Singapore National Barista Championship Final Round - Keith Loh

Singapore National Barista Championship 2010 Qualifying Round - John Ting

Singapore National Barista Championship 2010 Final Round - Suhaimie Sukiman

John Ting of Oriole Cafe;
Keith Loh of Oriole Cafe;
Vic of Oriole Cafe;
Suhaimie Sukiman of CuppaChoice;
Ahmad Hidayat of Kith Cafe;
1 other chap whose name escapes me from Spinelli Coffee

My predictions went 4 of 6.

Congratulations and good luck to these individuals. Suhaimie must’ve wowed the judges with his karaoke number. He was so at ease and oozing confidence with his performance yesterday he started singing to his music while pulling shots. :)

Singapore National Barista Championship 2010 Qualifying Round - John Ting

#1 John Ting of Oriole
#2 Keith Loh of Oriole
#3 Suhaimie Sukiman of Cuppachoice

Other favourites whom I’ve not seen perform will be Ian Consulta of CuppaChoice, Ahmad Hidayat of Kith Cafe.

While attention was focused on the latte art competition on the floor, I stole away to try my stint at the Rancilio Classe 6 unit at the door. A few points in summary:

My Rancilio naked portafilter locks in at 6 o clock

The Ditting-Mahlkoenig clumps to high heaven because of the lack of a doser to help in some unclumping. I had to use the digital thermometer to unclump the grounds in order to perfect my pour. I had spritzing in most my pours no thanks to the doserless grinder.

The Rancilio Classe 6 rapidly loses heat in the grouphead. I read initial temps of 205, and then it steadily decreases to a range between 165 and 175 degrees 20 seconds in. I’m sure past competitors would miss the PID’d temperature stability and machine build of previous SNBC sponsor who brought in La Marzocco. Even Nuova Simonelli had their WBC machines specially customized with a PID to ensure temperature stability.

The Spinelli roast worked very well with the Rancilios. I managed to test out one pour at the competition machine with the Boncafe roast, intended for the latte art comp, and it tasted inferior to the Spinelli roast. I would think Ross had tailored the roasts to suit his machines. Despite the temperature instability and the clumping, Spinelli pours from the Rancilio were all within a good degree of tolerance in body, flavour and acidity. Point in note, if all else fails in this year’s SNBC, be sure to use Spinelli roast. I’m sure it’ll taste quite fine to please the judges’ palates.

Updated with new photos:

Justin Metcalf, WBC certified judge and looks to be head judge of SNBC this year.

Victor Mah, head of Singapore Coffee Association, the organiser for SNBC.

Ross Bright, roaster at Spinelli Coffee and sponsor of this year’s Rancilio machines.

Danny Pang, past SNBCs’ finalist and of Geek Terminal and Espressoul fame.

A few points that I’ve noted are:

There are 3 stations of Rancilio Classe 8. The portafilters are so tight they can’t lock into the normal 6 o clock position. I was told the machines are new and so the tabs are not seasoned enough to lock into the right position. And some of the machines’ spouts are angled while others aren’t. I’m not sure if changing the baskets to the thinner ones might help any.

The trophies this year look quite cheap, not the usual frothing pitchers from past years. Entry into this competition is by no means cheap, being $250 a head for non SCA members. You would think they could at least mount a tamper or portafilter or at least something representative of a barista to begin with. The winner from SNBC this year also walks away with a Ditting grinder, which looks like a Vario Baratza, sponsored by Hospitality Essential.

Updated with new photos below:

And a shout-out to all the readers attending, free free to comment on this blog (not the facebook post) about the results or any other tidbits. Thanks in advance.