Veneziano Coffee Roasters will host its annual Barista Brawl event series across Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland from 5 September 2024.
The competition aims to showcase the skills of competing baristas and consists of four activities in which competitors collect points as they complete each round. The top four competitors will progress to the final, where two winners from each state will be crowned and go on to compete in the National Final in 2025.
The first activity, Pour It, tests latte art abilities and involves steaming and splitting a double jug of milk to pour two lattes. The judges will assess the results based on balance and symmetry, contrast, and overall execution of design.
The second activity, Assess it, is a tasting and sensory challenge, and provides baristas with a coffee description word cloud from which they will pinpoint the origin, farm name, varietal, processing, and flavour notes. The third activity, Smell It, entails the identification of eight different aromas from vials from the Le Nez Kit, while the fourth activity, Eyeball It, requires baristas to manually dose and extract espressos by eye into a shot glass. These will then be judged on precision and consistency.
For the final round, Brew It, the four finalists will have 15 minutes to dial in and brew the provided coffee using the sponsored brewing equipment and grinder. They will then present four coffees for the judges to evaluate and then crown the winner.
Theis year’s prize pool is over $6,000 and comes with the chance to secure a place in the grand final, where each winner will take home a share based on where they have placed in the competition.
The competition is be sponsored by a host of coffee industry players, including La Marzocco, Condesa Co Lab, Brewtech, Barista Supplies, Mazzer Grinder, Coffee Works Express, The Alternative Dairy Co, and BWT Water.
Tickets to compete and watch the event are limited. To purchase a ticket, click, here.
