Belgian Barista Champ 2010 : Kathleen Serdons

Back home from another Championship and again we have a cup.
Isabelle gave a fantastic show and came in 2nd after Kathleen.

For months I've been expecting Kathleen to win this year's title. And Isabelle to finish second.
I can't say who's the best Barista in general, but Kathleen has just a little bit more experience and with the Rombouts team on the side I knew she was the one to beat.
So, no surprise she's going to defend our country in Colombia next year.

A bit more suprising was her coffee : a Puerto Rico. Most blog enthousiasts know I'm a big Puerto Rico fan and when tasting 'our' Dominican Republic coffee last week I remarked big resemblance with this typical 'Puerto Rico flavor'. A nice clean coffee with moderate acidity and a clean chocolate aftertaste.

We had this year just one big problem, and that was our championship roast. Young roasters we are, and the final roasts from last week were a tad too short. So forget body and sweetness. I don't say Isabelle would have won with a better roast, but sure thing is that we came short on this part.

Congrats anyhow to Isabelle. Technically maybe the best performance ever on a Belgian stage. And congratulations Kathleen ; what a classy performance, proud we'll have someone like you to defend our colors.

3rd place for Louis Donk. This man is a roaster! He was 2nd at the cuptasting championship two years ago and is a real self made man.
His Panama Carmen Estate is a great cup and Louis a very nice chap.

Remarkable that 4th spot was a typical island coffee (Galapagos) as well. Seems to be a new trend.


Cuptasting : Not Caffenation in the finals. Bert, Jeff and Roeland underachieved unfortunately. Roel from Java coffee won the cup. Very nice fella and coffee fanatic this man. Congrats.
Bart was second and Tom and Katrien from Or 3rd and 4th. Wow, that's amazing.

Last round of applause for Jeanne Gennar who was organizing this event. And all sponsors. Very well done.