Baristas battle for titles on Gold Coast

Greg Stolz
February 01, 2009 11:00pm

BEAN there, won that.

The Australian Barista Championships were decided on the Gold Coast yesterday, with a Queenslander coming up trumps.

Tim Adams, of the Sunshine Coast Coffee Academy, out-brewed 12 rival baristas from around Australia to take the title.

The competition was literally a grind – entrants had to make 12 coffees in 30 minutes and impress a panel of seven judges.

Mr Adams narrowly beat the only female finalist, Zoe Delaney, from self-styled coffee capital Melbourne, to win a trip to the world barista championships in Atlanta, Georgia, in April.

But Melbourne and the girls got their revenge in the latte art section. Erin Sampson, 27, who owns a coffee shop in Melbourne, won the competition with a champion display of precision pouring.

"Latte art is basically the milk pattern on top of the coffee," Ms Sampson told The Courier-Mail yesterday. "If you put down a fantastic-looking coffee, it grabs the customer's attention straight away."

Ms Sampson will represent Australia in the world latte art championships in Germany.