Coffee competition 15 hours looking for beans for 4 months

To have a cup of hand-made coffee in an exquisite coffee shop is a way of life for many urban white-collar workers, while for baristas, making a good cup of coffee that can be recognized is an art. Last week (March 20-22), the fourth Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao barista competition "cat shit cup" was held in Guangzhou, attracting 39 baristas from many well-known coffee shops to participate in the competition. The competition scene is full of handsome guys and the coffee is fragrant, which can be called a grand event in the coffee industry of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

"what I bring to you this time is a delicious coffee bean from Panama, which is characterized by …" As the participating baristas kept talking, they were busy grinding, loading powder, cloth powder, filling pressure, and extraction. In less than 5 minutes, four cups of fragrant Espresso were placed in front of the four judges. Next, the contestants will make 4 cups of Cappuccino and 4 cups of creative coffee, all in 15 minutes, and clearly express their views on coffee and creation.

The coffee had already made the audience drunk, but the seven instructors at the scene kept their eyes open. "you have to pay attention to every detail, the process is wrong, it is not in place, and even if there are fingerprints on the spoon or cup, it may become a deduction." A barista who has participated in the competition for many years and won numerous trophies told reporters off the stage. Therefore, many contestants' supplies are washed and cleaned in advance, wrapped one by one with plastic wrap, and then opened and used at the scene.

In the end, the barista from Guangzhou Andean Coffee (ANDESCAFF) won the second runner-up, the barista from Shenzhen BESTcoffee won the third runner-up, while the player from Dongguan D-Union coffee studio won the championship and thus the only one to qualify directly to the finals of this year's WBC International Barista Competition (China Division).

Coffee beans have been free for months with private goods.

"I didn't expect that the game would only take 15 minutes." An audience at the scene sighed. In fact, this is only a superficial phenomenon-Mr. Zhang, a player from Shenzhen who entered the competition and won the third place, told reporters that he had been preparing for this for more than a month. "prepare your favorite coffee beans in advance, bake them before entering the venue, and practice the whole process over and over again."

One month in advance is not much, and the scene is prepared four months in advance, mainly because it is not easy to find the good beans you like. How hard is it? Manager Li, the organizer, told the reporter a story: in order to make the "best coffee" in his heart, Manager Li, who was familiar with the organizer, did not hesitate to bring the whole team to Sumatra, Indonesia, and lived for nearly a year. Observing the whole process of planting, flowering, fruiting, and processing of many coffee beans, he finally selected a kind of bean and made the "best coffee" when he returned home.

Moreover, coffee beans are not just competition items, they are also a gift-each player will always give carefully wrapped coffee beans to another barista or exchange with other baristas at the end of the competition. this is the tradition of all kinds of baristas. "Coffee beans are the secret weapon of baristas. They are secret before the game and should be shared after the game." Manager Li said that at the scene of the competition, there were coffee beans from more than 10 countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Colombia.

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There is a huge gap between baristas.

According to Sun Haitao, secretary-general of the Guangzhou Coffee Industry Association, China's current annual coffee consumption has reached about 30 million kilograms and is growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 20 percent. At the same time, there are more and more coffee shops in large and small cities. Take Guangzhou as an example, at the end of last year, the association estimated that more than 1200 coffee shops had opened in the city. Professional baristas are also increasingly in demand. It is understood that in Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other big cities, there is a market gap of about 20,000 baristas every year.