(photo courtesy Tonx)

Baca has been cleaning and prepping during Nick’s run, and has his Anfim all tuned up, milk is in glass pitchers in a silver ice bucket.

THE CROWD LOVES HIM. He’s got the butterflies, but he’s gonna kill it.

Sarah is talking about how much a community the coffee world is, and giving Chris props for rooting for Nick. There is a new award this year that ONLY the baristas are voting for, the “Baristas’ Barista”, described as “Miss Congeniality” award.

Here goes Chris! He’s chatting with Sarah about his past experience, talking some game, bantering with Kyle.

So much fun happening here even with all the pressure.

Shoutouts to the Ritual crew, and the Ritual CUSTOMERS here (yes, that’s your notso humble author here. woot!)

He’s started, and is talking about his love of training to show and see people start to fall inlove with coffee. He’s using a naturally processed Sao Joao from Brazil.

He’s prepping some for his sig drink, doing a cherry reduction on the grill.

He’s got a clean sweep and accuracy of the doser. He doesn’t need to level or WASTE any coffee. It’s so accurate. He’s preserving the aromatics of the cofee by leaving the tamped portafilters on the counter.

He’s starting with his caps, pulling the spro right into some nice simple white mugs.

It all starts with the coffee. he is encouraging the judges to smell the brown sugar aroma from the caps. He’s using an organic whole milk from Clover here in Sonoma. He is even finding the cinnamon in the milk. The foam is amazing.

His presentation is to put the spro in front of the judges, have them smell it, then pour the milk in the cups immediately in front of the judges. He’s talking about the hot dry arid climate in the brazilian microregion that makes for the naturally processed coffee come out so well. He loves the acidity. 6:40 so far.

The Anfim is amazing. there’s no dust to clean up. no waste under the doser. Still working on the sig prep while he does his spro. Lots of dried fruit, just a whisper of lime in the taste he says. 9:15. Lokks like perfect crema, perfect amount of syrupy beauty, from the view here in the crowd.

He’s doing great, but a little rushed here with 4 minutes left, to do his signature drink.  Cherry lime chessecake course. Drink with three layers. Cherry lime reduction strained, poured like a juice, not a syrup. Second layer is the “meat and potatos of the cheesecake” A little powdered sugar and the milk. Beautiful glasses. He’s layering the thick cheescake layer.  It is sitting perfectly on the fruit. 13:47. Such beautiful presentation. Cleanup in 5 seconds. HE MAKES IT IN TIME!