On August 7th, Come and watch as the top baristas in Alberta and Saskatewan compete for a chance to represent the region at the Canadian Barista Competition in Toronto.
Get involved behind the scenes or just come out to cheer on your favoriet baristas.
This is open to all of the public and is being held at:
Fratello Coffee Roasters
4021 – 9th Street SE
Calgary, Alberta
Tickets are available for $5.00 at the door. Entrance also gives you the ability to win the 50/50 draw at the end of the evening.
Fratello just won another Cup of Excellence coffee Lot. The auction just finished and was one of the longest bidding wars I can remember. After it was all said and done, the #1 lot was sold for $35.05/lb (green) which is a new record for Bolivian Specialty Coffees.
This stretched on for almost 7 hours! Fratello chose to puchase Lot # 6 which was also given a Presidental Award. A Presidental Award is given to any coffee which scores over a 90.00 in the Cup of Excellence compitition.
Lot#: 6 Luis Huayhua Chiji – Café Central – Jury Score 90.71
Below is information on the coffee that we will be sharing with all of our friends/clients in the new year.
Luis Huayhua is father of three children. He is married to Zenobia Charca, a coffee producer for over 20 years and winner of the Cup of Excellence 2008. He arrived in Alto Beni from Achacachi in the Bolivian high plains (the altiplano) with her parents when he was 10 years old. Luis learned about coffee production as a child, while working alongside his parents, but he had never processed coffee. For this reason, de-pulping, fermenting, washing and drying there coffee to participate in the competition presented a challenge for him. (Read the rest of this post)
What a crazy day! 15 of Canada’s top barista’s competed today with the closest results today. We have yet to be given any scores, but the judges mentioned that these were the most talented barista’s to ever compete in Canada.
What we do know is that Joel May from Fratello Coffee has made it to the finals, and is ranked in the top 6 of Canada.
Tomorrow we will find out who will be the 2009 Canadian champion. It is going to be a very tight competition!!!
Stay tuned, and join us on UStream.com to watch this event live.
On October 14th, Fratello’s Joel May will be competiting again in the National Canadian Barista Competition. Last year Joel finished 3rd overall in Canada, so this year we are all cheering for him to become #1.
This is a very challenging competition that takes a lot of work and constant practice. Joel will be competing with barista’s from around Canada who have each earned the chance to compete for the chance to go to London England next year with hopes of becoming the World’s top barista.
Over the past few months barista’s have been competing across Canada in Regional Competitions and only the top 3 from each region are guaranteed a spot in the Nationals. Shaw TV did a feature on the Prarie Regional’s held at Fratello Coffee early September. Please watch this video which helps explain what the competition is about.
The top baristas in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon will gather in Calgary on Saturday, September 12, 2009 to compete in the the 2009 Prairies Regional Barista Championships.
The second annual event, held this year at Fratello Coffee Roasters in Calgary, will feature 11 competitors from the prairies region. Each competitor has 15 minutes to prepare and serve 12 coffee beverages—four espresso, four cappuccino, and four signature drinks. Four sensory judges, two technical judges and one head judge evaluate each performance, including the taste of beverages served, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation of the competitors.
The top three scoring competitors earn the right to compete at the Canadian National Barista Championship, October 14 & 15 in Vancouver, as well as travel bursaries and a prize package. The public is invited to attend the event free of charge and enjoy beverages prepared by competitors at the complimentary espresso bar. The event will be broadcast live on Ustream. A link and further details can be found on the event website at http://2009prbc.com/
Also – this Friday September 11 is a Barista Jam – Open to all Professional Barista’s and coffee enthusiasts. We’ll be hanging out, pulling shots and warming up for the competition. There will also be a Latte Art Throwdown, $5 buy-in winner take all. P.S. beer will be served ;-)
I have just returned from Pereira Colombia after judging the 2009 Cup of Excellence competition. Although tired, I’m thrilled about this experience. It is so exciting going through the cupping process and seeing the award ceremony’s on the final day.
The Cup of Excellence competition is the most thorough and competitive screening process a coffee farm will put their coffee through. The goal of COE is to bring out the best coffee a current region has to offer in the current crop year. After the competition is over, the COE award is given to the top farmers who represent the best coffees that this region has to offer. These coffees are then put in front of the world on an on-line auction which rewards these farmers for their focused attention to improving quality coffee, and puts a spot light on this region show-casing their excellence.
Stage one Involves the submission from the farmers current crop of coffee. Of the 512,000 families growing coffee in Colombia, only 374 submissions were sent in this year, which was relatively low do to the fact that Colombia’s crop forecast is 30-40% lower than the year before.
All of these coffees are cupped and analyzed in Colombia by local cuppers. All coffee scoring an 84 or higher (out of 100) move on to the second National Cupping jury. The National Cupping Jury is chosen from the pool of local cuppers. They are chosen for their cupping skills in the first stage.
It’s taken me a while to get this entry put together. But here are some thoughts from competing in the Canadian National Barista Competition held in Montreal this year.
I need to begin by thanking the team that I had behind me, from the brothers working with me to create the blend, to Mike our Master Roaster I worked closely with to produce the roast we took, and to all the friends and family who supported me through the experience. I literally could not have done it without you
I also need to acknowledge the competitors. One and all they are a class act and I consider my self EXTRMELY fortunate to count myself among their number. It’s very nice to be able to put faces to the names and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and to keeping in touch.
I hate to admit that I did not watch any of the other competitors on the day of the finals, I was going last and it was all I could do to keep my wits about me listening to them. (Read the rest of this post)
Yesterday was the online auction for the 2008 Honduras Cup of Excellence competition, and Fratello Coffee is happy to say, that we have won another Lot of coffee, and are the ONLY Canadian company to win one. This is always an exciting process, and is particularly long, when you are also one of the 26 judges from around the world to actually participate in the competition at origin.
The judging process is a 4 day cupping extravaganza that allows you to taste the best coffees that country has to offer. It starts out with the national cupping jury to taste all the entries and separate all the coffees that score an 84 or higher.
The next event bring the international jury into to rank all of these coffee to pick the final farms that qualify as a Cup of Excellence coffee (again anything over 84). Every coffee gets tasted by each judge from 4 – 12 times and will be scored, and described each time. Very tiring, but very rewarding.
When you walk away from the competition, you have experienced the best of this country as well as had the opprotunity to discover many different micro regions that had never been descovered until this time. (Read the rest of this post)
So I finally figured out how to post on this thing… Took me long enough… I wanted to do a short recap on my experience in my first Barista Competition at the 1st Prairie Region Barista Competition held here at Fratello and Espuccino. We had a great field of 13 competitors of which I’m proud to say I was one, competing over the 2 day event.
For many of us, it was our first experience in this kind of event and despite the fact that many Barista can pound out top-notch drinks at high speed, it’s a whole new animal when you add in camera’s, spectators, up to 50 people watching online at any given time, oh and a time limit, judges, and the necessity of a running commentary. You get the idea. It’s fun and scary all at the same time.
For myself, I’m pretty proud of how I did. I don’t think I actually slept all that much on Friday night as I was mentally reviewing my routine over and over (and over and over). Since I’d never done this before, I really had no idea what to expect. I took away a LOT of great lessons, many of which will now help me be a better Barista trainer. I also met some great people. This fact alone made the event worthwhile. In the end I finished 4th and I tip my hat to all of the competitors.
An interesting thing that I experienced was that of the two days. I was actually more nervy on Sunday than on Saturady. (Read the rest of this post)
This weekend Fratello is hosting the Canadian Prairie Regional Barista Competition – and we’ll be streaming all the action LIVE on www.ustream.tvHere’s the URL:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prairie-regional-barista-competitionSo, if your in Calgary – you should come to Fratello and hang out (open to the public)…and if you can’t watch it in person then make sure you check in to see who the next rock stars will be!
This weekend Fratello is hosting the Canadian Prairie Regional Barista Competition – and we’ll be streaming all the action LIVE on www.ustream.tvHere’s the URL:
