Lefcourt burned but still best at MRBC
Posted: Feb 16, 2010
For the second straight year, Greg Lefcourt tasted victory at the Mountain Regional Barista Competition. Well, actually he couldn’t taste much at all, but still emerged as the winner.
After the Ozo Coffee Co. barista competed in the first round of the event—held last weekend in Loveland, Colo.—he grabbed a cappuccino made by a non-competing barista at a machine set up nearby. The drink badly burned the front of Lefcourt’s tongue, and the next morning while trying to prep for the final round, he says, “My tongue was so fried on the tip that I could not taste my coffee while I was trying to calibrate my shots.”
Lefcourt took some tasting notes from some co-workers who were on hand, and then used visual clues to dial in the grind from there. The resulting espresso led to his 551 final-round score, just four points higher than second-place finisher Jessica Brooks of Allegro Coffee in Thornton, Colo.
The win qualifies Lefcourt for the semifinals of the United States Barista Championship, to be held April 15-18 in Anaheim, Calif. A year ago Lefcourt finished 15th in that event, and he’s looking forward to performing at the national level again. “I just hope everyone shows up with big smiles ready for a great weekend,” he says. “It’s party time. This is our Olympics.”
For more on the Mountain Regional Barista Competition, check out the March 2010 issue of Fresh Cup. —Dan Leif
