By Mel Winter
It's not the first time Mr Gerald Charles, affectionately known as Doc G, has held the title as best barista in the Cape, but it means all the more this time around having recently branched out on his own coffee roasting venture, Rock and Roller Coffee Culture. He was also the first person in South Africa to use the brand spanking new Mythos 1 Grinder on stage. It is truly a beautiful machine and obviously lived up to the hype by catapulting this gentleman ahead of his rivals.
The Mythos 1 in action!
Doc G went home with a beautiful watch courtesy of Tissot worth over R4500 and an awesome Puma travel bag for all his coffee goodies.
It was a Top 6 to be proud of Western Cape. Although we were disappointed in the relatively small field considering how many coffee professionals there are in the province, the baristas that competed were in it to win it and brought some amazing skills to the table.
6. Wezo Sithonga -
Buitenverwagting
5. Ken Machenge -
Tribe Coffee
4. Romeo Chimunya -
Bean There Coffee Company
3. Rodrick Nzirainengwe -
Union Hand Roasted
2. David Coleman -
More Flavour SA
1. Gerald Charles - Rock and Roller Coffee Culture
From left to right: David, Wezo, Romeo, Roddie, Ken and Gerald. All happy to be going to Nationals with their Puma gear!
Huge shout outs must go to both Wezo and Ken, who were both first time competitors and landed themselves a spot to Nationals, now that is class! keep it up gentlemen!
The Latte Art competition was hard fought by two baristas who had nothing but respect and support for each other. It really was one of the highlights of the competition to see the way the baristas interacted. Wallace Jacobs of Angel Heart in the Northern Cape, also a first time competitor, suffered a detrimental bout of nerves during the finals, but Alhenrico Thomas of Famous Brands, performed like a true champion and produced some beautiful designs to take the title. But we have a feeling that Wallace will bring hos A game to Nationals, so everyone better watch out!
Latte Artists: Rico and Wallace
Now the Global Coffee team had 3 places in the Top 4, so Mike Mac Donald of
Origin Coffee Roasting was fighting hard to keep from (excuse the pun) global domination. In the end though, the reported two hours of every day that the Global team spend at the cupping table led to Heather Job trumping Mike to the Winner's position!
Heather was stoked! Mostly because she can hold it over the heads of the guys at work ;)
A huge thank you must go to
Hostex SA who were such incredible and accomodating hosts to the SCASA WC Coffee Competitions. To SCASA's platinum sponsors,
Nescafe Milano, who were set up alongside the stage, Paul and Riaan looked suave and were tirelessly serving up coffees to all the spectators who gathered and to
DionWired who provide the stage with a full AV system and prizes for the winners. To the Gold Sponsor, Woodlands Spar who provided fresh milk throughout the three days. To Silver Sponsors, Tissot for the awesome winners watch and MONIN for hosting the extremely fun MONIN MINUTE.
To the stalwart sponsors who have been with SCASA and the competitions since the beginning,
Morricco Import Export with Nuova Simonelli,
Koldserve with Mahlkonig, Ultimate Water and Urnex, where would we be without you?
There really are too many people to mention individually, but to the SCASA Board for organising, to the amazing judges, who give selflessly to get these baristas to to the next level and a big shout out to Bilbo Steyn, barista mama extraordinaire, thank you to you each. Your effort is truly appreciated.
Don't forget that if you missed any of the action,
you can watch it all here, we were recording every step of the way!
Next the show moves to KZN, where last year's national champs all hail from!
