"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Veteran competitor, Scottie Callaghan from NSW, has been crowned the 2010 Australian Barista Champion ahead of Simon James from Victoria. Scottie’s routine was calm and calculated and included a very impressive signature drink where he poured his espresso through cardamom seeds on a muslin cloth.

Scottie came through the open heats on Friday and competed three times saying that yoga breathing excercises was his secret to staying calm throughout the weekend.

Scottie has won an all expenses paid trip to London to compete in the World Barista Championships in June. And in a first the AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association (AASCA) will also be sending second place, Simon James to strengthen it’s bid for the World Barista Competition to come to Australia in 2011.

The top five for the 2010 Australian Barista Championships were:

1st – Scottie Callaghan (NSW)
2nd – Simon James (Vic)
3rd – Jen-Paul Sutton (Qld)
4th – Tim Adams (Qld)
5th – Mark Chandler (WA)

Probably the most exciting competition for the day was the Cup Tasting Final. Ben Bicknell said one last goodbye to his 2009 Australian Cup Tasting title, which he left to training partner, Brad Nixon, to try and reclaim back to Five Senses. Brad was alongside five other competitors including Jeremy Hulsdunk from Five Senses and Anthony Svilicich from Le Monde in Sydney. But it was Brad Nixon that repeated his blistering form from the opens to be neck and neck with Johnny Pisanelli on the last cup. The Five Senses crowd sat anxiously in silence as Brad was a mere one cup away from London, but it wasn’t quite Brad’s day as Johnny took the lead winning the trip to London.

Next up was the Coffee and Good Spirits Competition, where competitors had to make an alcoholic cocktail with a coffee base and an Irish Cream from scratch. It was first time competitor, Courtney Patterson, from Cup of Truth in Melbourne that got the “whoop whoop” sounds bellowing from the Five Senses corner. He looked extremely nervous during his allocated set up time, but managed to pull it together and serve his four drinks a little over time. Although Courtney didn’t take home the crown, he did take a whole lot of experience and has vowed to come back with force next year.

The day also consisted of the Latte Art final where Jeremy Hulsdunk competed after winning his state final back in November. Jeremy’s latte art typified symmetry, but wasn’t enough to beat veteran latte art competitor, Will Preistly, who is famous for his etching ability. Will was a deserving winner as his original hearts on fire design was poured with absolute perfection.