The 2011 Northwest Regional Barista Competition: A Reason to Spend a Weekend in Tacoma

Tyler Stevens of Barista in Portland pours his signature coffee beverage, while technical judge Alex Negranza looks on.

It can only be by some cruel and slightly twisted scheme that an event such as The 2011 Northwest Regional Barista Competition would be scheduled to begin in the morning. Most people in the coffee industry, contrary to what you might expect, are not morning people. Yes, they get up and open the coffee shop for the rest of the population, downing their shots of espresso and shrugging off surliness until about noon, but it isn't until after then that most of them join the actual ranks of humanity. It seems counter-intuitive, since being a barista is closely associated with working early mornings. But, arriving at the Tacoma Convention Center around 9 on Saturday morning, day two of the three-day coffee event, I was reminded. Filling a room full of baristas before lunch time (especially on a weekend) results in a very quiet room.

If you're not a barista, you may be thinking to yourself, "Wait, wait. There's a barista competition??" The answer is, yes--in fact, it's a veritable Olympics, a thoroughly timed, meticulously judged, surprisingly well-attended contest, with pages upon pages of rules and scoring details, for which individuals train months at a time to jump through regional and national hoops in hopes of reaching the World Barista Championships, this year in Bogota, Colombia. It's a stage on which that kid making your morning coffee may achieve a type of stardom normally associated only with athletes.

By 9:30 on Saturday, countless hours of work and dedication had already been represented on the rehearsal stages, as competitors dialed in their routines, double-checking equipment, espresso quality, and individual espresso machine quirks. As a volunteer at the event, I was able to snag a couple of samples from the practice areas, and can confidently say that Saturday morning afforded me several of the best espresso experiences I have ever had.

Coava Coffee's Samuel Purvis prepares espresso for judges during the NWRBC finals.

Here's the way an event like the Northwest Regional Barista Competition works, at least from an external perspective: From Friday morning through Saturday afternoon, 33 competitors serve a panel of judges four espressos, four cappuccinos, and four signature beverages, in a rehearsed presentation that exhibits exceptional skill, professionalism, stylistic finesse, service, innovation, and coffee knowledge, within a strict 15 minute time-limit (yes, set to music). At the end of Saturday, six finalists are named to advance, and on Sunday, the process is essentially repeated.

Shots of espresso and cappuccinos are both familiar to the average cafe-goer, but a "signature beverage" may be anything from coffee brewed in an unusual manner to a complex creation involving exotic ingredients better associated with gourmet chefs or expert mixologists. One of the ones I found most fascinating over the weekend, for example, was served by Portland's Tyler Stevens, from Barista, and began with: muddled fennel.