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It was that pour-over technique that helped Gum, a barista at the Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. on Cherry Street, win first place Saturday night at a manual coffee brewing contest in Seattle called “Brew Ha Ha.” The event, held at Victrola Coffee, was the after-party destination for vendors and visitors who had attended Coffee Fest, a coffee trade show also held last weekend in Seattle.
Gum, 29, impressed three judges during two rounds of pour-over competition and walked away with about $300 in coffee-making equipment, he said.
Gum’s cups of coffee were evaluated for sweetness and body and their water-to-coffee ratio, he said. The judges waited in a separate room, where they couldn’t hear or see the competition; then the coffee samples were brought to them, Gum said. The judges smelled the coffee, then slurped it up with a spoon, he said.
“One of the judges told me I had a little more staying power,” said Gum about the strength of his “slow and low” cup of coffee.
Gum has worked for the Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. for about seven months and has been in the coffee business for four years. He experiments with his coffee-brewing technique at work and even on his days off, he said. He also bounces his ideas off co-workers.
“I want to know what’s wrong and make adjustments,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot from others and my own technique.”
Kelly Ziniewicz, co-owner of Olympia Coffee Roasting Co., was in the audience Saturday to support Gum, as were members of Olympia’s Batdorf & Bronson coffee roasters, said Heather Ringwood, operations director.
Espresso Parts of Olympia, also co-owned by Ziniewicz, was a vendor at Coffee Fest, as was Batdorf & Bronson.
Batdorf didn’t have a barista in competition at Brew Ha Ha, but “we sure supported our Olympia barista,” she said. Other baristas in competition came from New York, Portland and Seattle, Gum said.
Although Batdorf didn’t have a barista in competition, the company’s baristas have taken part in other competitions, she said. There is a U.S. barista competition that is preceded by six regional events throughout the country, including a southeast regional competition that has been won by a Batdorf barista, Ringwood said. A Northwest regional is expected to be held in January, she said.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/bizblog
