When the air gets crisp and leaves start to fall, a certain vim and vigor permeates our being, calling us to a certain annual challenge. The challenge you ask? The Canadian National Barista Championship. And we’re ready to answer with gusto.
Our very own Aimee Ferguson will be competing for the first time this year and we couldn’t be more proud! Aimee has been with the company since August 2010 and has worked all kinds of roles in those four years. A barista extraordinaire, she’s currently the manager of our Symons Valley cafe and placed 4th in the Prairie Regional Barista Competition. Her competition espresso of choice? The Banko Gotiti // Ethiopia.

But Aimee isn’t the only member of the Phil & Sebastian team to represent P&S on the Nationals stage. Chris Tellez, winner of the Central Regional Barista Competition and our Eastern Accounts Manager, will also be competing. He’ll be using the Hartmann Washed+Natural // Panama for his competition espresso. Chris has been with us since 2011, and became Director of Training before moving to Toronto to manage and do wholesale training for our Eastern accounts.

In addition to Aimee and Chris, David Lalonde from Tunnel Coffee, 3rd place winner for the Eastern Regional Barista Comp, opted to use Phil & Sebastian coffee for his set. He’ll be pulling a competition espresso roast of our Asgori // Ethiopia.

Here’s the Schedule:

Aimee Ferguson — 10:40 am (12:40 pm EST)

Chris Tellez — 2:00 pm (4:00 pm EST)

David Lalonde — 2:45 pm (4:25 pm EST)

On the other side of the table, Phil and Karine will sit as judges. Karine will be participating as either a Sensory or Tech Judge (this gets decided on the day), while Phil will be moving into a new role as a Head Judge after being a Sensory or Tech Judge for the past five years. Both are participating in their respective roles for the first time this year.

One of a head judge’s responsibilities is to taste the drinks of every competitor. That’s 12 drinks per competitor with 16 competitors. At 192 drinks, it’s a good thing Phil isn’t alone! He’ll be joined by a few other fellow head judges, including Josh Hockin from Transcend, and Mike Strunpf from Swiss Water.

If you’re interested in catching a piece of the action, we’ll be LIVE STREAMING the competition in the cafes on Sunday (qualifiers) and Monday (finals).