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today, watches the baristas finish their final day of picking. "One more week and then they'll be there," she says, indicating the amount of time it takes to become skilled at coffee picking. To the baristas' credit, their production increased each day of picking. Italian Barista Champion and founder and organizer of the Barista & Farmer project, Francesco Sanapo, instructs the baristas to stop picking and get ready for the final weigh-in. The "Italian Pickers," as they like to be called, hesitate. "To be honest, it's bittersweet [to leave the work behind]," says Giocomo Vanelli, one of the barista participants. Back at the mill, the rest of the day is broken into educational segments. There will be more competitions, classes, and lunch, but not necessarily in that order. Then three of the baristas will work with Roberto to process the freshly-picked coffee, while the others attend the Barista & Farmer "coffee academy" sessions where they'll delve more deeply into topics such as coffee sorting, cupping, and processing methods, and non-farm coffee work like roasting, latte art, espresso machine cleaning, and competition preparation. First, though: the weigh-in. The baristas line up with their bags of coffee as they wait for their turn at the scale. Since this is an integral part of the competition, you might think there would be anxiety among the baristas waiting to drop their bag on the scale. You would be wrong. Instead the whole progression is like a conga line. There's music—there's always music. Francesco acts as part emcee, part carnival barker, calling out the names and weights and encouraging more and more energy from the baristas. They are more than happy to oblige. The winner always ends up tackled by his or her peers in a massive hug, cheers and congratulations ring- ing out. Then the baristas will turn their attention to Roberto and Rebecca and smother them in a giant group hug, too. When multitime Italian champion barista Francesco Sanapo dreamed up the Barista & Farmer idea two years ago, he couldn't have imagined it would it turn out as well as it has. Francesco envisioned a program that would bring baristas face to face with the reality of working on a coffee farm. The baristas would learn firsthand about the story and the work behind the coffees they serve, and they would bring back that knowledge to share with their customers. There would also be some classes, some fun competitions, and of course, the whole thing would be captured on film. Francesco says it was important to film everything because, "It's a fast and direct way to explain what we do here. You can touch the passion of the guys through these videos." When Francesco made a call for participation in this inaugural Barista & Farmer event, he was amazed by the response. He had dozens of applications immediately. The prospective participants came from all over, but he quickly came to the conclusion that for the first run, at least, it would be easier to restrict the pool of applicants to his home country of Italy. He was still overwhelmed with the number of applications he received. This isn't a trip for fun, he warned them. "It's not a vacation," he says. "It's hard work." The baristas would have to pay their own airfare and cover some minimal expenses (for a total cost per barista of around 1700 EUR). Still, the baristas weren't dissuaded from applying. Eventually, he narrowed it down to 30 hopefuls, and then he interviewed them. Francesco looked for enthusiasm first and foremost, along with FIND OUT ABOUT COFFEE EVENTS IN YOUR AREA NEW CAFE OPENINGS AND INDUSTRY UPDATES ON OUR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER! follow us on Facebook at Barista Magazine follow us on twitter! @BARISTAMAGAZINE CHECK OUT TONS OF PHOTOS OF BARISTAS AND CAFÉS FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND SEND US PHOTOS AND NEWS FROM YOUR OWN CAFÉ! www.baristamagazine.com 33