Day One has just concluded for the Meadow Fresh New Zealand Barista Championship for 2017.
Wellington’s biggest roastery, L’affare, has created an electric atmosphere for the two-day competition. The heady aroma of green beans in their stacked jute sacks mixed with the smell of freshly ground specialty coffee has provided the perfect backdrop for New Zealand’s top baristas to perform.
Incredibly, the bar was raised higher this year with tasty beverages, professionalism, skill, knowledge, and passion displayed on stage. New distribution tools, intriguing devices, and amazing coffees dominated the performances. Many of the New Zealand’s top coffee professionals commented on the impeccably high standards.
The crowd was well caffeinated by a myriad of coffees. Guess the origin of the bean with a focus on taste balance in the cup to tasting espresso from the Guild stand has been popular. There is an opportunity to blind taste test five different Meadow Fresh milks.
The Meadow Fresh latte art smackdown has been busy all day. “Newbies” and “Pros” are taking polaroids of their best pours, creating a mosaic of art pictures which will be judged tomorrow. The winner of the smackdown will take home a set of branded Acme & Co cups!
Your top nine to go through to the semifinals tomorrow are:
9:30am Mike Tan, Meebz Coffee Roasters, Auckland
9:50am Alex Casserly, Crafted Coffee Co, Christchurch
10:10am Alan Bruce, Flight Coffee, Wellington
10:30am Dove Chen, Grey St Kitchen, Hamilton
10:50am Nico Refiti, Ozone Coffee Roasters, New Plymouth
11:10am Frank Hsu, Frank’s, Wellington
11:30am Heesun Christina Lee, Eighthirty Coffee Roasters, Auckland
11:50am Isaac Yu, 21 Grams Ltd, Auckland
12:10pm Nara Lee, Independent, Auckland
Join us tomorrow for an earlier start time of 9 am. We are doing it all again!
Free entry, so come on down to cheer on your favourite barista.