The Honour to Roast for SNBC 2011.
It is about 1 and a half month away to the Singapore National Barista Championship 2011, organised by Singapore Coffee Association. It is a Coffee event which has always been the highlight of the small industry here. Being this close to the competition, every professional Baristas that i know is frantically busy with preparation, sourcing for new tools and accessories, praticising their routine and most importantly, engaging coffee roasters or their current suppliers to whip out new secret coffee blends that will assist this competitors to have a performance of a life time and at the same time, winning them the championship and bragging rights.
I am no any different from the rest of the 23 competitors (SCA is capping the entry at 24 Baristas this year) in terms of "last minute" preparation. The whole time after SNBC 2010 was pretty much a hectic affair for me at work. Although the whole 12 months have seen me being exposed to so many great coffees, there was simply too much coffee to roast, to taste and to blend, taste again and judge but too little time.
I have the same time now to gather my thoughts, recalled all the coffees that i have tasted over the past 12 months and imagining how it will taste in the head. On top of that, over the past 2 months, i have been approached by 4 others Barista-friend who will be competing and allowing me the honour to concoct a blend for them. This is really an exciting time for me as a Artisan Roaster but a highly sensitive one. As a fellow individual who will be competing again this year, there is a friendly competition going on and surely, everybody is trying to keep their winning triumph card. Yet at this moment, i am presented with the opportunity to roast and come up with a supposingly "winning blend" for this Barista-friends of mine. The joke is, will i try to sabotage their preparation by blending a "non-winning coffee"?
I am a professional and i stand by my belief that in such a competition, the one that makes the least number of mistakes, WIN, which means, there isnt any point for me to sabotage by putting up a undesired coffee blend. As a Barista, i don't serve a beverage that i don't drink myself and now as a Roaster, i will not sell a Blend that i don't believe in either. I need to protect myself though and i have already issued out a reminder that i will only take up this challenge/honour of roasting for them if only, they take the OWNERSHIP of concocting this blend together and being with me during the R&D journey from start to finish.
I can't wait to start roasting and experimenting and may all 5 of us be in the top 6 with our respective blends. God bless....
I am no any different from the rest of the 23 competitors (SCA is capping the entry at 24 Baristas this year) in terms of "last minute" preparation. The whole time after SNBC 2010 was pretty much a hectic affair for me at work. Although the whole 12 months have seen me being exposed to so many great coffees, there was simply too much coffee to roast, to taste and to blend, taste again and judge but too little time.
I have the same time now to gather my thoughts, recalled all the coffees that i have tasted over the past 12 months and imagining how it will taste in the head. On top of that, over the past 2 months, i have been approached by 4 others Barista-friend who will be competing and allowing me the honour to concoct a blend for them. This is really an exciting time for me as a Artisan Roaster but a highly sensitive one. As a fellow individual who will be competing again this year, there is a friendly competition going on and surely, everybody is trying to keep their winning triumph card. Yet at this moment, i am presented with the opportunity to roast and come up with a supposingly "winning blend" for this Barista-friends of mine. The joke is, will i try to sabotage their preparation by blending a "non-winning coffee"?
I am a professional and i stand by my belief that in such a competition, the one that makes the least number of mistakes, WIN, which means, there isnt any point for me to sabotage by putting up a undesired coffee blend. As a Barista, i don't serve a beverage that i don't drink myself and now as a Roaster, i will not sell a Blend that i don't believe in either. I need to protect myself though and i have already issued out a reminder that i will only take up this challenge/honour of roasting for them if only, they take the OWNERSHIP of concocting this blend together and being with me during the R&D journey from start to finish.
I can't wait to start roasting and experimenting and may all 5 of us be in the top 6 with our respective blends. God bless....
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