NZ Barista Championship Finals

Today saw a great number of coffee lovers come together to perform, taste and appreciate great coffee. Hosted in the classy C4 roastery in Christchurch with a great atmosphere all day long.

The day started at 10am for the competitors with their briefing from Emma – after a quick reminder of the does and dont’s, it was then straight into practice time.

The event was initiated with the opening welcome from the NZCRA president, Chris Dillon. After a few sponsor mentions and the introduction of the judges, it was time for the calibration performance from Lawry Trewavas of Espresso 2 Go.

The competitors then competed in the following order

Robert Hulse – Planet Espresso

Frank Hsu – Mojo Coffee

Hideyuki Kono – Vivace Espresso

Carl Sara – Muffin Break

David Huang – Espresso Workshop

Nik Bruce-Smith – Muffin Break

Nick Clark – Mojo Coffee

Richard Legg – Sage Cafe

Judges:

Convener: Chris White-Altura Coffee 

Head Judge: Emma Markland Webster-Atomic Coffee Roasters

Tech 1: David Burton-Burton’s
Tech 2: Andrew Feldon-Streetwise Coffee

Sensory 1: Scott Pepler-Cerebos Gregg’s
Sensory 2: Jessica Godfrey-Caffe L’affare
Sensory 3: Brydon Price-Atomic Coffee Roasters
Sensory 4: Justin Metcalf-Somewhere in Aussie….

After a long day the finalists were announced at 5:30pm. Each and every one of the competitors did an amazing job, they are to all be commended highly – it is not an easy thing to get up in front of 7 Judges and a roastery full of people – well done.

Congratulations:

3rd David Huang – Espresso Workshop

2nd Hide Kono – Vivace Espresso

1st Carl Sara – Muffin Break

 

The full set of photos (approx 450) is available on CD for $25 – email me hans (at) meritoespresso.co.nz