two-page spread: Sweet trip to the top

Two women find success by following their tastebuds and passion

Reports by JADE TEO

PHOTOS: JADE TEO

jadeteo@sph.com.sg

Fever helps rookie barista to focus

She took part in her first barista competition last month, just three months after picking up the art of coffee brewing.

Despite being one of the least experienced among the 13 participants, Miss Andrea Tan, 20, won the Singapore National Brewers Cup 2015.

“The moment I held the trophy, a mil- lion emotions ran through me. It was a mixture of joy, disbelief and relief.

“I’ve had the support and help of so many people who believed in me and I didn’t let them down,” said the young woman, who will graduate from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Business Studies course this year.

The competition, organised by the Singapore Coffee Association, was held at Marina Bay Sands last month.

It highlights the craft of filter coffee brewing by hand, promoting manual coffee brewing and service excellence.

Miss Tan, who was the only female participant in the competition, will be representing Singapore at the prestig- ious annual World Brewers Cup Cham- pionship in Gothenburg, Sweden from June 16 to 18.

She started working as a public rela- tions and marketing executive at A. R. C. Coffee, a cafe located off Beach Road at Sultan Gate, last year.

She developed an interest in coffee and started taking on shifts as a barista.

“I decided to use the competition as a plat- form to show what I’ve learnt,” she said.

To prepare for the competition, she spent more than 100 hours work- ing to hone her tech- nique, she said.

It resulted in a total of 80 to 100 cups of coffee.

She made sacrifices along the way, including suffering from stomach aches often due to too much coffee and not eating enough.

She also slept very little.

“I wanted to do the coffee justice,” she said.

Guidance

She is grateful for the guidance from her coach, Mr John Ryan Ting, who works at the same cafe.

The 34-year-old took top spot at this year’s Singapore National Barista Championships.

To improve Miss Tan’s chances of winning, he arranged for her to attend training sessions in Taiwan with Ms Ju- Ying “Lulu” Wei, who was placed fifth in the World Brewers Cup last year.

She acted as Miss Tan’s competitor and judge, taking her to different cafes to try out coffee brews. Along the way, she also shared pointers on making coffee.

Said Mr Ting: “It was effective as Andrea was a beginner and the exposure really helped put ideas into perspective when it came to her presentation for the competition.”

After her time in Taiwan, Miss Tan became even more passionate about coffee brewing.

She named the coffee she used to compete in the competition My Aurora, after the Panama Finca La Aurora Gesha Natural bean she used.

Things did not seem to look good on the first day of the competition, as she came down with a 39 degree fever.

But the optimistic woman managed to look on the bright side: “Being sick made me numb to my surroundings. I could focus on completing my routine and rest after that.

“If not, I would have been very nervous and jittery.”

Her focus and determination to perfect the task at hand paid off.

She emerged the winner of the three- day competition, accumulating enough points to make it for the final round of the competition.

Head judge Ian Consulta remarked that Miss Tan’s coffee put a smile on the faces of the judges.

Her cups of coffee were consistent in taste and precise in flavour and made lasting impressions, he said.

Her secret: Making every cup of coffee with love and sincerity.

She added: “It is the familiarity and connection that I’ve built with my coffee and my apparatus that helps me to achieve a good cup every time.”

Ms Tan said she plans to return to Tai- wan to train before the world championships.

Before discovering her love for coffee, she had planned to pursue a career related to her polytechnic course.

“Now I think my plans are starting to shift a bit and although I don’t know what the future holds, I’m sure that coffee will be a significant part of it.”

Back to the good old days with SG50 gelato

When Miss Sharon Tay was eight, she wanted to make her own ice cream. So she poured Ribena, Milo and even Horlicks into ice cube trays, dropping bits of fruit into the mix.

Today, her gelato creations are far more sophisticated and incorporate premium ingredients such as Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans and Barbados rum.

The former investment banker, 35, set up gelato shop Momolato at Singapore Management University last January and recently won an international gelato competition.

Miss Tay beat 15 other finalists to come in tops in the Asia-Pacific leg of the second edition of the Gelato World Tour.

Her gelato, Good Ol’ Days, contains coco- nut milk, palm sugar blends, salty ribbons of homemade palm sugar caramel and crispy flakes of caramelised tofu.

It was conceptualised as a nod to Singapore’s 50th birthday and took about a month to get right.

Miss Tay added that she also wanted to incorporate her childhood memories and to use ingredients Singaporeans could identify with.

“I thought this was the essence of Singapore,” she said.

Some 50,000 people turned up to taste 16 gelato flavours from the Asian Pacific region at the event, held from March 20 to 22 at the Marina Bay Sands.

Miss Tay was an investment banker for eight years before she quit to be an entrepreneur.

She said the realisation that she wanted to do something she loved came after putting in a 72-hour shift at her previous job.

Initially, her mother Madam Koh Siew Hua, 62, was shocked when her daughter told her about her decision, but she has come round and is now very supportive.

“My father even went to the World Tour to sample my gelato,” she said.

DELICIOUS: Miss Sharon Tay’s winning creation, Good Ol’ Days, alongside other treats including gelato macaroons and popsicles.

#interview #journalism #newspaper #photography