Barista Magazine

JUN-JUL 2012

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She was smitten with coffee from the first, and pursued it tenaciously; translation: she entered the very first New Zealand Barista Championship and won. Emma's not hungover—let's make that clear. She's just been here, or in this kind of 'here', i.e. an international gathering of coffee professionals half a world away from her home base of New Zealand, countless times before. Now, I'm not implying she's tired of the lifestyle; Emma loves it all, and bounces through barista competitions, trade shows, conferences, and workshops in settings like this from Switzerland to Italy to Colombia to Japan to the States with all the gusto of one of the industry's most dedicated, not to mention beloved, veterans. Which she is. But can't we agree that it's exhausting? Emma seconds the notion. She's rallied this morning to meet with some friends to get away from the heart of the city of Portland to visit some vineyards in the Oregon countryside with a handful of coffee friends. She's happy to be here, really. She just needs some coffee for heaven's sake. Emma spent the week in Portland running the marathon that is assist- ing with events and workshops; she had, in total, an hour to walk the show floor. Besides that, she was volunteering hard, endlessly, and enjoying it immensely. It's what she's been doing professionally for years. Hailing from Greenwich ("as in Mean Time, " she quips) in the UK, Emma grew up all over the place, as her father served in the Royal En- gineers. She met, fell in love with and traveled the world with her now husband, Phil, in her late teens, and they ended up in New Zealand for good around their mid-20s. Emma didn't, in fact, discover coffee really at all until she moved to New Zealand and landed her first barista job, along- side a woman who would become a lifelong coffee colleague and all-around friend, Jessica Godfrey. "This was back in the days of the bowl latte, oh how I cringe, " says Emma of the time she and Jessica worked at Dixon Street Deli in Wellington as baristas. "The coffee was delivered freshly roasted daily and was often still warm. We have all learnt and moved on from those days," she says, adding mischievously, "we also had a very special caramel roast…" Emma is flat out hilarious; she's the kind of person that would make you consider yourself lucky if she was in the elevator with you if that eleva- tor jammed and got stuck. She' d keep you laughing, keep everyone calm, and be voted the hero of the group when the fire department finally came. That's Emma. She was smitten with coffee from the first, and pursued it tenaciously; translation: she entered the very first New Zealand Barista Championship and won. Emma traveled to Oslo, Norway, on her lonesome to represent New Zealand at the World Barista Championship (WBC) in 2002. Looking back on it, she can't help but laugh at the differences between the WBC in its third year, and where the competition is today. "I had my Mini Mazzer with me from New Zealand, but the power was a bit different so I ended up using Team Sweden's Mini Mazzer. I know—can you imagine waiting for a mini or even using a Mini Mazzer in a competition?" Emma's come a long way since that competition (she did make the fi- nals, let's not forget), but she's remained a force in coffee ever since. She's a longstanding member of Team New Zealand, which simply means that she helps however she can with the national champ's efforts in the WBC; she's a WBC-certified judge and has been for a decade; she's worked for New Zea- land roasteries around the country, and trained baristas for 10+ years. She currently works for the New Zealand Coffee Roasters Association as Event Planner, and also runs her own consultancy business, called—amusingly, of course, since this is Emma—Monster Trucks. Far too humble to say it herself, Emma is one of New Zealand's, not to mention the international barista community's, stars. Her leadership and no-nonsense nature and work ethic have played a direct role in the suc-

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