A good barista must be a person of all abilities.

Did you go to the game?

I went. As a CBC sensory judge, I was always on the field.

At the end of each game, I get a little excited for a while, excited by the excellent performance of the contestants. Every day at the end of the review work, on the way home, I ask myself: why did you choose the coffee industry in the first place?

You made the right choice!

I dare not say that I have a dream, but the contestants who reach the CBC finals must have a dream.

Do you fight for money or strength? ]

When friends chat, everyone jokes, "I'm not going to the competition. I don't have any money." Sometimes I hear some baristas say seriously, "even if I have money, I won't spend it on the game." I tried to hold back what I wanted to say: "it's useless for you to have money, you have to have the strength."

Money is the easiest to get.

If you are a good player, someone will invest in you.

How to spend money requires strength.

How to allocate and use money is based on your strength and knowledge.

For example:

Do you want to spend your money on reserve investment? What kind of equipment do you buy?

Are you going to spend your money on beans? What kind of beans do you choose?

Do you want to hire a good coach? Who teaches and how to teach may directly change the result.

Will you form a team? How to build the team structure, how to divide the team members, and how to manage your team will directly affect your training and competition.

Therefore, the competition is still a comprehensive strength.

[specialization is not just about performance]

From time to time, a friend would ask me, "that contestant performed very well. Why didn't you make it to the finals?" As a barista asking this question, it is like the average consumer is asking, "this cup of coffee has beautiful flowers. Why doesn't it taste good?"

Just as flower-pulling is a necessary condition for a cup of milk coffee, so is the exhibition for the competition. The necessary condition is: no, no.

Then let's watch the game.

Baristas' competition is to treat sensory judges as customers who are served by baristas. Customers consume, in addition to receiving service, it is more important to drink coffee.

If a customer goes into a clean, luxurious, high-end, well-served coffee shop and spends money on a bad cup of coffee, do you think he or she will not complain (everything is fine, but the coffee is not good)?

In the competition, the process of the exhibition is the process of communication between baristas and customers and baristas serving customers. He needs to control the rhythm, pay attention to the details of the service, make verbal and eye contact with customers, show his enthusiasm for serving and making coffee with smiles, words and limbs, and finish his production smoothly.

This part can be trained.

However,

It is difficult for trained players to close the gap in this part.

That is to say,

The most important part that affects the total score of the competition is the quality of drinks and new ideas.

This part of the competition is professional strength and thinking, I call it "internal strength".

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[what hard power is needed to present good coffee? ]

Correct study and understanding of the rules:

CBC competitions are all about espresso, whether it's the espresso part, the milk coffee part or the creative coffee part, the cup of coffee you present should be able to drink espresso clearly, which is the basis for evaluating the contestant's drink.

Suppose we drink milk coffee = coffee-flavored milk, this is a bad cup of milk coffee.

Suppose we drink a creative drink = coffee-flavored drink, this is a bad creative drink.

If the player doesn't understand this, it means he doesn't learn the rules well.

Extraction technology:

Within 15 minutes of the CBC competition, contestants need to extract 12 cups of espresso, of which 4 cups of espresso are presented directly, 4 cups of espresso are combined with milk to make milk coffee, and 4 cups of espresso are combined with other permitted ingredients to make creative coffee.

Therefore, the extraction of espresso is the basis.

Whether it is hand brewed coffee or espresso, good extraction is inseparable from coffee beans, grinding, water and utensils. For hand brewing coffee, in addition to bean grinders, there are also filter cups and hand pots that affect the extraction. For espresso, how can you extract good espresso if the contestants don't know the extraction characteristics of your espresso machine?

It is the machines that extract the coffee, the people who operate the machines, and the coffee beans that are manipulated.

Know your coffee beans:

A colleague once went to someone else's store for coffee and came back to evaluate the barista with the phrase "I don't know". I don't know what he asked, but I guess it's about the origin, treatment, baking and blending of coffee beans.

I am also a barista who comes into contact with customers in the store every day. Customers often say, "it looks so simple, grinding beans is automatic, making coffee is automatic, and you are just adding flour." Whenever I hear such words, I want to give him a bad face, but I hold back every time. It is not strange for those who do not know.

What should the contestants do if they don't know anything?

Do you know how the difference of altitude, soil, rainfall and sunshine time will affect the quality of coffee? If you don't know, how do you choose coffee beans?

Do you know how your coffee beans are processed into raw beans? What is the purpose of the processing plant doing this? When these coffee beans are in your hands, can you show their advantages?

Have you communicated with the bean baker? What is the purpose of this coffee bean roasted like this? Is this baking the best? Can the machine and water you use to extract coffee show the best taste and flavor of this coffee bean? What happens every day after the coffee beans are roasted? Which day's performance is the best? How to preserve your coffee beans to ensure their excellent performance?

What is the extraction scheme you have chosen to express? Is it the texture of espresso, or the balance of ups and downs? Is it to highlight the flavor, or the pursuit of clean and smooth tail rhyme?

Do you choose to use single beans or mixed beans? Why? How does it relate to the presentation of drinks?

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Ability to evaluate:

There are a lot of baristas who don't drink coffee.

The majority of baristas who drink coffee do not know how to drink it.

This shows the value of the contestant's ability even more.

You can't even figure out what's good about your own coffee and what's wrong with it. How can you adjust it?

You can't even drink the flavor of coffee. How do you describe it?

You know, without flavor description, the flavor item only has 0 points, the flavor description is not accurate, and the flavor item can not get a high score.

Basic skills:

I know that more and more contestants will use powder receiver, powder distributor, powder press and even constant pressure powder hammer in the competition. However, if you think that with these appliances, there is no need to practice cloth powder and pressing powder, you are wrong. I dare say that the basic skills of every good player you see are excellent. The basic skills I am talking about include:

Adjust the ability of grinding

The ability of cloth powder and pressing powder

The ability of milk to get rid of

The ability of milk fusion

The ability to make a symmetrical, medium-sized, sharp contrast pattern

The ability to make extraction schemes according to the characteristics of coffee beans

Ability to adjust the extraction scheme according to the performance of espresso

The ability of health management and process arrangement in the production process

The ability to ensure consistent extraction of each cup of espresso

Open thinking:

The method you have learned in your career is not the only one.

For example, someone told you that the handle should be fastened to the cooking head when not in use for the purpose of keeping warm. Excuse me: is the espresso made with a lukewarm handle sure not to taste good?

For example, you have been told to warm your cup before serving coffee. Excuse me: does it have to be like this?

For example, crema is very important for espresso. If it is a creative drink, can you find a way to avoid the negative impact of crema?

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In fact, as long as there is no prohibition in the rules, you can try, right?

So, in order to present a good cup of coffee, is there a variety of options?

Have you opened your mind?

[when the quality of service and drink is equal, the winner is thinking]

To a certain level, among the excellent players, the difference in technology is not big, and the service and professionalism are the same. At this time, it should be the innovative thinking that can move people.

I believe that everyone who goes to the competition, like the judges at the judging table, hopes to learn new ideas and knowledge from the contestants, which is the ultimate goal of the competition: to find the champion barista who can lead the coffee industry forward.

So,

When the champion uses a new method, we all imitate and try.

When the champion chooses or creates a new way to treat coffee beans, we all scramble to buy such coffee beans.

When the champion uses new equipment, we all want to buy it back.

When the champion uses new ingredients and cuisine, you will see similar ideas in the next competition.

This is innovation and leadership.

Every industry needs it, doesn't it?

When the technology has been homogenized, are you still imitating?

A good barista is omnipotent, don't you agree

Every careful preparation for the competition will improve the ability of the contestants to a higher level.

There is unforeseeable uncertainty in every game.

Every contestant in the competition deserves our respect.