New Setup

Not a hugely informative post; just to say that I'm building a bench for my espresso stuff. The knock box set into the bench has made it relatively easy to clean up, particularly as I have the grinder doser directly above it.

Victorian Barista Competition - 25 March 07

Just a quick announcement that this year's Victorian Barista Competition (VBC) will be held on the 25th of March, at The Beach Club in the Docklands. It won't be part of the Celebrate the Bean festival, which is a refreshing change.


If any of my loyal readers feel like helping out, there are a myriad of things that need to be done, such as taking away cups and keeping time. Being the cup slave is usually pretty good because if you see fives on the judges forms, you can always take a sip on the way back to the kitchen! If you are interested, speak up and I'll get Nathan, who is running the comp, to talk to you.


This year is going to be the hardest-fought VBC yet; a lot of very good baristi that I know are going to enter, so it should be quite interesting to see what happens. Regardless of who wins, I think that Victoria will be able to make a very strong bid for the national title.

Last year I was lucky enough to be allowed to judge the competition, which was a tonne of fun. For those of you who are wondering, this year I will not be judging, as I have been relatively involved in a few training sessions for a few competition baristi and I feel that it would be a conflict of interest for me to judge. Instead, I will be a barista bitch, schlepping stuff around, taking photos and hopefully clearing away some cups ;P

Remember; at the end of the day, it's about finding the best person to represent us at the worlds.


Links:
AASCA webpage - dates, places, winners
WBC webpage - rule sheets, photos
James Hoffmann's blog - coverage of the UK heats (Shout-out to Ben, who came second to James in the London heats; Ben worked with Andrew and I at Maltitude)