Devon Coffee through to the UK barista championship semi final

The UK barista championships held in Birmingham last weekend welcomed competitors from all over the UK where each entrant demonstrated their ‘barista’ skills to a panel of judges.

Steve Pearson from Devon Coffee, in Exeter’s Queen Street, battled against some of the best speciality coffee shops in the country and scored 490 points, placing him 14th on the leader board.

The competition involves each entrant presenting 4 espresso drinks, 4 cappuccinos and 4 espresso based beverages where the barista creates into a ‘signature’ drink. A combination of technical and sensory judges, assess each barista on their knowledge of coffee, the taste of each drink measured against a set criteria and others factors including creativeness, customer service and attention to detail.

Steve said: “I based my theme on the culture that that we try to create in our shop, which is good coffee, well made by nice people. The coffee that I used was from Rwanda and works well as an espresso where it has a certain grapefruit acidity. I was proud to use another local business for the other ingredient in the cappuccino and explained how the Ashclyst Dairies, Broadclyst, near Exeter, produce organic whole unhomoginised milk that produces a sweet and creamy cappuccino that is great to texture in the jug”.

Catch Steve performing again at the London Coffee Festival 3-6 April held at the Old Truman’s brewery in London’s East End.