BeanScene Magazine

Before she had even reached her teenage years, Kirby Berlin was behind the espresso machine, learning about coffee and loving the life of a barista.

“I was a determined child and I got myself a job at a café when I was 11 years old,” she recounts. “I suppose my passion grew from there.”

She’s been working at the famed Mailing Room in Canterbury for the last four and a half years, the same café and roastery where Luca Costanza (see opposite), who will join Kirby in Maastricht, also got his start. She recounts having gained an interest in Latte Art five years ago, around the time where the trend started taking off.

“I think [latte art] is something that’s really become big in these last five years,” she says. “And Australia is quite good at it.”

She certainly has a point there. Since 2006 when Scottie Callaghan became the first to win the World Latte Art Champion tile, he was followed by Australians Jack Hanna in 2007 and Con Haralambopoulos in 2008 both also winning at the world lever. In 2009, Erin Sampson placed third and last year Will Priestly place second, clearing the path for Kirby to show off her talents this year and bring the title back to Australia. 

Her initial interest in latte art comes from a desire to apply her creative side at work: “In latte art, when people receive their coffee at the table it gives them something to look at, it makes the experience visual as well giving something to taste,” she says.

When Kirby’s interest in latte art first sparked, there were few materials around to learn from, and so she just had to experiment and teach herself.

“I wish I could have watched YouTube when I was first learning,” says Kirby. “YouTube is a great thing.” Kirby now regularly appears in BeanScene’s YouTube videos as the current Espresso Yourself contributor, taking the reigns from Will.

Kirby notes that she first got into the competition scene as a way to improve her performance at work.

“I really wanted to push myself, and I think that’s what I love the most about the competition scene – it forces me to have a routine and be precise in what I do,” she says. “It really pushes me to be good at what I do every single day, not just the day I’m up on stage competing.”'

At this year’s National Foods/Dairy Farmers Australian Latte Art Championship at the Gold Coast in January, Kirby, along with the other competitors, competed under the new international format for the first time. In the new format, competitors were judged over three rounds. In the first round, they had 10 minutes to produce a designer beverage that was photographed. The photographs were then judged anonymously. In the second round, they had six minutes on stage to produce two lattes and two designer beverages. In the final round they had eight minutes to produce two latte macchiatos, two lattes and two designer beverages. A highlight of the new rules was also to “wheel of art” that spins showing various designs of latte art and macchiato. When it lands, the contestants have to reproduce two of each.

Mastering her performance under these new rules at the Australian Championship, she will represent the country in Maastricht, an appropriate location for Kirby as she has some Dutch heritage.
To prepare, she says she’s been practicing after hours at the shop, while also knuckling down her main pattern.

“I’ve been doing that same pattern in nearly every cup I pour,” she says. “I figure the more I pour it, the easier it will become.”

After regular placing second and third year after in AASCA’s Cup Tasting Championships since 2007, Luca Costanzo admits there isn’t anything like getting first place.

“Saying that I’m just happy to come in second is really only half true,” jokes Luca. “It was an irritating track record, getting so close and not getting first place.”

This year, however, he finally made it to the top. After his first ever perfect score at the state level, he took out some tough competition at the nationals.

His regular success in this category is an impressive achievement for someone who has never actually worked full-time in coffee. From Monday to Friday, you’ll find Luca in a suit in Melbourne’s CBD where he works full-time as a media lawyer.

His exposure to coffee comes from having worked in cafés to put himself through school. Luca first got into coffee as a side job in high school, working around at a few cafés. It was when he found himself at Andrew Lew’s Mailing Room that he says he truly started appreciating the craft.

From there, he moved on to work at Veneziano’s First Pour. This was where he met Peter Wolff who was with Veneziano at the time.

“Peter was so amazing, he had so much experience, he was way ahead of the game,” recalls Luca. “He had this absolute mastery of what he wanted to deliver.”

Along with a few other aspiring baristas, Dave Makin, Erin Sampson and others who would go on to lead Australia’s barista competitions, Peter put together a group to train for the competition scene.
Not working full-time in a café, however, Luca felt he could never put in the commitment needed to compete in the barista competitions, and as such he’s focused on coffee tasting from the beginning.

Last year, Luca was an observe juror in the Cup of Excellence competition in El Salvador and earlier this year he passed the Q grader exams. Luca is also a regular BeanScene contributor where he reviews coffee beans, and is also a regular judge in Australia’s competition scene.

“With the Cup Tasting Competition, I felt that if I was going to be out there judging and writing about coffee, to compete was a way to put my money where my mouth is,” he says.

He first competed in 2007, where he placed second, which was a slightly controversial victory as he placed ahead of his former mentor Peter who came in third.

This gave him the confidence to continue, and now that he’s finally taken first place he says he’s focused on doing his best to represent Australia in Maastricht.

“We have an amazing coffee industry, one in which roasters are at the top and they put a tremendous amount of effort into what they do,” he says. “It’s a reputation that will weigh heavy on me [in Maastricht].”

There are people who live and breathe coffee, and Mitch is one of them. The current AASCA Coffee in Good Spirits Champion was in “great spirits” as he explains the addictive passion that has taken over his life.

“I’ve got the coffee bug big time,” says Mitch, 25, as he reflects on the incidental career that he happened to fall into, and in love with. “It’s exciting to combine my two passions; alcohol and coffee. There’s nothing better than a coffee cocktail.”

It’s been an interesting ride for the barista from Terrigal, New South Wales, who got into the real estate business after finishing high school. He endured one and a half years in the industry before realising it wasn’t the career for him. It was only through a friend’s recommendation that Mitch stumbled into the coffee industry, landing a managing job with coffee roaster Instaurator, running a local Sydney café, before moving into barista work with Caffe Coffee as a barista trainer for Michel’s Patisserie.

“Now it’s grown into a passion,” he says. “A lot of people don’t like to share their trade secrets but when I’m training baristas I like to share my secrets. It’s important to share what you know and I hope to learn things from them too.”

With five years of training and coffee making under his belt, Mitch’s taste buds have grown accustomed to unique and modern coffee blends, including the Ethiopian Sidamo and Monkey Parchment coffee beans, both of which are served at Caffe Coffee. 

With a dynamic and changing coffee culture that’s continuously improving, Mitch says the coffee culture is moving towards a more consistent use of liquors and it’s an exciting time for the industry.
Mitch’s passion and talent saw him enter his first solo barista competition in 2010, and where he first won the Coffee in Good Spirits title. He travelled to London to represent Australia in at the world level. However Mitch blames a faulty chocolate sauce bottle for costing him a spot on the podium, as he finished in fourth place.

“Last year my mistake was my chocolate sauce bottle. I qualified second and made it to the finals, but I was waiting 50 minutes for the judges to review my coffee and the chocolate wouldn’t come out of the sauce bottle to complement my creation, titled café agave. I just ran out of time,” he says with disappointment. 

However, this year Mitch is looking to go one better and score a top three result in the SCAE Coffee in Good Spirits Championships in Maastricht, Netherlands on 22 June. After claiming first prize once again in the Coffee in Good Spirits division at the AASCA Championships on the Gold Coast in January, Mitch swears this time around he won’t make the crucial mistake he did last year.

The Coffee in Good Spirits competition requires baristas to present both hot and cold signature beverages including any alcoholic drink and coffee of the barista’s choice and Mitch is confident he can put up a winning routine.

“This year I’ve been working on a cherry ripe cold signature drink consisting of tequila, cherry liquor, vanilla and dark chocolate, and my hot signature drink (yet to be named) will be tequila with a 20ml espresso shot which makes the hot component,” he describes.

As the time draws closer to the SCAE event in Maastrich, Mitch admits his signature drink has a tendency to change in the lead up to the event, but he’s got his poker face on and is ready to roll.
“‘I’m so lucky that work [Caffe Coffee] is very supportive and they let me take the time to train and practice, but now I’m knuckling down and doing my performance over and over to get it right,” Mitch says.

Mitch notes that for him being a barista competitor is not all hard work. He loves what he does, as his talent and skills have taken him all over the world.

“Being a barista opens a lot of doors,” he says. “I’ve been to New Zealand, Milan, London and all over Australia and having a job that allows me to do it and get paid for it is fantastic. It’s an art form to serve a cup of coffee and getting recognition from people saying ‘that’s a great cup of coffee’ and to put a smile on people’s faces and consistently doing well is rewarding.”

At the end of June, Mitch can cross the Netherlands off his ‘to-do’ lists as he attempts to take home the gold.

No matter the result from the SCAE event, Mitch says he will continue to enjoy a career in the coffee industry and take pride in the resolve that he is one of the best combinations of barman/barista Australia has to offer.

The Coffee in Good Spirits World Championships will coincide with the World Latte Art Championships, World Cup Tasting Championships, and World Brewers Cup as part of the SCAE World of Coffee Championships taking place in Maastricht, Netherlands 22 –24 June 2011. BeanScene is a proud media sponsor of the international event.

To train, he exposes himself to as much filter coffee as possible. In the Cup Tasting Competition, Luca will race against the clock in a timed competition where tasters have to pick, out of eight sets of three, in each set which coffee is different. Where tasters end up with an even score, the person with the shortest time is declared the winner.

To help fine-tune his palette, Luca is very grateful that roasters have been generous in giving him samples. Every morning before going to work he drinks different filter coffee side-by-side trying to pick the different one. While he started with remarkably different coffees, he has moved the coffees closer and closer in taste. For instance, he may have started out with two different origins but now he tries the same origin in a different roasting or brewing methods to see if he can pick up the odd one out.

A naturally sensitive palette helps, he admits, is also a big help.