The successful candidates were Lina Chiodo, Marc Pierre Dietrich, Cosimo Libardo, Ludovic Maillard, Luigi Morello, Grant Rattray, Pauline Sherwood, Wolfram Sorg, Paul Stack and Heinz Trachsel.

They are joined by Marc Kaeppeli the current President who was re-elected automatically and Executive Director David Veal. The two year term of the new board starts at the AGM on June 15^th 2012.

David Veal

Executive Director SCAE

photo courtesy of Glenn Watson (coffee-photography.com)

Certificates for Best Espresso, Best Cappuccino and Best Signature Drink were also awarded

For further information please click here

More images from the UKBC here

Please direct any media enquiries to media@scaeuk.com

The 2012 Brewers Cup attracted 12 entrants who put their brewing skills to the test using a Mahlkonig Tanzania Grinder and Bunn Hot Water Boiler to prepare and serve three individual beverages for a panel of judges. This years judges were Lynsey Harley(SCAE UK National Coordinator, Coffee Development Manager & Q Grader at United Coffee UK), Joanne Berry (Sales and Logistics at Mercanta) and Cory Bush (Trader / Supply Chain Manager at Falcon Commodities in Uganda).

In the Brewers Cup, competitors may utilise any whole bean coffee of their choosing and must also accompany their beverage preparation with a presentation, which were all informative, well thought out and in some cases quite entertaining too.

James Bailey (Prufrock Coffee, London) was announced 2012 UK Brewers Cup Champion after his performance, and will now represent the UK at the World Brewers Cup event taking place in Vienna as part of the World of Coffee Show, 12-15 June.

Winning the 2012 UK Brewers Cup was the icing on the cake for James, as he competed in the UK Barista Championships the previous day and came second in only his first year of competition. James also won the Best Newcomer prize category sponsored by Union Hand-Roasted Coffee and will be accompanying them to origin later this year.

Following the Brewers Cup was the 2012 UK Cup Tasters Championship. This competition draws in the best palates in theUKcoffee industry. Contestants have to slurp their way through 8 sets of triangle tests (three “cups” of coffee where two are the same and one differs) to spot the odd one out. The competition gets increasingly harder as the coffees in each test get increasingly similar. The results are instant as contestants lift their cups to discover if a red dot on the base tells them they have spotted the odd one out. It’s the coffee equivalent of a penalty shoot out!

The Cup Tasters competition had by far the greatest amount of audience participation, with the volume increasing as the number of correct choices was made. The top 6 tasted a second grouping of 8 triangles, which cupping coordinator John Sherwood, made as challenging as possible, using in some instances coffees from the same origin but with a different processing method. The coffees were brewed using Bunn brewers and roasted coffee beans supplied by Union Hand-Roasted Coffee.

A further £75 was raised for Coffee Kids as the final space in this competition was auctioned off to an audience member – Jamie Banwell, who participated in his first ever cupping competition.

The honour of representing theUKat the 2012 World Cup Tasters Championship goes toLynsey Harley, who entered at the last minute. The final round was tense, coming right down to the very last cup raised.

The UK Coffee Events were live streamed across the world on the video feed managed by the LSFX Productions team and arranged by the SCAE UK Chapter.

To evaluate all 20 competitors in one day, 2 teams of judges were in rotation. During their performance the competitor must prepare and serve 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 non-alcoholic espresso-based signature drinks. With a requirement to take at least 2 sips of each drink type placed before them, each judge consumes quite a large amount of coffee.

An emotionally charged finalists announcement revealed that 3 of the 6 finalists were newcomers to the UKBC, not having competed in this event before, and therefore the final would decide who would win the Best Newcomer prize category sponsored by Union Hand Roasted.

The six finalists were Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, James Bailey, Howard Barwick, Mark Lamberton, Dale Harris and Dan Fellows, who ran through their routine once again in front of a well-calibrated team, which included 3 World Coffee Events certified judges.

SCAE UK Organising Committee Member Glenn Watson comments “We made the right choice holding the UKBC Final at The London Coffee Festival. We were overwhelmed by the interest shown by consumers and industry professionals alike, creating great exposure for our sponsors and chosen charity, Coffee Kids. During the semi-final and finals it was standing room only. We would particularly like to thank all of the volunteers who helped make the event run smoothly, and to all baristas and their supporters for making this the best UKBC yet”.

The scores for the top 6 this year were quite tightly bunched with only 1 point separating fifth and sixth places and 3 points separating third and fourth, making it impossible to predict the result from the sidelines. The certificates for Best Espresso and Best Signature Drink were awarded to James Bailey. Best Cappuccino was awarded to Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood.

James Bailey was announced Best Newcomer and will be invited to attend a trip to a producing country with roasted coffee supplier Union Hand-Roasted.

Speaking after being crowned 2012 UK Barista Champion, Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood said “Everything we do at our coffee shop (Colonna and Smalls in Bath) is aimed to enthuse our customers about coffee. I’m now in a very privileged position and hope to continue to enthuse and engage with people and make great coffee, which I love to do. I would like to thank the previous UK Barista Champions for setting such a high standard and will do my best to uphold the tradition of driving awareness. I’m now in a very privileged position and am grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity. I am particularly looking forward to meeting the winners from other competing nations at the World Barista Championships. I will be working with our roaster to select a new coffee and construct a new routine over the next 6 weeks. But firstly, I am looking forward to coming back down to earth and working the bar. I’ll need to make space above the fireplace for my trophy ”.

Maxwell used two different coffee’s roasted by Cornwall based Origin Coffee Roasters. For his cappuccinos he used Lambari, a pulped-natural from Brazil, which tasted of peanut brittle and fudge. The espresso and signature drinks were made with Sacof Rolindo, a Rwandan Cup of Excellence coffee. The signature drink was prepared using ruby grapefruit with sparkling water, resulting in reduced acidity and brought out caramel and hops flavours. This was mixed with a root licorice and star anise to add more tart, sharp, fruity notes, and accentuated the weight and length of finish.

Maxwell will now represent the United Kingdom at the World Barista Championships in Vienna, Austria on 12th-15th June 2012.

photo courtesy of Glenn Watson (coffee-photography.com)

We are back in action tomorrow from 1030am online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ukbc2012 and in person at The London Coffee Festival taking place at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane.

The 6 UKBC Finalists for 2012 are as follows;

• Dale Harris
• Dan Fellows
• James Bailey
• Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
• Howard Barwick
• Mark Lamberton

We’d love to see you at the festival. You’ll need to get there early to grab a seat!

The first of these 2 events to take place will be the 2012 UK Brewers Cup, with 12 competitors.

This event is scheduled to start at 1030 and run until approximate 1330

The 2012 UK Cup Tasting event will begin at 1500 on the same stage with some of the UK’s top coffee cuppers battling it out to represent the UK in Vienna.

Entry tickets for The London Coffee Festival for Sunday 29th April can be purchased from The London Coffee Festival website

Follow @scaeuk for futher details. The Twitter hashtag for this event is #ukce

Names will be drawn for each of the timeslots shortly after the finalists announcement on Friday 27 April.

UKBC 2012 Final – Performance Times

• Finalist 1 – 1030
• Finalist 2 – 1115
• Finalist 3 – 1200
• Finalist 4 – 1300
• Finalist 5 – 1345
• Finalist 6 – 1430

Entry tickets for The London Coffee Festival for Saturday 28th April can be purchased from The London Coffee Festival website

Follow @scaeuk or @ukbc for futher details. The Twitter hashtag for this event is #ukbc

This event will showcase the top 20 UK baristas from this year’s regional heats.

Provisional timings are as follows, and may change;

• 0920 Sam Dunford
• 0945 Sang Ho Park
• 1010 Thom Harlow
• 1035 Gordon Howell
• 1100 Dan Shannon
• 1125 Mark Lamberton
• 1150 Laura Timpany
• 1215 Alex Sargent
• 1240 James Bailey
• 1305 Rummy Keshett
• 1355 Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
• 1420 Matthew Robley-Siemonsma
• 1445 Mark Pooley
• 1510 Joe Beaver
• 1545 Howard Barwick
• 1600 Dale Harris
• 1625 Steve Dyson
• 1650 Stuart Archer
• 1715 Dave Jones
• 1740 Dan Fellows

The top 6 baristas will compete in the UKBC 2012 Final to be held at the same venue on Saturday 28 April 2012.

The 2012 Trophy Sponsor is Reg Barber Enterprises, and we are pleased to announce that Reg Barber is flying in to personally deliver and present the winners trophies!

The Twitter Hashtag for this event is #ukbc . Follow the build up online and be part of the action.

We are looking for volunteers for the event. Please email info@scaeuk.com to register your interest

On Sunday 29 April the final 3 UK Coffee Events competitions will be taking place.

UK 2012 Brewers Cup

UK 2012 Cup Tasting

UK 2012 Cezve / Ibrik

The running orders and further details for these events will be published in the next week.

Spectator Tickets for all events can be purchased from The London Coffee Festival website.

Competitors will be contacted regarding their ticket allocation and will receive their practise times and venue access details over the next few days.

Although we supply machines, we are a people business! The successful candidate will therefore also use their skills in account management to build and support excellent working relationships with our clients.

Ideally based centrally between and including London and the Midlands, a knowledge of and passion for the world of speciality coffee would bring advantage.

Please forward c.v. and letter of application to emma.kopinski@sanremouk.com. Emma can also provide further details of the job specification.

In addition to the previously advised totals we raised the following at the last 2 heats;

Scotland               -              £70.47

Ireland                  -              £17.87

Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed a coffee on the San Remo demonstration machine from one of our UKBC entrants or volunteers.

We are really excited to have raised this amount so far and look forward to seeing how generous the visitors to the London Coffee Festival will be.

Thank you to all baristas and volunteers who have helped us to collect this amount so far for such a worthwhile charity.

You can also donate online – directly to Coffee Kids by visiting theDonations Page on the Coffee Kids website