Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/59523
OFF THE WIRE continued from page 21 TRUBY MARTIN On the Brewers Cup side, John Martin of Intelligentsia Coffee's Pasadena café won the crown by brewing Takesi Bolivia— the world's highest-grown coffee at 7,200 to 8,500 feet—on a Kalita Wave pour-over. As he heads to USBC, Martin says he'll draw on his experience competing in last year's national Brewers Cup event. "We get a 30-minute practice session before we go through the first round, and it's almost more important that you have a game plan for that practice session than having one for the first round," he says. "Because if you're not ready to go into that first round, then it's almost impossible." Northeast: March's Northeast regional in New York City was taken by Katie Carguilo. It was the second regional win for Carguilo, who works in customer support for Counter Culture Coffee's New York City office; she previously won the Mid-Atlantic regional in 2007. This time, she used an all-Ethiopian coffee menu and a routine inspired by her interest in coffee science. As USBC approaches, she's both excited and nervous. "It's a huge high to win," she says. "I'm also feeling a little bit intimidated because people are gonna be wanting to take me down, Nancy Kerrigan- style. But no, if anything, I hope that people feel the pressure of wanting to win and everybody feels like they have to up their game. I certainly do." The Northeast Brewers Cup winner was LUDWIKOWSKI CHAPMAN attitude about it has helped give her a leg up. "Competition's a strange thing," she says. "It's always on your mind in some sort of way." Matt Ludwikowski was the Southeast Brewers Cup winner, USBC SCHEDULE April 19-20: Preliminary round April 21: Semi-finals April 22: Finals Oregon Convention Center, Portland For USBC coverage and results, visit freshcup.com. Jordan Barber, a barista at New York City's Third Rail Coffee. Barber used a cupping-inspired technique inside the French press- like Espro Press vessel, and his coffee was from the Kieni wet mill in Nyeri, Kenya, and roasted by Copenhagen-based Coffee Collective. Barber didn't tell the judges what coffee he was serv- ing, and he plans to surprise them again on the national level with different beans. "It's always fun looking for coffee," he says. "We'll see what I end up using. Kenyan harvest just ended, but we'll see if Kenyans are still holding up." Southeast: In February in Atlanta, Lindsey Kiser netted the top prize at the Southeast regional. Using the Baroida cof- fee from Papua New Guinea, Kiser centered her competition on two words—personality and culture—and used those themes to delve into how people process a taste experience. Though this is only Kiser's second year competing, she wonders if her obsessive 22 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com using a coffee he picked and processed himself. Ludwikowski owns importing company Brash Coffee, which works with three farms in the El Salvador town Laguneta, located in the San Vicente municipality. On a January visit to one of those farms, Finca Los Reyes, he chose his beans, and at the competition he prepared them in a Chemex brewer. Ludwikowski's seed-to-cup routine was able to set him apart. "The thing I'm excited about for the future is to be able to give people unique coffee experiences that they've never had or maybe will ever have again," he says. "That's where my heart is right now." Northwest: Last but not least was the performance of Devin Chapman, who became the first competi- tor to win the barista contest and Brewers Cup. His feat came in Tacoma, Wash., in January. Chapman, of Portland's Coava Coffee, used one coffee in his barista com- petition routine, and as his presentation started, he told the judges it came from one of three countries—Ethiopia, Guatemala or Honduras—and listed the processing method, varietal and sparse tasting notes for each coffee. But he declined to give the judges more information, creating a performance centered on taste, not origin facts. "It was a big risk," he says. "But I wanted to deliver in terms of how I was able to extract the different flavors and kind of portray the different sides of the coffee." In his Brewers Cup performance, Chapman used a Chemex to brew a coffee from Guatemala's San Rafael Urias Valdes that was a Cup of Excellence winner in 2011. It was the second-straight Northwest Brewers Cup win for Chapman, and he now rides the momentum of both wins to the USBC, where he'll be on his home turf and able to represent Portland's high-quality café scene. "I feel like we have a really good thing going on right now in Portland," he says. "We have a lot of people trying to get a lot of quality stuff in and across the counter. I think that makes everybody better." —Chris Ryan DAN BAUMFELD MARCUS YOUNG MATT LUDWIKOWSKI CHRIS RYAN