SCAE UK | Speciality Coffee Association of Europe UK Chapter

With record entries in the SCAE UK Barista Championships it just may be!

More baristas than ever are entering the race to become World Barista Championship, especially in London where the regional heat has had to be doubled in size to accommodate our talented coffee competitors.

Over the last year many new espresso bars have opened in the capital with the aim to serve coffee at a higher standard than eve before; if there were Michelin stars for coffee it would be these places that would get them. Places like Dose, Kaffeine, Taylor Street Baristas, and Princi have joined established names like Monmouth Coffee in the push for coffee excellence. Even the House of Commons has entered its top barista, Sylvain Subervie (it could be that Gordon Brown is fuelled by top quality coffee!).

And it’s their barista, as well as many other of the capitals top talent, that will be competing to win the UK Barista Championships at the South East heat of the competition on the 19th & 20th February.

They will all be hoping to follow in the footsteps of last years UK Barista Champion, Gwilym Davies, who went on to become World Champion in Atlanta. (This years World Barista Championships will take place in London for the first time!)

Gwilym originally from Yorkshire now runs his infamous coffee cart at Whitecross Street food market in the East End of London. So his loyalties will be split when the Northern Baristas compete in their heat at Sheffield’s Millennium Galleries on the 16t and 17th February.

Applications for this heat, as well at the heat in Scotland on the 26th January, and the South West at Expowest on the 3rd and 4th February are all now full to busting. The future looks good for quality coffee in the UK!

What do the baristas have to do?

On the run up to the competition baristas often search out coffees produced by the best farms around the world, blend and roast them with exacting care, and bring them at their peak freshness to present to the judges.

In their 15 minute performance baristas have to serve four superb espressos for the judges to evaluate their flavour as well asthe skills demonstrated in producing them. They must then go on to make four velvety textured cappuccinos as well as four signature coffee drinks of their own creation.

Baristas will get to demonstrate their skills at any of the five regional heats. These more focused regional events look set to be bigger and better events than ever before.

More championships for the baristas to show their skills:

Baristas will also be able to enter three other fun fast paced competitions, The UK Latte Art Championships, the UK Coffee in Good Spirits Championships and the UK Cup Tasting Championships. Entry numbers for these competitions are also stronger than ever at this stage.

The first of these, the UK Latte Art Championship, sees baristas using their creative talents to pour beautiful pictures and patterns using only the rich crema of the coffee andthe pour of the milk.

The UK Coffee in Good Spirits Championship tests our budding mixologists, baristas and bartenders to produce the ultimate coffee cocktail as well as the perfect Irish coffee.

The final competition, the UK Cup Tasting Championship, tests the finely tuned palettes of the skilled coffee taster. Similar to wine tasting the contestant has to identify different coffees in this knockout competition.

The finals of all these competitions will be at Expowest Westcountry 2010 Exhibition in February.

More information on these competitions can be found at:

www.expowestexhibitions.com
www.world-latteart-championship.com
www.world-coffee-in-good-spirits-championship.com
www.world-cuptasting-championship.com

Download the full press release here

With the countdown to the UKBC heats now well underway we are excited to announce that all the UKBC heats are now fit to bursting, and the SCAE competitions are heading the same way.

If you’re not entering this year, but would like to get involved, you still can!

We still need helpers at the events – so if you have handy with a camera, make a mean espresso, or don’t mind lugging some kit, please get in touch! Email helen@scaeuk.com

Feel free to show your support at the heats by coming along to watch and cheer too!

As you will now be aware we have been forced to make the difficult decision to cancel the Northern Ireland heat of the UKBC, due to lack of entrants at the time.

With entrance to all the heats opening at the beginning of October, and not closing until 31st December we waited until the week following the cut off and still only had four entries to the heat. We spoke to the host before Christmas to express our worries that initially no one had registered for the event, then, nearer Christmas, only 4 entries had been received.  Paul Meikle-Janney had also made a number of calls and confirmed he only had 4 entries.  We agreed to leave it until the first week in January to make a decision depending on numbers.

As of that time we had 5 entries which is insufficient to justify running a competition in the region.   Therefore, we took the decision to cancel the event and transfer the 5 to Glasgow.

In doing this we offered to make a contribution to the 4 who had registered in time towards their costs of getting to, and staying in, Glasgow.  In the past when we have cancelled an event and baristas have had to go to another Region, we have not made any contribution so hope this will be well received by those entrants.

We want to assure you that we are upset at having to cancel NI, but it will be appreciated we could not afford to send two vans of equipment and at least ten people to hold a competition for 4 or even 6 people the cost of which would be around £5000. In the current economic climate, with reduced levels of sponsorship to cover the competition we need to ensure we spend the available funds as wisely as possible.

We understand that there are now a number of people who would like to participate in the competition; however, we are unable at this late stage to resurrect the NI heat.

We will do everything we can to facilitate any who make the journey to Glasgow, or Exeter if preferred, in terms of competition times to minimise their stay and ensure they catch their flight.   However, they do need to let Paul know of their travel plans in good time so he can plan accordingly.

Please rest assured that we are fully committed to future events in NI but intend to make the heat later in the year next time, and hope that those wishing to compete will ensure their entrants are registered in good time.

On behalf of the Committee,

John L. Sherwood
Chairman UKBC