The mental journey from barista to master of coffee

For baristas, the barista competition is a new world. Although the national barista competition has been held in China for more than 10 years, the number of barista competitions is still limited, and only the champion can be promoted to participate in higher-level competitions. For example, in the World barista Competition, each participating province sends a local selected champion to determine the Chinese champion at the Shanghai International Hotel products Expo held in March-April every year. The champion then represents China in the annual World Barista Championship in May, which will be held in Melbourne, Australia in 2014. At present, there are few small-scale barista competitions in China, so participating in the barista competition seems to be far away from most baristas.

The rules of some baristas' competition seem to be standardized, but preparing food to others is just like the interpretation in "God of Food". Baristas make customers feel not only the charm of coffee, but also a kind of transmission of mental state, just like the infection of positive ability.

Baristas who usually do well in cafes may not be able to stand out from the competition. There are a lot of special training about the competition, which can help baristas learn how to get good grades in coffee taste and blending skills. This knowledge will also benefit you a lot in the cafe.

So, how should we prepare for the barista contest? Chinese and foreign baristas should pay attention to the following aspects:

Be familiar with scoring standards

First of all, baristas are usually internationally accepted rules and scoring standards, so it is very important to carefully read and master these scoring standards and competition rules. In this way, the contestants can know what the judges want, do as required, prepare better and reduce the chance of losing points in the course of the competition. This may seem easy, but not everyone can do it completely. Many habits need to be perfected in long-term and repeated training, which requires baristas to "one minute on the court and ten years off the court." A good barista can't be successful at once, nor can he make a sudden surprise.

The choice of coffee beans

Espresso is the largest proportion of the three rounds of the competition, but also the fastest production time, on the day of the competition, introduce your work to the judges, it is also easy to get a good score. Generally speaking, the difficult thing is to take weeks or even months to decide on tasting, baking, experimenting, and analyzing various production methods and varieties of coffee beans. Once you have decided on the variety of coffee beans to use, it is easy to get a high score in the competition according to the scoring criteria.

Creativity and coordination

Creativity and coordination are reflected in how you present the coffee to the judges, what music is used in the blending process, and what kind of utensils and napkins are used to match the coffee. After all, the taste of the coffee is not just tasted by the tongue.

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Unpopular coffee knowledge

First, what is bean cultivation?

As a matter of fact, after the coffee is roasted, the taste is done, and the taste has been settled. There are still many changes in the flavor, that is, the smell of the baked fireworks in the coffee beans in the previous three days has been spit out. It does change in the next few days, because the carbon dioxide is not completely discharged, although carbon dioxide hinders the flavor volatilization, it actually retains the flavor. If raising beans can really produce a flower, it would be better to put it for one more minute after grinding and steam for a little longer. You're welcome

Of course, the real beans are health beans. Raw coffee beans from picking to processing to customs clearance, the water content of raw coffee beans is not stable, and it also needs to be placed under a certain temperature and humidity for a period of time. Keep the water stable and keep the water activity between 0.55 and 0.6, so that the aromatic substances can be better preserved and it is easier to show flavor during baking.

Second, omnipotent extraction?

Since the golden cup extraction rule, my mother no longer has to worry about my inability to make coffee.

But the flavor of the coffee before production has been determined by 90%. If you have to study hard on the extraction, you will feel more likely to beat the bone and eat the marrow. Extraction can show the flavor as fully as possible, but after all, hot water reacts with coffee beans. One plus one can't be equal to three anyway. If the extraction is done, everything will be all right, which inevitably gives people the impression of being partial to the whole. If you can't bake it, you can't make it. Of course, the coffee is washed away, and there are a lot of people like Kungfu Tea, and there is a certain degree of knowledge in coffee making. But learning itself can not make people blind, do not see Mount Tai.

Third, light baking tastes better than deep baking?

Before I wrote this paragraph, I happened to have several bags of deep-baked beans that had been in place for more than a month. To be exact, these bags of beans already had a taste of salad, and it was really not pleasant to rush out. But this has been kept for a month after all. There's nothing wrong with the taste within a month.

But this is not a good reason why light baking is better than deep baking. The loss of flavor is not only deep baking, shallow baking and astringent taste has not been taken out, and it is not uncommon for people to suffer from it. A test paper 60 points pass, 90 points excellent, during the floating range is very large, if only coffee flavor, medium roasting as the evaluation criteria, I am afraid the raw beans and treatment will not be allowed.

1, bean size

In addition to Rose Summer, the most suitable degree for other coffee beans from small to large is from shallow to deep. The shallow roasted beans may taste good, but they have not been completely released. At this time, it is understandable to say that as long as the coffee tastes good, of course, but can it stand the comparison?

2. Planting environment and treatment method

There is a good saying: hibiscus comes out of clear water and dragons come out of the deep sea. Beans have actually determined the baking degree under the influence of growing environment and treatment methods. Sunburn Brazil (most) because of its low altitude, lack of water, so the beans are not big, need to rely on the sun method to make up for the flavor, and the sun method to keep the flavor in the bean surface, if the baking is deeply afraid of being tender and unsightly, it is even worse to taste. The same is true of high-altitude sun exposure. While some traditional coffee producing areas such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kenya, these coffee beans have their own conditions, high altitude and no shortage of water, beans with large particles and high hardness. The clean and bright taste of beans fermented by water, as well as flavors such as chocolate and nuts, require a lot of firepower to lure them out. If you blindly pay attention to the sour taste of light, such as hairspring, it is hard to avoid the suspicion of abusive nature.

3. Baking techniques

Think about it or talk about this, after all, so much has been said before, in the end, it is all laying the groundwork for baking. As far as the bean itself is concerned, in fact, the rhythm of the technique is different, and the result is also different. And a little more time out of the transformation and taste may be very different. If there is really no similar concept, you can go to two stores to buy coffee beans from the same origin.

Four: it's always good to mess around a little bit more.

At this point, we should always point out that many people know very little about what is in the cup. At this time, when they encounter delicious taste and flavor, the popularity begins to get confused. Of course, you can't say that. However, if those who have the patience to see this paragraph have not become angry, most of them should understand that, as enthusiasts, we should try our best to broaden our own information channels and have our own system. Maybe this will give you a better understanding of coffee.