exchanged, Flickr’d or Facebooked to any great extent. Have I fallen of the earth? Well, you’d be excused for thinking that but I am in fact alive and well if not a little tired and stressed. The climax of the Rugby season, the tax year end, a UKBC hangover and the acquisition of an XBox 360 all contributed to the to my lack of bloggage. Also, thinking back, I didn’t actually have anything of interest to blog about, probably a good job I didn’t.

I blog today baring news of a mini success in the UK Latte Art Championship. Cafe Culture 08 was on last week at Olympia in London, an excuse for a holiday down to see my ever patient girlfriend and a chance to compete in some competition, glutton for punishment I Know. More than anything it was a chance to meet up with all the guys I’d had the pleasure of spending the few months before UKBC stressing with.  I wasn’t intending to attend but I had a last minute e-mail badgering me from Paul ‘Squeaky’ Meikle-Janney.

It was nice to see Hugo (current UKBC Champ) on the La Spazialestand pumping out espresso to the masses for the two days. I also finally met up with the ‘Dirty Makem’ Steve from Hasbean who I’m amazed I hadn’t met sooner than now. I do love these sorts of event, there is defiantly a bit of a barista scene developing and I had a lot of support from like minded coffee geeks and barista buddies in the comps.

Back to my mini success, which to be honest I’m a little embarrassed about. The competition in the preparation room was of a great standard and there were some fantastic rosetti being poured, myself included, this didn’t translate to the stage very well at all and I think I only saw 5 rosetti poured, 4 of which were Phil from Origin’s who won the Comp. This was the first competition of this type that I’d entered and I think there was very little competitive experience on show. I buckled under the eyes of about 70 of my peers and almost threw my cappuccinos away after my first pour, decided against it as time is so tight and bashed out some solid hearts on my machiattos. I had I hurriedly prepared a triple heart cyclical etch in the prep room which seemed to go down well with the crowd. I sculked off the stage my head down, so disappointed. Why can I pour so well on my bar but then as soon as I’m on a stage collapse so dramatically. Luckily everone else had done the same if not worse and I ended up coming second equal with a girl called Estelle, who was really nice.

The second day saw me take on some cuppersin the Cupping Championship. I love this event. Its like fast drinking penalty shootout. I was gutted when I was drawn against the World Barista Champion James ‘The Hoff’ Hoffmann who was nipping in and out of seminars to compete. I lost 5-4 tasting some fantastic coffees from Steve at Hasbean. James went on to beat Se Gorman of Cafe Krem and Guy from Green Mountain coffee in the final and will represent the UK in Copenhagen. 

This week I will be mostly preparing training material, and trying to make the most of my competition results this year with promo material for Pumphreys.

Great to see you again Tristan, Hugo, James, Steve, Will, John, Helen, Matt, Lance, Se and Norton.

Ohh it was nice to get that out, the blogging bug is back!!!!!

Hello everyone. Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet of late my attentions have been somewhat skewed due to my entry into the UK Barista Championships Finals last week.

First of all Congratulations to Hugo Hercod of Relish who was a deserved winner of the title ‘UK Barista Champion’

Good Luck in Copenhagen

I’m delighted to tell you that I finished 14th with my first attempt and indeed first finals of a coffee competition.

I have learnt so much in entering the UKBC that I can hardly recognise the person who started the journey 8 months ago. If you are thinking about entering next year, DO IT. I’ve made some great new friends, pulled some great shots and made some horrible signature drink combinations which turned the stomachs of many of my friends. I can’t recommend it enough.

The Championships were set in amongst the hustle and bustle of Hotelympia at Exel near Canary Warf in London. The SCAE had a fantastic little corner set up with staging and workshops surrounded by a multitude of café related stands, espresso machine suppliers and scantily clad cake stalls!

24 competitors were whittled down to 6 over 2 days. Unfortunately, this included myself which I was initially a bit peeved at. I think the emotion of the event got to me a bit and with hindsight my placing was correct if not a little high. The competition this year was apparently of a lot higher standard than last year and competitors were just not making the technical mistakes that they have done in previous competitions. Great news for the industry! We are defiantly making some inroads. This competition, thanks to ‘The Hoff’, SCAE and sponsors is defiantly getting some weight now.

A great big thank you to everyone who was involved!

One thing I would recommend which would (in my opinion) create more interest and give the general viewing public a little bit more insight into the passion and dedication of the barista is to mic up the competitors. Speaking from a spectator’s point of view the only interesting part of each performance was the pretty table set up and the fantastically knowledgeable compares who took us through what they managed to hear of each performance. A set of radio mics can’t be that hard to get a hold of, can they? Maybe a little bit of a better back stage area for competitors to store and prepare all their kit before, during and after their performances. I know there was a little bit of grumbling about that.

They are the only little niggles from the three days and I only mention them in the pursuit of pushing the Championships forward over the coming years. Just because people are volunteering to organise UKBC doesn’t mean that they should be immune to any criticism or not take any advice. Having said that, everyone who was involved did a fantastic job and it all went very well.

After the Semis we all had an opportunity to let ‘what hair we had left’ down at Square Mile Coffee Roasters in Bethnal Green. The home of Anette, Steven and James’s new venture played host to the UKBC Barista Party. A charity Latte art Smackdown inevitably raised it’s ugly head and I duly choked under the pressure of the ‘whooping’ crowd. See here (Thank you very much Tristan, you swine).

Thank you to everyone I finally met down there. It’s always a bit funny meeting people who you’ve only had ‘cyber’ relations with, the mutual recognition of Hugo and I on the first day was testament to this. Special thanks to Tristan, Will, Lance, Jonathan, Barry, Helen and Matt who have all become good mates over the last few months. Thanks for making this such a fantastic event for me. I have every intention of competing again next year and indeed for several years into the future as I really want to represent the country on the ‘World Stage’.

Before I finish I must thank my family and Pumphreys Coffee for their support over the past few months. Paula, Stuart, Malcolm, Georgie and Jill, thanks for the support and for putting up with my moods. Above all thanks to my beautiful girlfriend Lorna, without whom I’d have been lost at the competition.

To finish, a little bit of a tease:

I have heard rumblings of a barista ‘boot camp’ weekend which I cant see myself missing, more information will follow here soon I’m sure.

Thanks for reading

Yesterday a great man in coffee history died.

Dr Ernesto Illy passed on February 3rd at the age of 82.

He was one of the coffee world’s most respected scientists, inventors and businessmen.

Thank you and rest in peace Sir

More information Here

Well done to everyone who qualified for the Semi finals in Hotelympia on th 19th and 20th  

 List Bellow: 

Maxine Beadsmoore - Bristol
Holly Jones - South West
Lance Turner - Bristol
Clare Jarvis - South West
Gillian Campbell - Scotland
Nedyalka Petkova - Northern Ireland
Kristen Olsen - Scotland
Sindy Kamcheong - Bristol
Ben Townsend - Bristol
Barry Lawrenson - North
Hugo Hercod - South West
Kerry McGaughey - Northern Ireland
Subi Tweed - Northern Ireland
Lauren Card - Bristol
John Drysdale - Bristol
Stuart Archer - Scotland
Elliott O’Mara - Bristol
Marius Mesek - Northern Ireland
Tristan Stephenson - South West
Agnus Mishalowska - Scotland
Danielle Hadley - Midlands
Jonathan Sharp - Scotland
Edmund Buston - Midlands
Will Thornborough - Bristol

I was expecting more from Northern Ireland I must say. Ah, the rumor mills are working overtime as usual.

Well done Will, Tristan, Ed, Barry, Ben, Jon and Lance see you in London Guys.

Constructors championship……

1st      Bristol          8

2nd     Scotland      5

3rd = N.Ireland    4

3rd = S.West         4

5th    Midland       2

6th    North           1

I didn’t manage to get across for the festivities in Belfast but ‘The Flying Thud’ Steven Morrissey did.

See his pictures from the event  here

Top 3, originally uploaded by Espresso Warehouse.

I just spotted these photos of the UKBC event at the Edinburgh Uni Debating Chamber.

We were just about the smallest people competing and I’m 6ft 1in. Check out the Group Photo - giants all of them

Maybe we’re rebelling against all the tall gangly World Barista Champions we’ve been having recently

By way of Mr Tom Handiside Esp Warehouse

Pics from the event

All 13

Agnes of Kilimanjaro

Andrew Mundy - Pilgrims coffee

Daniel Grimshaw - Good taste

Daniel Grimshaw of Good taste pours his capps

David Fraser - Fantoosh Glasgow steams

GILL tinderbox EDINBURGH 08

Gillian Campbell of Tinderbox - Winner

Jamie Grant of Redz Paisley - first up

Leo Ventisei - Tinderbox

Paolo Tanzillo - Little Italy Glasgow

Ryan McHugh Fantoosh Glasgow - last years champ

Se tries out the Blue cheese, caramel & lemon juice sig bev

Se, Rebecca, Stuart & Angus - sensory on the day 

Stuart Archer in action

Unacceptable = 0 Acceptable = 1 Average = 2 Good = 3 Very Good = 4 Excellent = 5 Extraordinary = 6

Yes/No Score The barista receives one point for a score of ‘Yes’ on this item, and zero points if ‘No.” Zero to Six Score

With the zero to six score, it is acceptable to use half point increments between 1.0 and 6. The half points are written using a decimal point (not a fraction). For example 1.5, 2.5, 3.5… The lowest score with value is 1. (The score of 0.5 may not be used.)A score of Zero is used when something is totally unacceptable.The WBC Rules and Regulations state that a competitor is not allowed to change anything on the competition machines (such as the dispersion screen, spout, gasket and/or the portafilter). At the start of competition, the technical judges will verify that the equipment is in accordance with WBC guidelines.