Goddamn. Melbourne will you stop it with all of these interesting coffee events with plentiful alcohol? I am slowly becoming a party-hound and its beginning to effect the rest of my life.
Either way, guess what? Market Lane has raised six thousand big ones for the Tsunami Appeal. Thats a combination of everything that was raised on Monday, where they opened their doors and gave every dollar spent into the charity box. Add the proceeds from Rosettas for Relief that happened on Wednesday night and you have a big-fat-fun-karma-laden cheque.
The set up was very similar to last year when Coffee Kids was the recipient with Dave Makin doing a terrific job of hosting the event and keeping to a tight timeline. 32 baristas went head to head and the winner took home a 6 month coffee subscription to Market Lane, a Toshi jug and SO MUCH GLORY.
The room collectively gasped as last years crowned winner and competition extraordinaire, Toshi was knocked out in the first round. Judge Luca aptly put it when faced with a barrage of tulip slinging baristas when he whispered in my ear, “Tonight should really be titled ‘Tulips for Tsunami’s'”. I laughed so hard I almost dropped two cups, a beer and my camera.
There were some impressive designs produced under the gaze of a 400 strong crowd. My favorite was the cock and balls. Remy Shpayzer produced an impressive man on the moon when he went jug to jug with Matt Perger in the final showdown. Of course though, the Australian Barista Champion stole the show and auctioned off his prizes for a pretty penny.
The Secret Weapon, signed by the master himself.
