ALEXANDRA SZABOEuropean barista champion
So what exactly does a barista do?Barista is the Italian word for bar person. It is traditionally someone who has the ability to create a perfect cup of coffee. There is no formal qualification for the role but it does require a degree of expertise in a lot of areas. We pride ourselves on perfecting our technique.
You make coffee then?Yes, but there's a lot more to it than just that. You have to manually prepare the grind. Then you must check to ensure that you've included the correct dosage. Tamping is where you press the coffee into the basket – a certain amount of pressure has to be applied, but if you try to squeeze too much in it can bleed out and the coffee will burn.
You are Ireland's champion barista, is that correct?That's correct. The national championships were held in Cork. I entered and was lucky enough to win. Then I went through to compete in the European barista champion of champions competition where I was up against the champion baristas from 10 other countries.
How were your barista skills assessed at a European level?There are two parts. First there's the technical part. This is a closed session. It covers the whole coffee experience: how well you prepare the coffee, how well you handle the customer. The judges are constantly pestering you to see how you stand up to it.
Do they hurl insults at you? Throw muffins? What?No, but they ask you lots and lots of questions about the coffee, to see how much you know about it and to see how you hold up under pressure. We had half an hour in which to make coffees, cappuccinos, lattes and espressos. So the idea wasn't just to make the best drinks but also to entertain the customers.
At that level, what would be expected of you? Incorporating a little stand-up into your act?No, but there were lots of laughs. There was an MC commentating and he was cracking lots of jokes. It was lots of fun.
To cut a long story short, you won the contest and were duly crowned Europe's champion barista?Yes, but I didn't tell you about the rest of the competition. There was an espresso round, where you had two minutes to make as many espressos as you possible could.
How many were you able to make?I made 12. Then was also a round where we each had to make a drink we had invented ourselves. I made a drink called White Chocolate Mikado. It had white chocolate, raspberries, lychee, coconut milk and mocha Italian coffee. I got the idea from the raspberry and white chocolate. That's my favourite muffin. I also wanted something that would remind the judges of sunshine, so that's where the coconut milk came from. The lychee was something I put in earlier on to see how it harmonised with the rest of the drink and just worked really well.
I almost forgot to ask, where do you work?I work at Costa Coffee at the Applegreen service station on the M1 southbound motorway service station just outside Lusk in Co Dublin.
So if I were based in Dublin, and I wanted to sample the award-winning White Chocolate Mikado, I would have to drive to Dundalk, turn around and drive back?Well yes, except that the White Chocolate Mikado was a one-off for the competition. We did do a free tasting for customers, but that promotion is over now.
Given your recent success have you had offers from motorway service stations outside Milan or Rome?Ha ha, no, I'm happy at my level. It's a great achievement but I'm looking forward to continuing with my company.
Finally, is it true that the only difference between a large and medium coffee is that the large has extra water in it? And if so why does a large coffee cost 40c more?That might be true in other coffee shops. But we have a very strict standard: two shots small, three shots medium and four shots large. We don't just water it down.
