Canadian National Barista Championship 2024
Santiago (our co-founder) and Kat (our manager at French Quarter) both competed and put in countless hours of practise to bring their best to Montreal to compete amongst some of the best coffee professionals in Canada at The Canadian National Barista Championship. After three days of high caliber competition, Santiago made it through to the Top 6 and competed in finals on Sunday! Santiago placed 4th and Kat placed 8th in Canada and we are so proud of them!
The Barista Championship requires that each competitor presents a 15 minute set and serves three beverage courses- espresso, milk and signature. They are judged on the sensory experience, technical skill and presentation. The sets typically revolve around a specific, high end coffee with a theme that is relevant to the coffee industry. Competitors are stringently evaluated by a team of sensory and technical judges with the winner going on to represent Canada on the world stage in Korea in May. The creativity, professionalism and skill amongst the competitors is next level. It’s a very exciting event to be part of!
Santiago’s theme for his presentation was “Flavour Lock”. Flavor Lock was pioneered by Santiago’s friend, Nestor Lasso on his farm, El Diviso and was developed to remove uncontrollable variables at the farm for producers to have more consistent coffee. His presentation was so interesting and the coffee was next level.
Kat’s origin trip to Colombia with our team in the fall inspired the theme for her competition set this year- “Connecting the Dots”. This origin experience connected the dots for Kat in three main ways: how we honor coffee producers, how we educate consumers and how we empower the new faces of specialty coffee. Her set was beautiful and her coffee from Jhoan Vergara was unbelievable.
A big thank you to producer Nesto Lasso for Santiago’s coffee and to Jhoan Vergara for Kat’s coffee. For those of you who remember our Apothecary Collections a few months ago, these coffees are from the same producers. Thank you to our coffee coach, David Crosby from Rosso Coffee Roasters in Calgary and our whole team at The Colombian. Thank you to the organizers and hosts, SCA Canada, Apex Coffee, Origine 117 and Cafe Saint Henri. And thank you to Cafe Odessa for graciously opening their space for us to practise while in Montreal!
Congratulations to all the competitors and to the first place champion Nelson Phu from Rosso Coffee Roasters!
