23 competitors kicked off day 1 of the World Barista Championship and although Heather Perry was not one of them (she competes tomorrow) this does not mean that she had a relaxing day watching her fellow competitors duke it out. When we caught up with Heather to talk to her about day 1, she said it was “bad, very bad.”

First, the grinder that Heather carried all the way to Tokyo from California died not just once but twice today. Luckily, some skilled baristas were more than willing to help out their fellow competitor. The Swedish team had a crack at fixing the problem, and though it seemed to work for a while, the grinder later had problems that the Japanese engineers may or may not have worked out. “I’ve been working with the Compak grinder I won at USBC all week” Heather told us, “so if I end up using that grinder, I think I’ll be okay.”

However, things were further complicated when Heather found out that her practice time had been changed from 8 am tomorrow morning to 3:30 p.m. today… at 3:45. Luckily, this did not phase Heather and like the true champion she is, she practiced within the time she was given.

Team Klatch won’t reveal any secrets about the special milk or cream that Heather will be using during her performance time tomorrow, but we can report that they are still concerned about the Nitrous Oxide machine she has to use, and how that affects the her signature drink, which relies heavily on the texture of what comes out of the canister. “It just doesn’t get firm enough,” says Heather, who’s working on a solution.

One thing’s for sure: if anyone can handle all these curve balls it’s a seasoned pro like Heather. When we asked her how this year’s competition compares to the last WBC she competed in (in 2003) she says the skill and knowledge level of the baristas has evolved tremendously. She says she as a competitor has evolved even more than the competition itself. Sounds to us like that means she has a good chance of taking home the gold!

Check back tomorrow for an update on how Heather’s performance went, and for the announcement of the 6 finalists! Good luck Heather!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Day 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.