Another successful barista competition took place this week hosted at Sustainable Workspace, Bankside. As always, we were impressed by the level of dedication and skill-set of our four competitors who have spent the last few weeks training to perfect their latte art. Our dedicated judges made up a panel of 5 and this year we called in the help of 3 sensory judges who added an element of technicality to the competition as they scored points for technical execution. Our two senior judges, Mark Philpot and Clive Hetherington finished our panel and they were paying particular attention to the professionalism, demonstration and knowledge of the coffee produced.

Each competitor produced two espressos, two milk-based drinks and their very own signature drink over a period of 15 minutes and they all did fantastically with the help of our participatory audience who later enjoyed tasters of their individual creations. Plant based products were an important integration into this year’s competition as all competitors were asked to use milk alternatives in their own signature drinks with creations such as a Elisa’s Black Forest Gat-oatly, Hubert’s Coconut Russian, Vadim’s Hemp Lavender Latte and Andre’s Choc-oliday – all huge crowd pleasers!

Everyone involved in bringing this event to fruition has been instrumental in producing, what we believe, is our best Barista Competition yet and each year showcases what genuine talent and dedication we have across our workforce. A big thank you to Extract Coffee, Illy and Union Hand-Roasted Coffee for their continued support and to Brewed by Hand for their generous prize donations. The judges deliberated intensively over our brilliant four contestants but there can only be one crowned winner who was the very well-deserved Elisa Nucida, our Barista Champion 2019. Huge congratulations to our other finalists who highlighted their impressive coffee and presentation skills throughout.