Coffee In Competition

This is an exciting and very particular side to the industry that not everyone gets to see. Highly competitive and highly skilled baristas compete all around the world in ways that spark innovation, developing new ideas and driving the industry forward.

The UK Barista Championship consists of 3 rounds. Firstly, there are several heats, each with 14 competitors, held across the UK. Every competitor must prepare 2 espresso drinks and 2 milk drinks in 7 minutes whilst being filmed and alongside a panel of judges. During this time, the baristas technical skill set is deeply scrutinised; from their cleanliness on the machine - it must be kept lab clean - to the coffee tamping; is it level, was it tamped evenly, was it thumb heavy?!

Whilst perfectly preparing the coffees, the barista is expected to deliver an incredibly intricate description of their chosen coffee beans detailing the farmers, the region, the altitude, processing methods, varietals of the coffee, the roasting protocol, the milk that they use, the reasoning behind their recipe. Every step is carefully considered. A complex set of points is awarded and the 14 highest scorers from across the UK go through to the semi-finals.

The competition escalates with each competitor now making 4 espressos, 4 milk beverages and 4 signature drinks in 15 minutes. The top 6 go through to the final, where they perform their routine for the final time. The winner represents the UK at the World Barista Finals.

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On February 16th 2023, I took to the stage. After years of thinking about competition, with the support of industry friends, and Society Cafe behind me, I tossed my hat into the ring. 

I signed up 7 weeks before the competition… which isn’t very long!

During this time I had to source a delicious coffee, write and learn a 1000 word script, design recipes for both milk and espresso courses, and become comfortable delivering all of this in front of people whilst being watched intensely by 4 judges…! 

This competition made me consider every variable that resulted in this coffee arriving to me at the shop; the Brix content of which the coffee cherries were picked, the PH of the soil, the harvesting seasons in different regions, the factors affecting the rate of processing and the different methods that were used. Once the coffee arrived to the Lake District, I worked closely with the team at Red Bank on different roast profiles that would elevate the coffee, attempting to find a perfect balance that would enable the coffee to shine as an espresso as well as when paired with milk. It made me delve deeper into the dairies that we use at Society, and the impact of freeze distilling milk to enhance sweetness and body. It was such a deep dive and I learnt so much in the process. 

On competition day it was astounding to see how much time, love and care had gone into everyones performance and I was very happy to come away from the competition taking second place at the Cardiff heat. With a score of 173 I narrowly missed out on a spot in the finals by 0.5 points. Congratulations to Zoe from Clifton Coffee for taking 1st at our Cardiff Heat and going on to come 2nd overall! And a massive well done to Ian Kissick from Formative Coffee, who will be going on to represent the UK in Athens. 

Some thank-yous:

I would like to say a huge thank you to Tom and Mike from Red Bank for the delicious coffee, the team at Origin for their support in training and coaching, to friends who have spent sleepless evenings over-caffeinating with me in practice, to the volunteers at the SCA, to my partner Lucy for listening to my speech endlessly for weeks and weeks on end, and of course, to the team at Society for all the support they have shown me over the years that led me to sign up - Coffee competition is such a team sport, and I am so grateful to have had such a fantastic team behind me.

A huge well done to everyone who competed, and an extra pat on the back to all the first timers - see you all on the stage again soon!