I know Matt pretty well. We work a lot together on projects on the functionality of the Intelligentsia website, where's he's the web developer and designer for the company. That's his primary job at Intelligentsia. Not that he doesn't know how to Barista... because after all, he won it this year with the highest ever score in a USBC. He also cups coffee regularly and roasts.

But my point is, Matt's kind of the "outsider's" champ. Training barista skills isn't his main job. He's a true coffeegeek, with an amateur background in it before he went "pro" and even then, his "pro" side isn't really focused on espresso. It's his passion for espresso and the art around it that runs deep. Most importantly, he's a complete natural at it. I said a couple of the USBC finalists were people I think are even better suited for the WBC than for the USBC above, and Matt is definitely one of them.

His performance was near flawless, and on top of that, the key word "natural" comes to mind. His drinks looked fantastic, his signature drink was near perfect (I tasted it myself, and I can tell you as far as being a good competition signature drink, he hit a grand slam. It had espresso as a pure flavour, but then a kick of spicy goodness with anise comes through on the aftertaste, leaving something extremely pleasing on the palate).

Here's his flickr set - enjoy these pics of this year's USBC champ at work.

www.flickr.com CoffeeGeek's Matt Riddle, USBC 2006 Finals photoset