The Innovative Iron Barista Challenge Returns to Los Angeles
Two of Los Angeles’s local specialty shops are hosting another Iron Barista Challenge. Combing your standard throwdown with an Iron Chef twist, teams of baristas will have to make signature drinks with espresso, tea or coffee and a bag of mystery ingredients that the judges pick. And the judges are cruel. In the past, ingredients such as Sriracha and pork belly have been in those bags.
With 15 minutes, teams get as creative as possible combining ingredients in strange and unholy ways to come up with some incredible creative concoctions.
Eight teams compete in a two-round event. All teams use the same mystery bag in the first round and then are given a score by the judges based on originality, over all flavor, presentation and coffee factor.
The top two teams advance to head-to-head final with a whole different bag of ingredients with which to work.
Team Demitasse won it last year and look to defend their title on May 15th in what’s quickly becoming ground zero for Los Angeles’s burgeoning food and coffee scene “ Chinatown.
This year’s event will be held at Bamboo Plaza, 988 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Interested teams in the LA-area are encouraged to register for the event in advance by contacting Cafe Demitasse or Chimney. There is an eight team limit.
Cafe Demitasse’s Bobak Roshan says, “It’s going to be awesome. We’ll have some food trucks setting up there, too. ” So even if you’re not competing, you should still check out the Iron Barista Challenge!
Here’s our report from last year’s challenge.
