"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

After such a successful WA Barista Champs event it came time for the nationals. Held last weekend (28-29 April) the event was hosted in Adelaide, with a strong contingent from WA flying over to compete.

Maybe I should have seen the signs when I booked the evocatively named ‘motel adjacent casino’ — or the MAC as it was affectionately called. Well the price was right (real cheap) and it was centrally located in ‘the city of churches’. The photos on the net looked so good! The reality was very different! A more appropriate name would have been ‘glorified backpackers on the wrong side of town’. Surrounded by dubious establishments offering a variety of services and an overpowering stench of disinfectant the MAC became the home for the WA team hell bent on earning some respect for the WA barista community. And what a team!

Led by Nolan ‘bringing the love back’ Hirte, the 12 strong team was peaking at the right time and ready to perform. The team included:

• Jenny ‘sweet sweet’ Murray
• Jonny ‘cash Nease
• Shari ‘the manager’ Gleeson
• Ben ‘I just want everyone to get along’ Bicknell
• David ‘kodak’ Bicknell
• Vanessa ‘long shot’ Moore
• Wayne ‘the rock’
• Maree ‘have you seen Shaughan’s wallet’ Couanis
• Dean ‘is it too early to have a feed yet’ Gallagher
• Andrew ‘super’ Tang
• of course myself, Shaughan ‘she’ll be right’ Dunne
• and we can’t forget the support from our local boy: Chris ‘blue shaddy’ Shadforth.

The trip had a false start when the forward team realised at the airport they had forgotten the robur! This was the first chance for ‘Super’ to don the cape and come to the rescue. Super was the one man cavalry coming to the rescue on many occasions — Super you are a legend!

The team settled in on the first night and suitably refreshed (anyone who has stayed at the MAC will know I’m being sarcastic). They headed out to regency TAFE for their allotted practise time to put the polish on their routines and meet some of the legendary names like Makin, Callaghan etc. The second contingent arrived on Friday night and we met the growing posse at La Trattoria for some food, wine and lots of laughs. As usual not everybody got the prevaling sense of humour but it didn’t stop the team from entertaining themselves!

Friday night had a zoo like quality around our humble abode. Our fitful sleeps punctuated by screams, shouts, retching and police sirens. Who booked that stupid motel anyway?!

Saturday saw us heading out to Regency TAFE for the open heats. The competitors headed for their staging area where they got there gear organised and prepared for their 15 minutes on the big stage. Vanessa was up first and anyone who has seen in action, knows what a great barista she is. Her performance was strong and smooth and you could see she had worked very hard. She finished in time and settled in to watch the other guys and await the announcement of the scores. Jen was up next and we all know that as a rock solid barista and would give a strong performance. It was obvious that our favourite canuck was alittle underprepared in terms of her explanations to the judges, but she absolutely nailed her shots and milk and finished in time. Rumour has that she was getting a little too close to her manager!

Two down, one to go!

Jonny bought a little character to the open heats. Wearing the coolest shirt and with Radiohead echoing through the room and it was clear his performance was going to be done Jonny style! Jonny nailed his shots and looked calm and in control. When Johnny Cash kicked in on his soundtrack the crowd smiled with approval while Jonny powered through his signature drink and finished inside time. Another solid effort.

It was good to get the guys through without any major dramas but after seeing the other guys compete, I couldn’t help but thinking we might still be a little off the pace.The results reflected this. Jen came through in 4th, which was an amazing effort and Jonny and Vanessa were a little further off the pace. Both Jen and Jonny improved around 30 points on their WABC effort, which was very encouraging. Vanessa didn’t do as well as she would have liked which really shows the difficulties of translating great barista skills into the comp environment. I for one am looking forward to her breakthrough performance which is coming soon. Beneath her quiet exterior lies a steely resolve to achieve a podium finish. Con Mara…., the nicest guy in the biz was the worthy winner of the heats and was ready to give the heat winners a shake-up in the finals.

Saturday night, the posse headed out for a meal at the “Tap Inn” for a meal and a few drinks, excited at the prospect of seeing Nolan fly the flag for the West Aussies. We had a team breakfast at Etc which was very good and headed down en masse to the National Wine Centre for the big day. Amazing venue (almost as good as the WA venue) and they had pinched our audiovisual ideas with the big screens either side of the barista stations. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Nolan was in a relaxed mood and we where all looking forward to him mixing it up with the big boys (and girls)

Once again Nolan had to put together a killer soundtrack that set the mood perfectly, after a quick introduction he got down to work. Nolan put togethet a solid run but his shots weren’t quite as good as I’ve seen him pull a million times in practice, there were no dramas and he finished in time. As predicted the hot favourites Dave and Scotty put in amazing performances and looked to be a class above the rest.

While we waited for the results the cupping competition got underway. A big thank-you to the 5 Senses extended family for roasting, brewing and pouring the approx 250 cups required for the cupping comp. Hazel won the final with an amazing 8 out of 8 and will represent Australia in The World Cupping Comp. Hazel is an amazing person who shares her amazing coffee knowledge incredibly generously and will be a great ambassador for Australian coffee.

Everyone was hanging to get the results, Nolan came in a respectable 5th and bearing in mind his lack of competition experience compared to the top guys I think he is going to improve very quickly. His performance was definitely the most memorable of the day. The big boys will be watching out for him at the next event.

Scotty was eventually proclaimed the winner which was a very popular decision. He is a very humble guy who will do us proud in Tokyo. Dave came in second by 4 points which is an incredibly close result and proved again he is one of Australia’s best.

Well, we didn’t quite get the results we hoped for, but we made more progress and I know our next trip will be a big one. The eastern states competitors have been competing for seven years to our one so I think we are travelling ok.

The whole group looked after each other and conducted themselves with great integrity throughout the event.

Can’t wait for next year!!!!

P.S. The MC at the WA barista comp was much cuter than the South Australian guy!

© Photo provided with permission by David ‘Kodak’ Bicknell. All rights reserved by photographer.