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Over the past couple of years we’ve been honoured to work with some great people and have some of the UK’s most skilled baristas represent The Barista while delivering our event coffee services. The extremely talented, all round good guy and ever so popular Howard Barwick is our most regularly used barista and we have recently been celebrating his success in the UK Barista Championships 2012. Howard’s passion, skill and commitment to specitality coffee was rewarded with a spot on the podium and he returned to Leeds sporting a rather large trophy.
Sailing through the regional heat, where Howard was awarded the Best Espresso, Best Cappuccino and Best Signature Drink (there are no more drinks!) he won a place in the semi-finals of the competition, which was to be held at the London Coffee Festival.
Supporting him every step of the way, we were on the edge of our seats as we watched him perform another extremely smooth presentation of his espresso, cappuccino and signature drink to the technical and sensory judges and make his way through to the final 6 of the competition.
With hundreds of hours of practicing and perfecting his routine, Howard delivered another impeccable performance in the final and was crowned with an incredibly impressive 3rd place for the UKBC 2012.
Reflecting on his success in the UK Barista Championships Howard told us, “it’s amazing to be involved in such a fantastic competition, I have met so many great coffee people and every single day I have learnt something new as a barista. I can’t believe I came third, even I am amazed at that!”
Howard used Peru Tunki San Jorge coffee, which he roasted with his friends at Butterworth and Son and focused on creating a harmonious balance between sweetness, acidity and bitterness. For his signature drink he used a syphon to reduce a mixture of sultanas, cranberries and cascara before extracting and adding the Peru Tunki and carefully measured amounts of lemon, lime and soda water.
It is clear that Howard has worked extremely hard to be so successful in this year’s Barista Championships. We would like to congratulate him and all the other finalists for doing so well and having the courage and commitment to deliver such a high level of coffee that benefits us all.
Having already helped us provide some outstanding mobile coffee for the likes of NPower and the VIP’s at last years MTV Awards in Belfast, Howard says he is, “really looking forward to working The Barista as much as possible for some time to come. Making seriously nice coffee with you guys at exciting events is such a pleasure”.
The feeling is mutual as it’s an absolute delight to work with Howard. His next event with us will incorporate his fantastic latte art skills at a corporate function that requires a high quality espresso bar, with a focus on latte art.
So, let’s raise our coffee cups and make a toast to Howard’s much deserved success in the UK Barista Championships 2012. Well done, Howard!
Follow Howard on Twitter (@HowardCoffee) for some seriously coffee soaked tweets about his vast experiences in the speciality coffee world.