Competition Stories from Glitter Cats!
Happy Friday, friends!
As we enter the 420th month of isolation, we find ourselves looking nostalgically backward for memories of times we were together and looking forward to how we might be able to connect again given the current climate. I mean “current climate” quite literally. We just moved Glitter Cat headquarters to Los Angeles and the state of California is actually on fire. As we stay cooped up in our new apartment to avoid the plummeting air quality, we asked Glitter Cats and instructors for sweet, funny, and sometimes stressful memories of competition.
Our dear friend and original Glitter Cat instructor Holly Bastin took us back to USBC 2003, which was held in Boston just one day before WBC 2013! These were the pioneering days of the US competition and things looked a little different. “Back then most of us had no set speech,” Holly told us. “So I talked with the emcee through who I was, how I got there, and about my coffee. He asked questions throughout the fifteen minutes while I was in that sort of fugue state of performance making coffee.” Cue competition nightmares about being interviewed while pulling shots as a timer’s going!
Back in 2003, Holly brought the original Glitter Cat energy to her signature beverage. “My drink was espresso shaken with half & half, almond extract, and a touch of hazelnut syrup,” she remembers. “I named it ‘The Homecoming Queen’ as it was ‘sweet, nutty, and a little rich,’ and served it in glasses with tiny pink sashes (hand bejeweled). For the occasion, I donned a tiara for the drink service, bringing a toy dog from my home cafe to set on the table (no connection, just a piece of home for fun).” Holly has truly had the spirit of fabulousness throughout her whole competition career.
Competition can bring out the nerves and mistakes in the best of the best, and sometimes our mistakes can be blessings. 2020 Glitter Cat Brewers Cup instructor Kaley Gann told us the kind of story that makes you stand up and cheer about her experience competing in the 2019 Brewers Cup finals.
“In my precious, tiny amount of practice time,” Kaley said, “I had one chance to do a runthrough and brew my coffee. This was vital in determining my recipe, getting flavor calls, etc. I had a recipe ready to go but realized midway through my speech that I had forgotten to dump my filter rinse water. I was highly discouraged until I tried the coffee, and it was even better than my original recipe. That's when I decided to add a little bypass water to my recipe--because of a silly mistake; and THAT'S how I won Nationals.”
Perseverance is the hallmark of a Glitter Cat and few folx exemplify that better than 2020 Glitter Cat CIGS competitor, Meghan-Annette Reida. After a series of mishaps had them changing ingredients and tasting a very different coffee than they had practiced with, what happened onstage presented the most difficult challenge of all:
“My time for my presentation began, I started to pull my espresso....and nothing came out of the portafilter. Nothing. I stood there for almost a minute watching the time painfully climb until I worked up the courage to call for a technical timeout. As it turned out, there was no water going to the espresso machine, and I was allowed to start my routine over. At this point, I had abandoned all hopes of perfection and I just wanted to get off that stage. It worked out reasonably well in the end.”
Meghan-Annette ended up taking second place! We could not be prouder of how their raw talent, versatility, and commitment shone through in that presentation. Ultimately, what we tell all Glitter Cats is that it’s not about the place you take… it’s the place you make. In 2020, we had no roasters qualify for nationals and while it admittedly hurt our hearts, it put into full perspective what this program is really here to do. For Glitter Cat Roaster Christina Chin, an unexpected showing in competition drove home the need to band together and show up.
“It was undoubtedly an emotional rollercoaster for all competitors,” Christina recalled, “but it wasn’t the defining moment or pinnacle of our success as Glitter Cats. Some folx performed impeccably and finished in top rankings while others did not fare so well—myself included in the latter group. The common thread was that we all showed up despite our other-ness in the coffee industry.”
And that’s the spirit of competition for us at Glitter Cat. Showing up, succeeding, failing, and bringing our stories and identities to our peers. The 2021 US Coffee Championships won’t happen but that doesn’t mean we don’t need competition in some form to showcase brilliant, funny, and talented coffee professionals, particularly from marginalized communities. So stay tuned over the next few weeks. Glitter Cat’s ready to come back roaring.
