Wow! What a weekend!
A big thanks to all involved: All of our competitiors, volunteers, judges, sponsors, and of course Michelle Campbell with the SCAA.

Congratulations to Pete Licata the 2008 Midwest Regional Barista Champion from PT's Coffee Co.


Here are the top 3 finalists:

1 Pete Licata (middle)PT's Coffee Co. - Overland Park, KS
2 Alex McCracken (right) Kaldi's Coffee Roasitng Co.-St. Louis,MO
3 Robin Seitz (left) PT's Coffee Co. - Topeka, KS




There were a record 27 baristas competing with some of the biggest crowds ever for the MWRBC. It was standing room only at the finals.


We had a great showing of five Kaldi's baristas with two finalists: Alex McCracken took second place and Mike Marquard took fourth. David Fitterling (8th), Kristen Coleman (12th) and Alex Frankel (15th) all turned in fantastic performances.


Howard, Mike, and Alex warming up Sunday morning for finals.














Look at those shots -off the charts!





Another local presence turning in great performances were five competitors (serving Kaldi's Coffee I might add) from Cairdeas Coffee and La Gra Italian Tapas: Lou and Andrea Barrale, Erika Darrough, Justin Rau and Amber West.

It was an incredibly tight competiton with a mere 25.5 points seperating first place from fourth place. Here is the ranking order:

http://www.scaa.org/pdfs/news/2008_MWRBC_Ranking_Order.pdf


Check out the photos posted from the SCAA:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/

All of the regional barista competitions lead up to the US Barista Championship, held in conjunction with the annual SCAA conference, which is in Minneapolis this year. The winner of the 2008 USBC will go on to represent the United States at the 9th Annual World Barista Championship, hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, June 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark.