We thank Alex Milosevic and Heather Scott at Extraction Artisan Coffee – for providing the space, machines and beans for the 8th Become A Barista competition for Brisbane high school students.

Coffee professionals came from far and wide to help with the judging. We especially thank Luke Inouchi who travelled all the way from Byron Bay. Local baristas and roasters Matt Philben (Coffee Hit), Taylor Heslop (freelance barista), Dimitri Piliouris (Artisan Coffee), Nerida Ritchie (Belaroma) and Paul Holiday (Coffee Education Network) also invested a day of their time in the future of their industry.

This year we introduced a ‘barista buddy’ program where teachers could tag along with the judges and learn. Jenni Southern (Blueprint Career Development), Marg Nowacki (Smark Skills) and Alison Smith (Stretton State College) put their hands up to participate. While their scores aren’t included in the student scores, they benefited from working with the WBC scoresheets and judging criteria.

This competition attracted students from the following southside schools …

  • Canterbury College
  • Emmaus College
  • Mansfield State High School
  • Stretton State College
  • White’s Hill State High School.

Here’s what went on during the first half of the competition. The judges reported some interesting tastes and techniques.

And here’s what happened in the second half of the competition …

Some of the performances were quite adventurous but there was generally little impact on the performance time of 10 minutes, with only 3 of the competitors going over time.

There seems to be an improvement in the level of skill  – especially with milk texturing.  While some participants are still using a lot of cream and chocolate in their signature beverages, which often masks the coffee flavour, we are also seeing some based on other flavours such as fruit and nuts. We hope to see more of these in the future to be consistent with emerging trends in national and World Barista Championships. Students are encouraged to watch WBC championship performances to gain inspiration.

The winners of the 2017 southside Become A Barista were …

  • Corey Warner (Canterbury College) – overall winner
  • Hannah Gray (Emmaus College) – runner-up
  • Hannah Gray (Emmaus College) – highest technical score
  • Corey Warner (Canterbury College) and Hayley Makoare (Emmaus College) – tie for the highest sensory score
  • Reza Nazeem (Stretton State College) – best espresso (sensory)
  • Corey Warner (Canterbury College) – best milk beverage (sensory)
  • Hayley Makoare (Emmaus College) – best signature beverage (sensory).

Prizes were donated by Leigh and Geoff Michelmore (Brew Solutions), Michael Bishop (Alchemy Cordials) – and us at Coffee Education Network.