The same as last year, two Become A Barista competitions were held in 2014 – one at the Gold Coast Show and the other at Blue Sky Coffee in Brisbane.
Once again we thank the event managers the Gold Coast Show for kindly providing us with a stage and setting up the audio-visual equipment for the Gold Coast competition.
With Karen Thorburn (co-organiser of the event) having moved to Palazzo Versace as Training Manager, this year we also had help from her event management students – along with the support of Tracey Kearney and her team at Prestige Service Training, a Gold Coast RTO.
It also turned out to be an extra bit of fun this year – with Tim Sweet from Base Espresso in Southport adding another dimension behind the microphone – with his sense of humour being second only to his latte art! While the judges completed their scoring between performances, Tim calmed nerves and kept the audience entertained with jokes and an amateur latte art smackdown.
The judges were mostly coffee professionals including Brent Deller (Barista Tools, Noosa) and Richard Silipo (Silipo Coffee, Southport) as sensory judges. Also Mark Thorburn (a retired coffee trainer at Southbank TAFE) and Paul Holiday (Coffee Education Network) as technical judges.
Brent also donated coffee accessories as prizes and we at Coffee Education Network donated Barista Bibles and other products from the Perfect Espresso range of barista training resources. Brent also set up a display of barista tools and accessories and did an informative demonstration of how to make good coffee at home.
There were 6 participants from the following schools and colleges …
- Helensvale State High School
- Hillcrest College
- Pacific Pines State High School
- Prestige Service Training (school based trainees)
- St Michael’s College.
The winners were …
- Samantha Hendricks (St Michael’s College) – overall winner
- Natalie Koh (Helensvale State High School) – runner up
- Jacob King (Pacific Pines State High School) – best technical score
- Michael Wilson (St Michael’s College) – best espresso (sensory)
- Samantha Hendricks (St Michael’s College) – best cappuccino (sensory)
- Natalie Koh (Helensvale State High School) – best signature beverage (sensory).
This year saw a group of parents come to watch what was going on. We thank parents and teachers for encouraging the students to particulate – and no doubt tasting lots of practice signature beverages in the lead up to the event.
