BARISTA’S: THE NEW ROCK STARS OF THE CULINARY WORLD!
Britain’s best barista Gwilym Davies (as he was crowned last week) says he is part of the third wave of coffee. The first wave peaked when freeze-dried techniques made coffee popular, if not necessarily any good. The second wave came with global Starbucksification, whereby large chains of gourmet coffee shops, home espresso machines and the shift from robusta to aribica coffee beans - all helped improve coffee quality.
“The third wave is about taking coffee to the next level,” says Davies, 42, as he makes a nice swirly pattern on my coffee by shaking the milk jug with his wrist as he pours. We’re chatting as he serves at his market stall on Whitecross Street near London’s Barbican. The stall has no name, no brand, just drooling customers, most of whom are buying £1.80 flat white cappuccini.
Davies, an affable, articulate Yorkshireman, lives on a canal boat and has been passionate about coffee for decades.
He reckons that some of the best third-way coffee shops are in east London. Their names read like legends: Taste of Bitter Love, Tina We Salute You, Dose. He says they are “creating an English coffee culture which hasn’t existed here since the 18th century. It’s all very uncorporate, and passionate about freshness and the sourcing of coffee beans.”
He talks with the passion of a sommelier discussing the terroir of a good wine when he explains why his coffee is so good. When he won the UK barista championship in Glasgow, he not only wowed the judges with the four cappuccini and four espressi he had to make in the allotted 15 minutes, but also with his extraordinary signature coffee whose aim was to edify coffee drinkers about the many flavours in their cup of java.
“It had butter, chocolate, orange peel, muscovado syrup and cinammon, which were all heated in one pan and then poured over the espresso with a little bit of milk on top. I want my customers to get to that level of enjoyment.”
