• Restaurant Reviews
• Dining Directory
• On Wine
• Recipes
• Dining Divas
• Dollar Wise Gourmet

• Personality
• Snapshots
• Sacramento Women
• Sacramentions

• Snapshots
• City Highlights
• Music and Dance
• Theater
• Art
• Sacramento Magazine Events
• Charitable Events Registry

• Dwelling
• Urbanities
• Neighborhood

• 2007 Subscriber's Choice Dining Awards
• 2007 Editors' Choice Dining Awards
• 2006 Best of Sacramento Winners
• Best of Sacramento Wineries

• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• More Issues

 

A Dose of Caffeinated Competition

Email this page

Print this page

del.icio.us

digg

Feed

Watching Lucky Rodrigues, 22, swirl steamed milk into a small cappuccino cup makes one realize this is more of an experience than a drink. The steamed milk oozes silkily from a pitcher and, with a flick of Rodrigues’ tattooed wrist, a small foamy heart design appears, surrounded by shades of brown espresso.
Coffee art, cupping, tasting, proper milk temperature and craftsmanship are all buzzwords at Temple Coffeehouse on 10th street. And a part of this growing artisan coffee culture is a healthy dose of caffeinated competition between baristas.

Temple owner, Sean Kohmescher, 33, and Rodrigues spent the weekend of May 4-7 in Long Beach in Southern California at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 19th Annual Conference and Exhibition, where the United States Barista Championship was also held. This brought together 48 baristas from Chicago to Minnesota and San Dimas to Sacramento to compete for the title of United States Barista champion.

Competitors had 15 minutes to prepare and serve 12 coffee drinks – four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Judges also looked at cleanliness of the espresso maker and station, taste, beverage presentation, technical skills and total impression. Kohmescher and Rodrigues both ranked in the top 25. And they’re quite proud of the bragging rights they’ve now earned.

We talked to them about competing, how coffee and wine are similar and how they’d like to see coffee sophistication grow in Sacramento:

What’s it like to compete in a national level against other dedicated baristas?

Lucky: It's semi-removed. Everyone generally feels that the national competition is to raise the bar of specialty coffee. It gives us a par to look at and lets us look at people who are crafting with coffee.

What did you learn by competing nationally?

Sean: Just how much other people care about coffee just like you do. There isn’t one person who competed in this that didn’t make them a better barista.  The milk had to be perfect, the espresso had to be pulled just right. We spent a month training for this.

What was your signature drink for the competition?

Lucky: Truth and rhetoric. A single-origin Ethiopian, with a concentrated chai base and cut with muscovado sugar, heavy cream and cut with fresh pineapple puree and espresso on top.

Sean: East/West. Espresso, Coconut milk, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and green chili paste.

What are your thoughts on coffee chains?

Sean: We don't consider it a coffee house. We consider it fast coffee … cheap fast coffee. You don’t consider McDonalds a restaurant. They are for people who want to get in and out and who don’t care about taste.

So, tell us, honestly how much coffee do you drink in a day?

Lucky: I usually have drip coffee and then a couple of ounces of espresso and then cappuccinos. But it's a lot of tasting. It's like wineries—you are tasting—not gulping down.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about coffee?

Sean: That coffee is inexpensive. Cheap coffee is, but we sell coffee here that is $35 to $40 a pound. It’s like buying a $10 bottle of wine, if you are into cheap wine. The more you get into something the more you will pay for an experience.

What would you like to see happen for the professional barista?

Lucky:  We aren’t in a stage yet where you can make a living from being a barista. That’s what I’d like to see. In Europe, being a barista is a career; they are making $50,000 a year.  Here, it’s just not economical.

Bios