Jay is way more relaxed today and yesterday didn’t even seem that rough. He reintroduces the Heartbreaker espressso roasted by Novo. His signature drink is the Café Brulée, foreshadowing both the custard and the hand torch yet again.

Jay’s talkin’ more today — goes into detail about the origins of his coffee, an area of huge interest to him as a barista and as a hope-to-be-roaster.

As he serves his espressos, he asks the judges to enjoy the aromatics of the espresso, both before and after drinking it: he suggests they turn the cup over and wait a minute before smelling the cup and enjoying the aromatics again. They all actually do this.

Moving on (well in time) to the signature beverage, Jay invents the word “dolloping”. This seems appropriate for custard cream.

More instructions are delivered — the raspberry is for garnish, take it out of the Café Brulée and enjoy it separately later. A photographer from the news is about forcing me off the stage with his giant lens. Jay does great! Expresses relief at the second performance being so much easier than the first. And we’re done. Everyone disperses to pack up dishes, take photos, or listen to Scott Rao’s lecture on espresso fines — during which I am being a bad kid and typing this now. Andy Schecter is here from Rochester with his poodle though — I think the dog is really into extraction theory.