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Gwilym Davies 2009 UK Barista Champion

4 Mar

Congratulations to Gwilym Davies who has just been crowned the 2009 UK Barista Champion. I’ve just thrown this post up for people who want to know more about this great barista. (click here for full post with embedded media.)

Gwilym works outdoor coffee carts at two busy London markets. He uses coffee from East London’s Square Mile Roasters.

Gwilym’s winning espresso was a 50/50 blend made up of Finca San Jose Pulped Natural Red Catuaí from Erwin Mierisch and family in Nicaragua, and an El Molino de Santa Rita Washed Orange Bourbon from Jose Antonio Salaverria’s farm in El Salvador.

During the the final Gwilym’s espresso and signature drink attained the highest scores. The idea behind his signature drink was to enhance flavours that were already in the espresso he was working with. He created an infusion of butter, cinamon, orange peel, muscovado syrup, and dark chocolate that he added to the espresso.

Here is Gwilym’s semi-final performance:
http://www.viddler.com/simple/32717bbb/

Here’s Gwilym’s championship-winning final performance:
http://www.viddler.com/player/63f6f5e8/
Here are all the videos from the UKBC Finals.

Here is a video of the results and an interview with Gwilym:
http://www.viddler.com/player/ad07df2/

Here’s a podcast about Gwilym.

http://starbarista.googlepages.com/Episode_1_Gwillem.mp3

(Note: At the time of recording Gwilym was using beans from a different London roastery.)

Click here to download this podcast.

Here are some photos of Gwilym at work on Whitecross Market

Below is a map showing the locations of Gwilym’s coffee carts.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104091204455281198860.0004645d4dd3f70e7d302&ll=51.5258,-0.081394&spn=0.007797,0.022649&output=embed&s=AARTsJopiEQXUM95lsYxTwXQELwGDRd2bg
View Larger Map