The Wild Drink Blog

This post wont be anywhere near as long as i’d like it to be due to a lack missing out on the majority of the presentations of the day by chatting too much, but anyway - I turned up on the day at about 10.30am after a nightmare trying to find the frickin place!

Due to the nature of the competition this year (top 24 competitors from the whole UK go through to the finals) i’m going to focus this post mainly on my own performance because I think it would be a bit unfair to judge other people on whether they will potentially reach the finals or not.

I was up last due on at 2pm, Hugo was on before me so I was setting up whilst he was doing his presentation. I caught small bits of what Hugo was up to as I was carrying my stuff out and it looked it be going well for him though he was rushing at the end and actually ran 3 seconds over I think.

All day I was more worried about setting up my area than actually doing the presentation, I knew I had the whole thing off by heart but the set up is crucial and I didn’t want to miss something or arrange things wrong, it was definitely the most stressful part of the day for me, not least because Hugo and I were sharing some bits of equipment, but thankfully Sarah was on it and washed all the bits I needed whilst the Judges were away! Thanks must also go to Laura and Emily for helping me with polishing stuff and tray setup. The only thing I forgot was to run a couple of shots through before I started which I quickly did last minute and they came out nicely (thank god), quickly cleaned out the knock out draw and I was ready. Not sure what I scored for set up tidiness etc. but I will do better next time.

I was introduced and everyone sang Happy Birthday - yes, it was my birthday, 25th. From the moment I put my hand up it all became a bit of a blur, I knew things were going 90% to plan and I just got on with it. Espressos looked good, two were a little short. Cappuccinos were my weakest round, latte art on two of them was as good as I could hope for but the other two were a bit poor. None of them really had enough foam on them but all this is stuff I can improve on next time. I asked for the time just before I started my sig drink and I think it was about 9:30 so I knew I was on track.

My signature drink was espresso extracted into a cardamon infused glass biscuit cup with an orange cream floated on top. Glass biscuit is very similar to brandy snap. I was very happy with it but I have other plans for the finals so am not bothered about saying how I made/developed it. Much thanks must got to the pastry chefs at Fifteen Cornwall though for envisaging my dream of an edible cup! I personally think it’s a very nice drink.

Low Quality iPhone pic (I finfished the drink then took the picture)

The drink went as I hoped it would, I had some problems with it cracking in development but it was fine on the day. Fifteen seconds left for a quick wipe down and I was done, the feeling of relief when it’s all over is probably very addictive and I was on a bit of a high. Scores were announced (see previous post) and I was very happy. As I said on the day, many thanks to Tom and Phil from Origin for support, opening up on days off etc. and of course Hugo who has been giving me pointers (and espressos) for months not to mention some of the pictures for this post.

I used only one blend which was the Origin Triple certified Sumatra/Colombia/Honduras.

I will post up a video on the Videos page shortly which Laura filmed of the whole 15 minutes.