To all prospective Regional Barista Championship Hosts!

Next year’s 2012 National Canadian Barista Championship will take place at the Canadian Coffee & Tea Show at the Toronto International Centre, Sep. 9-10, 2012. Once again, we are asking for proposals from organizing committees to host this event. This is necessary to keep this whole process transparent and the events open to all.

For Immediate Release

Request for Proposals to Host 2012 Regional Barista Championship

November 21st, 2011

The Canadian Barista Regional Sanctioning Committee (“SC”) will be requesting responses to our Request for Proposals to host the 2012 Regional Barista Championships. The SC is made up of the Canadian Head Judges Committee (Ian Clark and Andrea Piccolo), the Canadian Barista Academy (Vida Radovanovic, and Les Kuan), Coffee Association of Canada (Sandy McAlpine), a currently unoccupied Barista position, and Fulcrum Media (Russell Hoffman).

The SC’s mandate is to act as the sanctioning body for all Regional Barista Championships. The purpose is to ensure that the WBC rules are followed at all Regionals and to create and facilitate an organized, documented and transparent process for Regional Championship applications while ensuring that each Regional Barista Championship has proper planning and appropriate budgets and paper work in place.

The 2012 Regional Barista Championships will be held prior to the Canadian National Barista Championships, which will be taking place on September 9th & 10th at The 2012 Canadian Coffee & Tea Show, held at the Toronto International Centre.

This year’s RFP process will be as follows:

• Monday, Nov. 21st: Press release
• Thursday, Dec. 1st: documentation available on Canadian Barista Academy and the Canadian Barista Championship websites
• Tuesday, Jan. 31st: Responses due
• Wednesday, Feb. 15th: SC to communicate to accepted hosts of Regional Championships
  

For questions or clarification please contact Vida Radovanovic at vidar@rogers.com

Congratulations to the 2010 Canadian National Barista Champion, Rob Kettner, Fernwood Coffee, Victoria, BC.
Photo credit: Reg Barber

2011 Canadian Regional Barista Championships

Catch the action as some of the country’s best baristas demonstrate the art of making the perfect espresso drinks and compete for one of four Canadian Regional Barista Championship titles. The 2011 competitions begin in July at the Central Regional’s in Toronto at the St. Lawrence Market. It is followed by the Eastern Regional Barista Championship in historic Quebec City. In August, the Prairies Regional Barista Championship takes place at Fratello Coffee Roasters in Calgary followed by the Western Regionals will take place in beautiful Victoria, BC.

Each competitor must prepare and serve 12 separate espresso beverages: 4 espresso, 4 cappuccinos, and 4 "signature" drinks of their own creation. Competitors have only fifteen minutes to prepare all twelve drinks and are judged on various elements including station cleanliness, taste, beverage presentation, technical skills and total impression by a distinguished panel of judges.

The top competitors from each regional will compete at the Canadian National Barista Championship at the Coffee & Tea Show in Vancouver in October.The eventual winner of the national championship will represent Canadian at the World Barista Championship in 2012. All the competitors will receive some great prizes for participating as well as valuable experience.

The regional events are open to the public and trade. The general daily competition schedule for each regional will be posted.

For Competitor and Judging queries please click here.

2011 Schedule

July 5-6, 2011
Central Regional Barista Championship and Coffee Expo

St. Lawrence Market North
92 Front St. East
Toronto, ON M5C 1G9
www.stlawrencemarket.com

Download:
Central Regional Schedule of Events (PDF)

For more information on sponsorships, booths, special events and to volunteer send queries to: ccbctoronto@gmail.com

To watch last year’s 2010 Eastern's live visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/2010-canadian-barista-championships-eastern

July 22-23, 2011
Eastern Regional Barista Championship

Brulerie Limoiliu
501 3rd Ave.,
Quebec City, QC G1J 2V4
http://tinyurl.com/31a9fh7

For more more information on sponsorships, and special events send queries to: Nicolas@4mcafe.com

Watch us June 23, at 9am EST,  live from Brulerie Limoilou, Quebec City! 

http://t.co/DBQkbUu    or http://livestream.com/2010canadianbaristachampionships    yes, it's a 2010 link but it works too

August 6, 2011
Prairies Regional Barista Championship

Fratello Coffee Roasters,
4021 9th St. SE
Calgary, AB T2G 3C7

Broadcasting Live at Fratello Coffee Roasters on August 6th, 9 am Mountain Time, Calgary Alberta
http://www.livestream.com/2010PRBC?t=79676

August 27-28, 2011
Western Regional Barista Championship

Held at For the Love of Coffee Show 2011
Crystal Gardens Conference Centre
Victoria, BC

www.coffeecollective.ca
See live coverage on Live Stream

For feed of last years 2010 Western regional event visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/2010-western-regional-canadian-barista-championships

Canadian National Barista Championship
October 2-3, 2011

Held at the Canadian Coffee & Tea Show
Vancouver, Convention Centre
Vancouver, BC
www.canadianbaristachampionship.com

Central Regional Cup Tasting Competition - July 6

Cup Tasting Competition is a fun and exciting event. It showcases the coffee cupper’s ability to demonstrate their speed, skill and accuracy in distinguishing the taste differences in specialty coffees.

Three participants at a time taste coffees arranged in eight triangles set (groups of three). In each triangle, two cups are identical, one is different. Using skills of smell, taste, memory and concentration, the competitor will try to identify the odd cup out in the triangles, in the shortest time possible. After eight minutes, the round stops and the competitor discovers how many correct done by lifting their selections to reveal whether or not it has a mark on the bottom of the cup.

12 competitors compete in 4 heats (3 competitor s per heat).

Top 3 competitors advance to the final round. Competitor with the most correct selection in the least amount of time wins.

Registration

The entry cost per competitor is $25. To register as a competitor, please email to steve@socialcoffeecompany.com with your name, phone number, company (optional).

Prizes

First place winner will receive $250 and some great coffees.

Second place winner will receive $100 and some great coffees.

Third place winner will receive $50 some great coffees.

Volunteer

You will gain great experience as volunteer, plus there will be goodies and prizes for the volunteers.

To volunteer please email steve@socialcoffeecompany.com or call Steve at 416-848-0718 X91.

Coffees Sponsor

All Coffee Roasters, We would love to get your support for the event. This is a great event to feature your coffee and your company. The sponsorship cost is $150 plus two coffees for the competition, 8lb of each coffee. Please also provide the information and tasting note for your coffee submitted. For sponsorship please contact steve@socialcoffeecompany.com or 416-848-0718 x91 with your name, phone number, and company

Open Cup Taster event July 5

Open to all show attendee. It’s a casual event, allowing the spectator and show attendee to participate in the fun. It will help them acquire the experience for future Cup Tasting Competition.

The format will be the same as the cup taster competition but with 4 set triangulation rather than 8 sets.

There will be some goodies and give away for the participants. No registration necessary.

Central Regional Latte Art Competition - July 5 & 6

Latte art has become synonymous with well made coffee - the mark of a true barista. As part of this year's Central Canadian Barista Competition (CCBC), we'll be hosting a latte art comp to give the city's best chance to shine. The competition will incorporate both regular-milk and soy-milk lattes, with prize money for the best of each.

Running both days of the CCBC, the competition will start on July 5th, with 2-hour windows (between 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm) for entrants to make their first two drinks. Each drink will be photographed and judged overnight by a panel of expert baristas. The top 10 drinks in each category will be called that night to be informed that they will be competing in a championship round throw-down on Wednesday afternoon.

On July 6th, between Barista Comp finalists, two separate finals will be held between the top 10 milk and top 10 soy competitors. The finalists will draw numbers and battle it out in a classic-style throw-down to select a winner. The best soy-based drink will receive a $500 prize and the best milk-based drink will receive a $250 prize, presented by our sponsor, Earth's Own - SO NICE.

Registration

To register, all you have to do is show up during the competition times July 5th - between 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm. There's no fee for registration - all you need to bring is your pouring skills.

Prizes

There will be two prizes awarded, both furnished by Soya World.
$500 will go to the best soy-milk latte.
$250 will go to the best regular-milk latte.

Volunteer

We are looking for a couple of volunteers to help us run the competition on the 5th and 6th. If you're interested, please email Adam or Andy at ccbctoronto@gmail.com.

Our Sponsor

We would like to thank our sponsor for the event, Earth's Own - producer of SO NICE. For the competition we will be using their new Barista Series Soy Milk - a formula specially designed to help baristas pour beautiful art into their drinks. For more information on Earth's Own and SO NICE, please see http://www.earthsown.com/so-nice.htm.

Please click here for 2011 Competitor, Judges and Volunteer Registration

2007 Western Regional champion Derek Lucas of Buon Amici Cafe, Victoria, BC	Canadian National Barista Champion, Sammy Piccolo, 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters and Caffe Artigiano, Vancouver, BC

Central Regional Barista Championship July 19, 2009

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