Prior to the Barista Competition will be a Barista Jam, held at Cappuccino King.

This will be a great time for competitors & non-competing baristas to get together and hang out, talk espresso and have a latte art throwdown !

This will also be a Q&A time for judges and competitors and to demonstrate the format that we’ll follow at the competition.

Agenda:

3:00 - 4:00pm: Set up @ Cappuccino King. They’ll provide two 2gp machines and you’re welcome to bring your own coffee and grinder.

4:00 - 5:00pm: Introduction and meet & greet

5:00 - 7:30pm: Competitor routines, Q&A

7:45 - 9:00pm: Latte Art Throwdown. $5 buy in…Followed by pizza & beer

Barista Jam
Date: May 17
Time: 4 pm - 9 pm
Where: Cappuccino King Calgary

The Canadian Barista & Coffee Academy will be offering two days of barista training at Fratello this May 26th and 27th - following the Barista Competition.

This special training academy for barista (espresso machine operators) and those interested in learning more about coffee and espresso presents its 2008 Educational Program. The hands-on training workshops are lead by Canadian and international expert trainers and professional baristas. They are for those new to the industry or those who want to perfect their coffee skills and include: Basic Training, Advanced Training and Expert Barisa workshops.

Please refer to the schedule below for details and click here to register.

Location: Fratello Coffee

4021 9th St. SE Calgary, Alberta

403-265-2112

Monday, May 26, 2008

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Barista Level I: Beginner Barista Workshop

2 p.m. - 6 p.m. Barista level II: Advanced Barista Workshop

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Level III: Expert Barista & Latte Art Workshop

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Opening a Successful Coffee Business Seminar

2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Coffee Cupping Workshop

I pulled this on our 3gp Slayer with a PID setting of 200 F.  This shot took about 20 seconds to pull on a double basket in our naked portafilter.  After working with John (and of course the inevitable good natured competition that occurs at Fratello) for the last few months on the variations of Latte art, I had a local Barista in who showed me how he was working on a swan.  I decided to learn this new technique to raise the anti on our internal competition.  

I finally gave this a try on Friday afternoon and succeeded to beat John, making me the new Barrista Champ at Fratello.  This was my first attempt of the day, and it came through pretty good. 

Its exciting to be able to bring this kind of presentation to the cafe’s I work with, training their baristas in advanced beverage preparation techniques.  These kinds of images are in truth nothing more than evidence of the components of a drink being done correctly.  From having an espresso shot that has nice tight crema, to poperly textured milk creating very stable and sweet micro-bubbles.  

The best part is it takes no longer to prepare this drink than a tradition drink, and it also TASTES BETTER!

Below are more picture of our internal latte art competition. 

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Check out some pictures from our “cafe crawl” at:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/15126591@N02/sets/72157603439934924/ 

 My brothers and I spent a day last week touring 14 of some of the best cafes in Seattle! We had a lot of great coffee and gained new insights as to where coffee culture is going.

Our hope is to influence the coffee scene in our home town of Calgary with some of what we are learning. We are committed to doing our part to raise the bar in Alberta.

What does it take to be a “3rd Wave” cafe?  Read this post and find out what some of the best in Seattle are doing. 

On December 6th, a group from Fratello Coffee and Slayer Espresso met in Seattle for 1 day.  In this 10 hour day we visited, reviewed and tasted a lot of amazing products.  When originally planning this trip to we had 2 goals.  The main purpose of this trip was to visit the Slayer Espresso’s studio to witness their break through in brewing technology and to experience their ability to develop new characteristics in its espresso brewing techniques.  It is too new for me to talk about this, so I won’t……    

Our second purpose was to educate ourselves with a few of the great Seattle “3^rd Wave café’s” and to bring this knowledge back to Calgary to help our café’s in elevating their skills in offering excellence to their customers.  With the knowledge of new competition coming to our back yard we felt that this was the best way to help prepare our clients for what the new standard of running a café will be, and what it will take to compete on these new levels.  We know that many people don’t have the time to fly to Seattle/Vancouver them selves, so we decided to bring Seattle to them.  My next plan is to do the same thing for Vancouver.  

14 cafes were chosen, all different and all excellent in what they are doing.  This tour consisted of Chris and Jason Prefontaine, Eric Perkunder, Trent Breitkreutzt and my self.  I decided to document this trip, but please keep in mind that I am not a journalist, I am a professional coffee cupper and roaster, who simply loves coffee.  The views below are my opinion only!! 

Below are some notes and observations I made while visiting these great cafes.  I hope that this will be helpful in setting a new direction for those cafes that are looking to improve with what they are currently doing everyday.  

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I used to be the best in the building, but very quickly John & Joel are pulling away from me!! I had better start practicing! Good job guys.

Caffe Beano has spent a lot of time with us at our facilities over the last few weeks. Some in this group have been back 4 or more times to practice proper coffee-distribution, tamping & pulling shots w/ naked filters, plus getting used to heating and texturizing milk on the Slayer espresso machine. Their’s will be the first Slayer to hit Calgary, and owners Janice & Margie want to be sure that the espresso machine isn’t the only upgrade - which is why these staff have invested so much time with Jason & I to upgrade their skills.

The first time around was a tease, then it was gone. Much to our collective dismay… Now it’s back and lets just say there may be bloodshed should someone try to take this one… You think I’m joking… See the name? Yeah that’s right. You’re wondering what I’m talking about.The “Slayer” is our newest creation, recreation, incarnation of the Espresso machine. In it’s current existence, it’s a La Marzocco that has been heavily modified. Things like PID, another boiler (yeah, I said that)… and those are the immediately obvious ones. So, with John and myself loitering ermm, I mean training ourselves. The beast came to life, and on the VERY FIRST SHOT, promptly knocked Jason’s socks off with an unbelievable shot. After that (and a few elbows) John and I were next… Might I say that never in my life have I had an Espresso that had that perfect, lovely, rich, deep brown/red crema, with a hint of flecking, the texture and mouth-feel of silk, and the flavor, well the flavor was everything that Blackjack had promised to be, and more. Pleasantly acidic, sweet, bold, full, rich… So, satisfied on that, we proceeded to pull shot after shot after shot, all the while extolling the virtues of this new machine like giddy 10 year olds on Christmas morning, literally freaking out… It was almost embarrassing. 

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Ok - check out what I stumbled across today as I visited a great cafe out in Hope, BC (1.5 hours outside of Vancouver). I met Luke, a hardcore barrista who gives a new meaning to the term “latte art”! He recently got this tattoo of a porta filter on his arm. Crazy. Luke buddy - if you are ever in Calgary, stop by the roasting plant and lets pull some shots together! Love your enthusiasm!    

I guess this is the only attempt that I managed to keep an image of … Too bad its a bit off center.