(photo courtesy Tonx)

Heather’s from SAN DIMAS, CA.

“As you can see from the menu in front of you, we’ll have a rich and creamy cappuccino to start with,” she says. There are angled martini glasses prepped for her sig later, with a matching full glass water pitcher.

Her blend has some Americas (Poco Fundo fair trade), Indionesia (semi washed), Africa (with a natural washed Ethopian Yirg).

Childhood memories recounted about how her mom used to ask for a special drink in coffee shop as a kid, and eventually got her “Cindy’s Special” put on the menu, and how cool she thought her mom was.

She’s zesting a lemon to add a lightness and frenshess to make a fig simple syrup with both white and brown sugar.  She’s brought whole milk along with her. Music is jazzy. Lots of invitations for the judges to come inspect her shots as they come off of the machine. Perfect leaf flourettes on the caps. Simple white mugs. Carefully cleaning her steam wand. Pounding her milk. Talking about the sensuality of caps and how she likes it so, for the velvet taste.
She’s pouring and straining off the syrup from the burner for her sig.

Doing shots now at 8:30. Carefully cleans the BOTTOMS of the shot cups. Delivers to judges table with conversation about the subtle hints of berry in the palatte.

She’s carefully teaspooning the fig syrup reduction in the the martini glasses, THRONG of photographers around her. 10:30. Adding her espresso, she claims the chocolate taste will come out, but still with no actual chocolate. She’s finally adding an almond creme, prepared ahead of time by toasting almonds and adding cream, and letting it sit for 24 hours.

She likes that the drink reflects California, with the southern cal citrus growers, the huge percentage of the world’s almonds that are grown here. She’s finally spritzing a lemon into the back of the glass. Finishes with 30 seconds to clean up.