With the first round heats of the UKBC approaching very quickly, competitors will be thinking a lot about their routines. I competed last year and came 9th, this year I will be hoping to improve on that, despite my situation being rather different. My experiences last year will prove invaluable this year as I prepare for my own heat on 3rd February, I thought it would be nice to share with you all of the considerations, prep and thinking that is going in to my 15 minutes on stage.

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Next in line is the Cappuccino…

Cappuccino

The second drink down the judges score sheet, but not necessarily the second drink that you make!

For me, this will be my first drink and this is for a couple of reasons – Baristas lose points on the cappuccino because the espresso flavour doesn’t always shine through, I believe that this often because the judges palate has just been subjected to the potency of a shot of espresso and comparatively the capp tastes rather milky. The other reason that I prefer to do the capp second is that I believe it further ’seasons’ the portafilter and group head in preparation for the espresso. As we know, keeping the spent puck inside the PF between shots helps to radiate heat throughout the group head and PF.

The main decision to be made with cappuccinos is the order in which you put together and prepare the drink. The amount of work you have to do here can be dependant on how you steam milk and how you distribute foam, but here is a list of the potential variables for my own method (milk is heated in two separate jugs, foam is shared back and forth into another jug inbetween pours) for making all four cappuccinos:

Shots, Milk, Shots, Milk, Pour, Pour.
Shots, Shots, Milk, Milk, Pour, Pour.
Shots, Milk, Pour, Shots, Milk, Pour.
Shots, Shots, Milk, Pour, Milk, Pour.

The decision that you make here is quite critical for the visual appearance side of things, basically you need to consider the balancing act between crema quality, milk quality (stability of foam) and the visual appearance of your poured drink. Crema on espresso will sometimes harden or set over time making latte art very hard to do, milk will eventually separate leaving you with foam and hot milk, and on a poured cappuccino left to sit, the crema will break down the bubbles in your foam. It should be said though, that with the new scoring sheets there is much less emphasis placed on serving drinks together, and that should be a big clue as to the order in which I will be doing things!

Another common criticism of cappuccinos is a lack of foam. The recommended depth of foam on top is 10mm, but it is important to remember that the same milk poured into a long or short vessel will produce different depths of foam. One thing that I have never struggled with is temperature, I found that simply by making lots of capps and gauging the temperature from the bottom of the jug whilst heating and listening to the sound of the milk, was the best way to judge it.

Thinking about art, there are three main types of art that can be used – Fern/Rosetta, Heart, Tulip, but I would stress that it is not essential that you do any art at all. Sometimes pouring a bad capp can upset the rest of your routine (i’ve seen it happen), far better to focus on great consistency and most of all – tastiness.

If you are going to pour art, I find that pouring a really great rosetta with cappuccino milk is usually quite hard, but quite impressive if you can pull it off. Hearts, in my opinion, are the easiest option and the best way to achieve really good results with less risk of messing up! Either way, the judges will be looking for a glossy surface to the drink with little or no bubbles and the full ring of crema around the edge of the cup.

A few too many bubbles for my liking, but not a bad effort with the art… even if I say so myself… Ok, so it’s not that great.

I averaged 24pts from a possible 39 in the regional heat last year for my cappuccinos. Again, i’ll deduct three points from my total for serving at the same time, all the accessories available and correct cups (because everyone should score those points). This leave me with 21pts from 36.

Below is one of the judges score sheet, but looking at this one compared to the others, it would seem that I prepared two of the drinks quite well and two of them poorly, with scores ranging from 21 up to 27 (including the three elementary points). I would be happy to get 5 out of 6 on the visual appearance of my drinks every time, but it looks like my taste balance could have done with some work.

 

In the semi-finals I averaged 26 points out of 39. Gaining 1/2 a point (before multiplication) across the board on taste balance, whilst scoring slightly lower on visuals and higher on consistency. I used the same coffee for my cappuccinos in the semi-finals, but different milk.

 

I think that the cappuccino is a great opportunity to use an interesting coffee. An espresso that is unbalanced on its own can often be quite appealing in a cappuccino, particularly beans with a high acidity that can be softened by the richness of the milk, leaving fruit in the flavour. The Kenyan Gethumbwini used by James Hoffmann in the 2007 WBC springs to mind, on its own a very acidic, blackcurrant shot, but milk softens the bite and tames the beast, leaving berry fruit flavours. This, I believe is a great way to score points for taste balance on your capps. Using a well balanced espresso results in a generic caramel, hazelnut, chocolate cappuccino, by trying something different you can give the judges an unconventional experience and hopefully the scores will follow.

A few more tips that I can think of include:

• Chill your milk well and keep it cold, I find very cold milk gives you more time to introduce air and emulsify it.
• Get comfortable pouring into your competition cups.
• Know how your drink tastes and make sure you tell the judges (in fact, that goes for all drinks).
• Milk? Personally I prefer full fat as it gets more creamy and makes a richer drink.

If you have anything to add feel free to leave it in the comments.

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