Posted Sat Mar 19, 2005, 7:26pm Subject: Re: 2005 USBC Judges' Certification, Road Reports
It's always great to see fresh copy by the coffee maestro who has been so giving of himself and his passions all these years - I'm not complaining! And although I found this article interesting, I'm just slightly dis-heartened that there will be so much (two articles to come) coverage on these barista competitions.
Now I'd gladly read 10 articles about barista competitions if I could also read 20 other articles and reviews along with them - and I know that time and energy are precious resources --- so I guess this is a classic case of "more guns less butter". I guess I'd rather have a little more butter.
Bravo on the article - photos are fantastic and your "voice" is quite good in this piece. Keep going!
Among those happily sounds, I would offer my opinion for it, not to anybody but the fact only.
Who have the power to offer the certificate for judge? If it is only for the competition, the organizer have the power for sure. But, it works accordingly for the competition only.
I do not know anything about the USBC, but know something about the CBC, China Baristas Championships.
Besides some of them mentioned in another thread, click here, the first barista of the North Area Barista Championships for China is a young friend of me. Before and after the competition, he was not even brave enough to make a shot for me.
As CBC is mentioned only, I would not quite trust it. For this reason, I do not quite care whether my students attend it or not. Better not!
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
The rules for the CBC are the same for the USBC. These are both sanctioned competitions that feed into the WBC. Just recently, this has been reviewed in China, so I know it is true. The chair of the WBC board is also chair of the USBC committee this year. Mireya Asturias Jones
We are taking every precaution to make sure that these certifications and rules are standardized around the globe. There may be a lot of criticism on that point, and I understand that. While everyone takes a trip to Italy to learn about espresso, people still go home and serve their customers the regional specialties. (ask yourself what a cappuccino is...in Italy it is also served many different ways)
There may be many reasons you would decide to keep your students away from the CBC, but one reason should not be the judging criteria. The world has created these criteria, and we evaluate them at every opportunity.
Have you signed up to attend the Judges training in China? Sounds like you are a good candidate! You may be surprised how much you'll learn.
Whatever my opinion is about, I would thank you a lot for your post here.
paulsdatter Said:
The rules for the CBC are the same for the USBC. These are both sanctioned competitions that feed into the WBC. Just recently, this has been reviewed in China, so I know it is true.
I believe this. But, I was not been to the USBC and therefore, I would not give any comments about it even if I tend to have the similar ......
paulsdatter Said:
We are taking every precaution to make sure that these certifications and rules are standardized around the globe. There may be a lot of criticism on that point, and I understand that.
Yes, so I would have someone who like to hear some different sound.
paulsdatter Said:
While everyone takes a trip to Italy to learn about espresso, people still go home and serve their customers the regional specialties. (ask yourself what a cappuccino is...in Italy it is also served many different ways)
That is very true. First I would ask if any, or the traditional cappuccino, is similar to the American styled one or not?
Second, as you well know that different people may get different idea after they learnt the same thing. And the most important reason is that brewing espresso is almost completely an experienced tradition, and almost no one can explain it well, even in Italy. That is the reason why they cannot supply enough well trained baristas to their branch coffee shops abroad.
If you ever looked at my posts in other threads, you will know that we are also sure that we can make better espresso with the Illy blend than the clients trained by the Illy staffs. We are sure about it.
This can be a secret till now.
paulsdatter Said:
There may be many reasons you would decide to keep your students away from the CBC, but one reason should not be the judging criteria. The world has created these criteria, and we evaluate them at every opportunity.
It is the key point, as I believe. The so-called "World created criteria" is not accepted by those Italian baristas. If you make a careful research to the market in Italy, you can find such fact, I suppose. I had not been check it out personally, but I had that information from the Italian coffee industry and theoretically, it does not work well. As I mensioned in the the post about the brewing skill for the Illy blend, we never follow those standards and we can make very good espresso.
paulsdatter Said:
Have you signed up to attend the Judges training in China? Sounds like you are a good candidate! You may be surprised how much you'll learn.
I never heard about it in China. As I learnt about your organization from the info on the internet, you may not have well organized structure yet for the whole organization in the global. As you can imagine, problems must exit everywhere. I know it from the very little info through my life and working experience for decades years. So, I do not expect too much from it. It might be unpolite, but I have to tell the trueth.
Nice to have a respond from you, and would tell my idea. One day, we may meet in China, or the States or any part of the world, then we can have a chance to exchange the idea.
Thanks again.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
The rules for the CBC are the same for the USBC. These are both sanctioned competitions that feed into the WBC. Just recently, this has been reviewed in China, so I know it is true. The chair of the WBC board is also chair of the USBC committee this year. Mireya Asturias Jones
After I checked with the people from the organizer of the CBC for the north area of China, they never heard about that. And from the website of the organizer for the whole China, I cannot find any news about it. In terms of searching the Chinese web pages, I found nothing.
Anyway, I had sent an e-mail to their manager, Zhang Hong, and waiting for their answer about such an information.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
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