Coffee News: USBC 2011

So last weekend was the big event in the coffee industry:

the USBC 2011

(United States Barista Championship).

As you know if you follow my blog, I had three friends qualify to compete in this prestigious competition:

Robbie Britt

Jacque Desmarais, and

Joe Marrocco.

I also knew of a couple of competitors including:

Laila Ghambari, who made my espresso at Stumptown,

Sarah Dooley, who made my morning coffee at Olympia Coffee Roasters, and

Pete Licata, who Jacque knew and talked about.

For more info, on the actual competition check out my last blog post.


The Coffee Ethic had a viewing party on Friday in the library to watch Jacque compete,
so fun. :)

 


Everyone I knew made it through to the semi-finals.
Making them one of 26 top Baristas in the semi-finals!
I was getting ready for work while I was watching the semi-final announcements on my computer, and I think I screamed when they called Jacque's name (even though they mispronounced it). 


I was unable to watch the semi-finals because my lovely friend Lizzy was in town,
but here are the results:


6th place: Kevin Bohlin, Ritual, San Francisco
5th place: Lorenzo Perkins, Caffe Medici, Austin, Texas
4th place: Trevor Corlett, MadCap Coffee, Grand Rapids, Michigan
3rd place: Ryan Knapp, MadCap Coffee, Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                                  
2nd place: Nik Krankl, Gelato Bar & Espresso Cafe, Los Angeles                         
1st place: Pete Licata, Honolulu Coffee Co., Hawaii

(Yes, Pete, Jacque's friend!)

Needless to say, Jacque brought home a lot of awarding winning coffee from Pete. I am so proud of how well my fellow Baristas did at this competition. And I hope I didn't bore you TOO much with all this coffee talk.

Here is a video that helps you better understand coffee nerds:

The craft from Inkognito on Vimeo.