Our Brew Blog Site

Our Brew is a site where a collection of New Zealand’s leading baristas and coffee aficionados review, and comment, on cafes, roasteries and New Zealand coffee culture.

Their aim is to support local cafes that are really doing well for themselves, and the industry, by producing great coffee in a pleasant setting. Also, to provide you with a greater knowledge of the coffee industry and the local events that take place.

Current contributors include:

Hans Pronk (Owner/Barista, ME Coffee Boutique/Merito Espresso Roastery)

Everyone is welcome to enjoy the site and free to leave remarks, especially on any cafe’s reviewed or that others think should be looked at.

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