September 2, 2008
Black Cups win Bledisloe Cup of coffee making
While Richie and the boys have been preparing to beat the Aussies next week, New Zealand’s barista team, aka the Black
Cups, has beaten the Australians in the Bledisloe Cup of coffee making.
The Black Cups took out the second heat against the Australian Barista Roos in Auckland today, winning the Da Vinci
Trans-Tasman Barista Championship for the first time in two years.
With a team made up of some of New Zealand’s top coffee aficionados, including two previous New Zealand champions and
two world judges, the Black Cups convincingly won the first heat in Sydney in April and now the second.
Black Cups captain Carl Sara says “the team has been on equal footing with the Australians for the past few years so
this title has been a long time coming.”
The Da Vinci Trans-Tasman Barista Championship is a race to serve the maximum number of drinks while achieving great
artistry and taste. With only 15 minutes to create 10 Piccolo Lattes, 10 regular café lattes and 10 designer lattes, the
teams must work together to create coffees that are randomly sampled and evaluated by the judges.
“It’s all about making coffee at speed without comprising the taste,” says Carl.
In today’s heat, the Black Cups worked cohesively as a team and finished 30 seconds faster than the Australians. The
core of the New Zealand team has remained together for the past three years and work naturally together around the
coffee station.
“We all have a great understanding of each other and have managed to gather consistency this year. The Australians have
always beaten us on speed so this was a key element we focused on and it paid off,” says Carl.
Fellow team member Chris White adds: “The Da Vinci barista competition is a replica of a real life café environment. If
you speed up to make up time, you could end up losing points on taste or artistry. In real life you risk losing your
customers!”
The New Zealand team was represented by Carl Sara, owner of Christchurch Muffin Break, Chris White from Altura Coffee,
Emma Markland-Webster from Atomic Coffee and Luciano Marcolino, owner of Luciano Espresso Bar in Christchurch.
ENDS