It’s official, the SCAE UK Coffee in Good Spirits competition, the home of the best alcoholic signature drinks in the country, will this year take place at Caffe Culture, London and benefit from the support of La Cimbali, the world’s largest coffee machine manufacturer as headline sponsor.
La Cimbali, with a 100 year brand heritage, manufactures some of the most technically advanced, traditional espresso machines in the world.
As part of the sponsorship package, the bar keepers and baristas who enter Coffee in Good Spirits will use Cimbali’s award winning M100 espresso machine and Magnum on demand grinders to produce their signature coffee cocktails and Irish Coffees.
The M100 features an exclusive thermal system consisting of a 10 litre steam boiler and Cimbali heat exchangers which pre-heat the water before entering individual coffee boilers for each group, which will maintain incredible temperature stability.
A different water temperature can be set for each group head which allows for greater flexibility across the speciality coffee menu.
For the purposes of the competition, the water temperature will be pre-set at the same level for each competitor. As the M100 can be relied on to deliver consistent espresso quality at a predetermined temperature, the barista is free to concentrate on delivering a perfect mix, knowing the coffee is taken care of.
The World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship promotes innovative beverage recipes that showcase coffee and spirits in a competition format.
This competition highlights the barista/barkeeper’s mixology skills in a setting where coffee and alcohol go perfectly together. From the traditional Irish Coffee (with whiskey and coffee), to unique cocktail combinations.
During the preliminary round, competitors produce four drinks – two identical hot/warm coffee and alcohol-based designer drinks, and two identical cold coffee and alcohol-based designer drinks.
The six competitors with the highest preliminary round scores will compete in the final round. The final round requires competitors to produce two Irish Coffees and two coffee-and-alcohol-based designer drinks.
The highest scoring final round competitor will be named the World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion. The winner of the competition will represent the UK at the Coffee in Good Spirits in Gothenburg in June 2015.
Caffe Culture, 13-14th May, Olympia, now in its 10th year, is the nation’s leading gathering place for the café and coffee community and continues to bring together all those who have a passion for pushing the industry forward.
Whether a start-up or an experienced coffee shop operator, Caffè Culture is the place to be to discover, learn, share and celebrate all that is great about the industry.
Rob Ward, Gruppo Cimbali/Mumac Academy Coffee Specialist and UKBC Sensory Judge said: “Cimbali is extremely thrilled to be a part of a competition which showcases the growing creativity of some our leading baristas and bar keepers.
“Anyone who enters a competition such as CIGS has a clear passion for what they do so I am very interested to see how these enthusiastic and creative baristas use our flagship machine, the M100, to creative innovative signature drinks.”
Stephen Leighton, Managing Director of Has Bean Coffee and SCAE UK National Co-ordinator said “I’m really excited about this new partnership with Cimbali, and Caffe Culture.
This is the first time Cimbali has worked with a competition like this in the UK. I think this is a great opportunity to work with this long established company and the ever increasingly popular CIGS competition – at this prestigious show.
