Australia is without a doubt one of the top countries in the world for coffee and espresso excellence, as proved by the quality of coffee its cafes and roasteries turn out, not to mention the consistently high caliber of champions in all areas of specialty coffee who hail from Down Under.
And with the conclusion of the 2010 Australian Specialty Coffee Championships, which took place January 29 “31 on the Gold Coast in Queensland, that level of excellence is just as high and strong as ever among the new crop of champs.
Give it up for Scottie Callaghan, 2010 Barista Champ of Australia! You may remember Scottie from his awesome performance at the World Barista Championship (WBC) in Tokyo in 2007. Now a returning champion, Scottie will represent Australia at the WBC in London this coming June.
Will Preistly is the country’s new Latte Art Champion, and will also be in London in June to represent Australia in the World Latte Art Championship.
Johnny Pisanelli took top honors in the Cup Tasting Championship, and will travel to London in June with his co-coffee champs to try to win the World Cup Tasting Championship for Australia.
Mitch Faulkner won Australia’s Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, and will also travel to London in June to compete on the international level in this category.
The Queenland event also included a roasting competition, and first place was won by Remedy Coffee’s Stephen Frame. The Australians know how to reward their champions: Stephen wins a trip to Sumatra to visit the estate where the green coffee was grown used for the roasting competition.
If you missed the competition in person or online, you can purchase a DVD of all the action rough the AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association website.
Here is a complete list of the top finishers in all five competitions:
Detpak Barista Chamionship
1st Place Scottie Callaghan
2nd Place Simon James
3rd Place Jean Paul Sutton
National Foods Dairy Farmers Latte Art Championship
1st Place Will Preistly
2nd Place Kirby Berlin
3rd Place Habib Maarbani
Detpak Cup Tasting Championship
1st Place Johnny Pisanelli
2nd Place Brad Nixon
3rd Place Luca Costanza
Coffee In Good Spirits
1st Place Mitch Faulkner
2nd Place Remy Schpayzer
3rd Place David Seng
National Roasting Competition
1st Place Remedy Coffee “ Stephen Frame
2nd Place Cleanskin Coffee Company “ Jason Joffe
3rd Place Veneziano Coffee “ Scott Lindsay
