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NINE BARS continued from page 50 pulped and placed in fermentation tanks for 14 hours; the goal of the dry-fermentation technique was to allow the mucilage still on the beans to produce a sweeter flavor. Post-fermentation, the beans were placed on African beds (raised several feet off the ground) for 15 days of drying. "This is something unusual for Guatemala because normally it's dried on patios," Rodas said during his finals- round performance. better and do something different," he says. Rodas will hold the title until the 2013 World Barista Championship, taking place May 16-19 in Melbourne; it will be Australia's first time hosting the WBC. U.S. COMES UP SHORT One of the competition's biggest surprises was the first-round exit of U.S. competitor Katie Carguilo. The United States has developed a reputation as a barista-competition powerhouse in recent years: Phillips won in 2010, and American baristas had earned top-three finishes in five of the previous six WBCs head- ing into Vienna. Carguilo, who works in customer support for Counter Culture Coffee in New York City, says she felt confident in her performance. However, she encountered technical prob- lems with one of her grinders during prep time, which she says led to the derailing of her cappuccino course. "I had to change the extraction profile of the way that I wanted to brew the coffee for cappuccino because of a problem with the grinder," she says. "And that threw off the taste balance of that particular set of drinks." COFFEE IN MANY FORMS: Raul Rodas' signature drink utilized cascara, mucilage, and "yellow bean" and "first crack" coffee. Rodas said that after tasting the sweet, clean cup produced by the resulting coffee, he decided to showcase processing and experimentation in his routine. He illustrated this by isolating four components in his signature drink. Two were from the farm side: fresh cascara (the dried skin of the coffee fruit) and beans still containing mucilage (the layer of the cherry between the outer skin and the parchment). The other two featured compo- nents were from the roasting process: what Rodas called "yellow bean" coffee, referring to coffee roasted very lightly to highlight its sugar content, and "first crack" coffee—beans roasted longer than yellow but still for a shorter period than most roasts—which Rodas said would bring out caramel flavors and acidity. He infused each of these components in water and served the brews individually in shot glasses to the judges. Then he made two mixtures to highlight the two processes used in his coffee. For the washed profile, he added the cascara and first crack infusion to espresso, describing the result as having a bright acidity. For the natural profile, he mixed the cascara and mucilage coffee with espresso, which he said highlighted the coffee's silky body. Once the judges had tasted those mixtures, he added the yellow-bean mixture to each drink and had them taste it again. "It gives us so much complexity," Rodas said onstage. "It's going to give you a cleanness and a hint of all the flavors of the coffee." Though Rodas will now be busy representing the global coffee community, he has another responsibility to man- age: Six months ago he opened Paradigma Coffee Roasters in Guatemala. He says he chose the name because he believes in shattering pre-conceived notions—namely, the idea that pro- ducing nations don't have high-quality roasting companies. "The idea of breaking paradigms was what made me want to be 52 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com ON THE BIG STAGE: USBC winner Katie Carguilo didn't make it to the WBC semifinals, but she may be back to compete next year. Carguilo kept her USBC-routine practice of using coffee that had been hand-sorted by bean size, but she decided to switch to a cof- fee from Finca Los Alpes, one of three farms owned by celebrated El Salvador farmer Aida Batlle. (Counter Culture ran out of the Ethiopian coffee Carguilo used at USBC.) She says she chose Batlle's coffee largely because it was processed using the Ethiopian dry process and the Ethiopian underwater fermentation process, allow- ing her to stick to a similar signature drink structured around those processing methods. After reviewing her score sheets and talking to the judges, Carguilo says she came to accept why she didn't advance. What has been harder, she says, is shaking the letdown of not taking the U.S. barista community deep into the contest. "My initial reaction was to be disappointed because I felt like I let the baristas in the U.S. down," she says. Carguilo, who turned 29 while the WBC was under way, hasn't decided yet whether she'll defend her American title in 2013, but it's clearly a possibility. "The U.S. competition is very hard to win, and it gets harder every year," she says. "It's tough to think about even having to do that again, but it's not impossible." REG BARBER AMANDA WILSON/WORLD BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP