Thursday Night Throwdown

Last night I participated in a local barista competition called "Thursday Night Throwdown" in Raleigh.  All the competitors put $5 in a jar and the winner takes all.  Three judges look at the use of space, the creativity, and the technique, and point to the one they like best.  Last month we held it in our shop in Durham, so I figured it would be a nice gesture for me to go out and see Jubala Coffee in Raleigh.  Brian Maiers and I spent some good "bro time" together, talking shop and having fun.  Jubala is super trendy-- they refuse to have an auto drip coffee maker, so they do individual pourovers for customers.  They have 3 syrups: vanilla, chocolate, and almond.  They also make waffles.  Quite delicious waffles, too.

Well, I didn't want to compete, but Brian had been working on me all day and then this guy Jonathan just grabbed me and so all of sudden I'm standing there with a pitcher in my hand, a TV camera to my right, and all eyes fixed on me and him.

"Uh... what do I make?"

"This level is called: Barista's choice!"

I got lucky.  I steamed the milk, spending extra effort to not to spill it everywhere, and then poured a pretty nice looking rosetta.

I didn't get a pic of the one I made, but they basically look like this:

I made it past the first round!

People cheered, some random dude gave me a high five, and suddenly I had to compete again.

This time: A Rosetta!

Oh, good, I just made one.  I can do this again....  OR CAN I??

Nope.  I screwed up by not adding enough milk into the steaming pitcher and ended up with a nasty looking blob on the top of the latte.

But I made it past the first round.  That was the most important part.

All in all it was fun and I'm eagerly trying to hone in my skills for next month's throwdown.

-Tim