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by Travis Riley A LONG-HAIRED MAN WITH GLASSES and a striped shirt serves me dark liquid in a glass tumbler. It could easily be an Old Fashioned, but floating in the drink are two ice cubes, one orange and one purple, and this isn't a cocktail—it's 11 in the morning. Taking a sip of the sparkling liquid, flavors of tangerine and lavender parlay on my tongue with a rich and elegant smokiness. I look down at the score sheet in front of me: "Part III—Signature Beverage Evaluation." At a barista competition, each competitor must prepare three different categories of drink for the judges: an espresso, a cappuccino, and a signature beverage. The elaborate ice cube concoction was of this third, experimental category: a signature beverage conjured by Jason Gonzalez for the Southwest heats of the 2013 U.K. Barista Championships (and produced for my sensory delight as I mock-judged his rehearsal presentations—life can be hard sometimes). Described in the World Barista Championship (WBC) rules as a "freestyle espresso-based beverage," the signature drink is usually deemed the hardest part of the competition to get right. It's not at all easy to source a good coffee and extract consistently exquisite espresso, and it takes plenty of skill to make four rich and delicious cappuccinos. But in these categories, the target is more tangible. The question of what makes a good signature drink is more abstract. Besides the "espresso-based" caveat, the www.baristamagazine.com 67