Food and beverage team members from Lancaster House Hotel, The Wild Boar Inn and Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa and have been battling for supremacy in a barista skills competition.
Tchibo Barista Competition
Eight of our increasingly skilled baristas from across our venues came together to display an array of innovative coffee preparations and latte art to judges from the Matthew Algie Coffee Roastery.
The key objective for holding such a competition was to underpin the techniques the baristas have learned during their training, as well as reinforcing higher service standards and helping to build team spirit with a sense of fun and enjoyment for those who took part.
As part of the Tchibo barista competition, two members from of our three venues and the spa were selected to create four coffees each - an espresso, a cappuccino, a latte, plus a special coffee of their choice - and present them to the judges.
Four Baristas from Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa took part – two each from the spa and the resort itself - Pawel Moskala, Erdal Ali, George Taylor and Aml Nayef. They were joined by Hubert Jasniewski and Sean Van Aswegan from Lancaster House and Joanne Shuttleworth and Vaclav Kolar from The Wild Boar Inn.
The Winners
Vaclav took the trophy in first place as the 2023 Barista of the year for his artistry and unique creation of a what the judges described as a sensational 'Smokehouse Coffee'. He was closely followed by Pawel in second place with his 'Smores Mocha'. Aml was hot on their heels in third with her 'Colada Coffee', beautifully presented in a pineapple for an added zing of flavour.
"The baristas were judged on creativity, presentation, the process of making their beverages and of course, above all, taste. The standard was extremely high across the board but Vaclav pipped his rivals in the end due to the beauty and precision of his method in making the drink and the skills demonstrated as we watched. We’d like to thank Stuart and Andrew from Matthew Algie, not just for delivering the Barista training for the group, but also getting involved in the competition to help drive quality standards. The winners will be invited for a tour of their roastery in Scotland as a result of their success in completing their training and excelling in the competition.”"