With Roasting, CIGS and Latte art champions crowned last year, we kicked off the remaining competitions with the first 2017 heats of the Barista Championship and Brewers Cup in Bristol last week.
Over two days, Paintworks accommodated both competitions brilliantly with huge thanks to Beyond the Bean for hosting and letting us join in on their birthday celebrations too.
The barista competition was hard fought from the off, showing just how high the UK level has risen in recent years. And whilst we don't have heat winners with the top 12 competitors across all heats qualifying for the finals, local pride was up for grabs.
The current leaderboard looks like this;
| Score | |
| Callum Parsons | 408 |
| Tom Hopkinson | 405 |
| Matteo Pavoni | 369 |
| Dominic Ormsby | 341.5 |
| Travis Mark Riley | 340.5 |
| Alex Zeal | 331 |
| Will Harrigan | 319.5 |
| James Nicholas | 309 |
| Simone Dessi | 305.5 |
The next day the Brewers assembled for open and compulsory service routines. Again, complex highly technical performances showed just a fraction of what the UK is capable of. The top 12 competitors across all the heats will qualify for the Finals and the current leaderboard is:
| Open Score | Compulsory Score | Total Score | |
| Doug Higgs | 77.25 | 67.83 | 145.08 |
| Dave cullen | 73.49 | 67.39 | 140.88 |
| Stacey Barber | 71.4 | 66.58 | 137.98 |
| Paul Griffiths | 75.57 | 60.88 | 136.45 |
| Jack Kiff | 69.06 | 67.06 | 136.12 |
| Jack Henderson | 71.6 | 63.83 | 135.43 |
| Dominik Hurthe | 63.12 | 68.83 | 131.95 |
| Nico Downes | 23.66 | 65.42 | 89.08 |
The later rounds of competition are still being refined but dates to put in your diary are as follows:
24th February Brewers Cup Heat - Square Mile , London
26th April Brewers cup Heat - North Star, Leeds
6-7th May Brewers Cup Final - Glasgow Coffee Fest, Glasgow
7th May Barista Championship Heat - Glasgow Coffee Fest, Glasgow
May/ June Barista Championship Heat - London
May / June Barista Championship Heat - Manchester
Aug / Sept Barista Championship Final
As always thanks for the supreme support of our sponsors:
La Spaziale
Nuova Simonelli
Everpure
Bunn
Mahlkonig
BWT
Puly Cafe
Bewley’s
Beyond The Bean
Durgol
London School of Coffee
Northiam Dairy
Pullman
Sprudge
Coffeehit
Origin