The Signature Drink
It is an oddity. Speciality coffee is all about letting the coffee do the talking, without the addition of syrups, chocolate sprinkles and paraphernalia that detract from the beans' characteristics. Yet here we are, in the midst of a speciality coffee competition, being asked to produce a world-class shot of espresso, and then get all funky with it.
A signature beverage demonstrates a competitor’s creativity and skill to create an appealing and individual espresso-focused beverage. - Rule 2.2.3.A
I don't think I'm letting any cats out of any bags when I say that by and large the signature drink requires judges to taste many truly terrible concoctions over the months of the competition. It's something they seem to smile ruefully about when brought up in polite conversation.
the judges must be able to drink it. - 2.2.3.B
My approach was to find ingredients that would compliment the espresso's own characteristics. My chosen espresso (when extracted correctly!!) has a comforting quality. Lots of body, dark chocolate and nuts. Deep and rich rather than bright and fruity. To compliment that I chose fresh ginger, which I reduced down with natural brown sugar to create a syrup. I love fresh ginger in a tea with honey, and find it comforting when I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Why not use that to bring out the comforting qualities of the espresso? It worked... or at least I believe it did and I still stand by that.
But making syrup is nothing new, and I needed to demonstrate creativity and skill. Did you know that you can produce milk from nuts? Coconut milk is delicious, so why not, say, almonds? If you soak almonds overnight they shed any harsh tastes and impurities, and become softer. They can be blended with water, and the result is a very healthy and tasty milk. On competition day I produced this, and filtered it three times through a food-grade mesh I'd researched and found online. I used a Hario Woodneck... my wife sewed the mesh so it could be slid onto the woodneck filter holder, which I thought was a nice modification, and she did a fantastic job for someone who has never sewed anything in her life. The milk could be textured, and in practise sessions it thickened nicely to make acceptable free-pour art... not as pretty as cows milk but still good.I served it in a small mug, because that was my own interpretation and presentation of a comforting drink. My own interpretation of a Ginger Nut Piccolo. I didn't want to do the whole cocktail glasses thing because the drink didn't suit it. It needed a mug. A nice mug, mind you!
On the day my execution was wrong, the tastes were all wrong, and as I've already mentioned, the plan was arguably wrong in the first place.
A dominant taste of espresso must be present, otherwise the taste balance score will reflect the resulting sensory experience. - Rule 2.2.3.EBah!
Sensory Judges' Scoresheets
Key Learning Points
1. Simplify explanation. The drink can be complex, but I need to make it easier for the judges to understand it. I spent too long trying to describe the entire process of creating each component part, which ate time and overcomplicated it for the judges. It also took focus away from the espresso.
2. Look & functionality. I cocked up the milk art. But fundamentally I seem to have been labouring along the wrong lines, and I need to spend more time looking at the sort of sig drinks that have scored well in the past. That seems a shame, since it undermines my own creativity and expression, but if I want a higher score next year I need to give the judges what they are looking for. However, it isn't clear enough what they are looking for. The rules are just a skeleton, and I think competitors need the judges/SCAE-UK to flesh out their expectations more.
3. Creativity and synergy. Quite surprised by the low scores here, particularly if they relate to creativity. I wonder what they would deem to be creative. I watched Alejandro Mendez use various manual brew methods in his 2011 WBC performance and loved it, and considered something similar, but in the end decided to steer well clear of anything similar for fear of a low creativity score. Hence the nut milk, which is innovative. So I'm stumped. The word Synergy has been circled, and the word Almond questioned by one judge. This is frustrating to me. I did explain to the judges that the beans had been roasted in such a way as to highlight the nut-like, sugar browning aromas as shown on Ted Lingle's Coffee Flavour Wheel, and therefore the Almond milk was intended to offer a synergy. So why the question-mark? I'm not bitching, by the way. I am trying to understand something that the scoresheets do not help me understand.4. The espresso was not dominant. Too much sweetness from the syrup and cherry flavours from the almond milk. Need to work on taste balance next year.
5. Precision. I had considered using a syringe to measure out portions of ginger syrup. However, when watching a video of John Gordon's performance in a prior year he simply poured his sugar syrup mix, so I had no reason to think I would be marked down for doing the same. I am again a little confused by a judge writing that my "8ml of syrup" statement was not precise. Perhaps I should not have said "8ml", and should have just said "some syrup".
So in summary I found the signature drink difficult to get my head around right from the beginning, and having now gone all the way through the process and read the scoresheets I seem to be not much clearer regarding the judges' expectations. It is difficult to know how to improve my scores next year.
It would be great if there was a version of the Judges Calibration Day aimed at competitors, to help provide them with a fuller picture of what the judges are trained to look for, to mark down, and to favour, when completing scoresheets on competition day. The rules do not provide that. This way competitors would not spend valuable time, effort and money working on part of their routine that they hope will be well received, but which the judges have been calibrated to dislike. It should not have to be a shot in the dark.
**EDIT** Here is an interesting article by Richard Rhodes that I think does help to clarify how some successful competitors treated the signature drink as more than just a taste-matching exercise.
To be continued in UK Barista Championships - Epilogue (Part Five)
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