A good day starts with a cup of coffee. I don't know when coffee has become a "charging treasure" for urban people. This past weekend, the Lujiazui Financial City International Coffee Culture Festival held on the green lawn of Lujiazui Center has become a grand event for senior coffee lovers in the magic capital, and its popularity was once bursting to the point of being restricted. Here, special flavors such as bayberry coffee and yellow jasmine coffee are concocted under the skillful hands of baristas, which is a new taste for the coffee party.
Stepping into the green space of Lujiazui Center, you will almost immediately be attracted by the colorful activities on the spot: food trucks, coffee specials to meet everyone's taste buds, coffee blind boxes, snare games to bring interesting experiences to citizens and tourists; you can also drink coffee, meet artists up close on the lawn, and enjoy the artistic atmosphere brought by theatrical performances.
However, the most eye-catching thing on the scene is the highlight of the coffee culture festival - the first OATLY "just pull flowers, not long" silent barista pull flower competition. Compared with the bustle of the coffee festival, the final team of 20 deaf and mute silent baristas is quiet and focused, and through professional techniques and modulation techniques, they have produced a cup full of whimsical pulling flowers for on-site consumers. After 3 rounds of wonderful duels, the winners were decided on the spot, and some citizens and tourists also tasted these works on the spot.
The relevant person of the organizer of the event told reporters that many coffee lovers in Shanghai will also try to experience a variety of latte courses, and it is timely to hold such an event in Shanghai. The early coffee pull flowers mainly focused on the presentation of patterns, but for professionals, the attention of coffee pull flowers is not only at the visual level, but also pays attention to the dense taste of milk and the way of integration, so as to present the expected effect on the overall taste of a cup of coffee, to achieve the so-called color, aroma and taste of the realm.
At present, coffee pulling is mainly divided into two processes: pulling flowers and carving. Pulling flowers is to pour milk with milk bubbles into espresso, so that the two kinds of foam are mixed to form a unique pattern; carving is to use coffee to pull flower needles, and use excess milk bubbles or chocolate sauce to outline more delicate graphics on the surface of the coffee, such as more complex character faces or cartoon character patterns.
All over the world, coffee pulling is an essential skill in today's competitions. Among them, there are many professional coffee books in Europe, the United States and Japan, all of which introduce the basic technology of "Latte Art", and many coffee-related books use coffee pulling as a professional symbol of the cover, which shows the importance and professionalism of latte technology in the coffee industry.
In addition to the highly ornamental coffee pulling competition, the strong coffee aroma and various novelty coffees at the exhibition site are also unforgettable. For example, the two special tones brought by the silent barista on the spot, one of which focuses on the sour and sweet taste of bayberry, is called "'Plum' Sound", which is an interpretation of the quiet life, and the grapefruit juice integrated into it brings a rich layer, cold brew and coffee collide with a wonderful chemical reaction, and then mix a little wine, the aftertaste is long; yellow skin jasmine uses cold brew and coffee as the base, mixing the unique fragrance of yellow peel juice and jasmine fragrance, bringing wonderful changes in the mouth, and people who have tasted it are full of praise. Some coffee lovers lamented: "The world of baristas is silent, but they bring people a 'colorful world'". ”
In order to facilitate coffee lovers to communicate with silent baristas, the silent barista sign language dictionary was also released for the first time at the scene of the lahua competition. In the sign language dictionary, you can see many practical words: latte, hair, baking... Clear and easy-to-understand vocabulary explanations, accompanied by sign language illustrations for concrete demonstrations, become a bridge between coffee lovers and silent baristas.
It is reported that from 2020, this professional barista training for hearing impaired youth has been launched, and it has obtained a certificate issued by the world's professional coffee organization SCA. In order to facilitate the silent barista to communicate with the guests, the organizers have also developed a special order system and a coffee sign language manual. As of September this year, the project has trained 73 silent baristas, covered 10 cities, and successfully helped more than 20 silent baristas find stable jobs.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Li Baohua Text Editor: Li Baohua
Source: Author: Li Baohua