Day 1 with the full competition starting, including a whole whack of photos from Jack Hanna, a few select videos courtesy of Zachary and Catie, and some 9,000km away commentary to boot, all about the WBC.
cindychang Senior Member Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Posts: 6 Location: Durham, NC Expertise: Professional
Posted Wed Aug 1, 2007, 4:44am Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
I just hate to see the title "controversy" because it inflames the issue a bit, but at least you ended on a postitive note. I felt horrible for the competitors when the news came out that the nitrogen cartridges couldn't be used. I, myself didn't find out until that very moment. The WBC was told by the SCAJ that there would be a special nitrogen machine provided for competitors who wanted to use it but it wasn't made clear that the machine was available because it was illegal to use the cartridges. It could have been a language or translation issue.
In the end the process didn't really take a minute... My demonstration to them on how to use the machine might have been a minute, but I think mostly it took about 20-25 seconds.
I was really impressed with how some competitors took the news well and just dealt with the changes. Salvador from Mexico and James from UK had really good attitudes about the whole thing. Just a great example of the spirit and positive environment of the competition.
And, as we can see from the results of the finalists. James Hoffman and Heather Perry who both had to work around the nitrogen issue still came out ahead. Cindy
MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 4,650 Location: Vancouver Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Frankenstein'ed LM Linea Grinder: Anfim Super Caimano Vac Pot: 1922 Silex Drip: Krups Moka Brew Roaster: Hottop
Posted Wed Aug 1, 2007, 2:24pm Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
Just a note on this - Controversy was Jack's choice for the title; he's writing the pieces, and wanted to actually show something more lighthearted - like here's the BIGGEST problem this year... not too bad, huh.
jackandthebean Senior Member Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 210 Location: Sydney Expertise: Professional
Espresso: 3+4 Group Linea, Vibiemme Grinder: Mazzer Robur, Anfim Vac Pot: Hario, Bodum Drip: Single Cup Monmouth
Posted Wed Aug 1, 2007, 6:06pm Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
hey, cindy i wasnt trying to inflame a situation maybe controversy wasnt the right title, i just wanted to shed some light on an "issue" aspect of the wbc thats all, nothing else.
So for anybody else who thinks im trying to flame the wbc, im not. Im here to support it but at the same time im also covering the event. No event is ever ALL positives. Hope i dont offend anyone.
MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 4,650 Location: Vancouver Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Frankenstein'ed LM Linea Grinder: Anfim Super Caimano Vac Pot: 1922 Silex Drip: Krups Moka Brew Roaster: Hottop
Posted Thu Aug 2, 2007, 2:42am Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
Updated the Colter Jones entry. Argh, how cruel is fate! On one hand, it's absolutely brilliant to finish seventh in this stellar field of Baristas. On the other hand, if he'd finished literally one second sooner (1 second = 1 point when you're overtime), he would have been in the finals.
I hope Colter sees this as a positive affirmation of his talents, and encourages him to try again for Copenhagen, 2008! (after competing, and possibly winning, Toronto 2007!).
cindychang Senior Member Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Posts: 6 Location: Durham, NC Expertise: Professional
Posted Fri Aug 3, 2007, 3:57pm Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
It's all good guys. I'm just glad that that was the worst of it. Things seemed to run so smoothly this year. I think this was the best WBC yet. Now I just want to have one without a technical time-out. The competitor from Germany had a technical stop because his water hose came up above the water line. Nothing wrong with any of the La Marzocco equipment, just the water hose trying to escape.
julioale Said:
Jim used a Compak or a Astoria/Mahlkoenig grinder?
persistent_barista Senior Member Joined: 9 Jan 2006 Posts: 8 Location: Vancouver, BC Expertise: Pro Barista
Posted Sat Aug 4, 2007, 6:45am Subject: Re: WBC 2007 Tokyo Japan, Day 1, Road Reports
Thankyou Mark for all the positive comments. I felt as though my performance in Japan was a great learning experience. I will indeed be competing in the Canadian championships come September... I`m kind of glad that I didn`t call the clock one second sooner. Carl deserved to be in the finals and I was shocked that he was going in as the sixth place competitor. James put on a great performance but in all honesty I thought Carl and his amazing setup would pull out the win. Everyone that I met at this competition were true professionals and I hope to see them again somewhere in the future. I think the one downfall of my performance was taking risks in the wrong places. I should`ve had a more intersting signature drink... which I had already invented but chose not to use. I also used a timer on my grinder which the judges had taken points off for being not as accurate as without the timer. I think that the timer on my Anfim is indeed consistent when the hopper is full, but I also realize that there is a certain artisan quality about using a grinder without a timer. My original gut feeling was to perform with a stock grinder but I chose to use the timer because I thought I would create better espresso because of it. I look forward to Canadians this year where I will compete against many great baristas. I promise you, Mark... there will be many more competing than last year which I am very excited about.
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