Signature?

One of the great debates that often rears up at this time of year (middle of competition season) is surrounding signature drinks in competitions. There is a serious school of thought that runs along the lines of "Well you would never serve them in your cafe, so what is the relevance of a signature drink in a competition other than "Show-Ponying"?"

To respond to this statement/ question, I think it is important to understand what the WBC format (among many other things) can help Baristas achieve. Making any of the three courses of drinks for the format, requires the understanding of one key phrase... "A Harmonious balance between sweetness,bitterness and acidity". This is one of the more difficult skills of building any blend/ coffees/ sig bevs for the WBC format. It is relatively easy to find and make great tasting espresso's and espresso based signature styled drinks, but the difficulty of making good competition drinks is found in two areas. Firstly attaining the balance, and secondly being able to reproduce it.

Its fair to say it took a while to sink in as to what made a good signature drink, but this sure looked pretty! This photo was taken so long ago that it was actually in black and white and the colour had to be hand painted on!

A successful signature drink in my experience will in no way mask or disguise any of the properties of an espresso, rather is will work fluidly with an espresso's nuances to produce a drink that has harmoniously expanded all facets of a coffees flavour profile without diminishing the significance of the espressos flavour dominance.

It is in this last point that the relevance of the signature drink is apparant. It is not about making a "yummy drink" (although by nature a good signature drink will always taste good), rather the importance is in the baristas ability to understand their coffee, and the ability to consistantly reproduce it. No barista who does not understand the complexities of their coffee, will ever make a truly great signature drink. I have seen many a competition where judges have been forced to consume some of the most ghaslty concoctions you might imagine. Drinks that are heinously sweet or strong or (and this is always funny to watch) full of chilli! Whenever those drinks appear, it is clear that the barista does not yet understand their espresso.

By the time WBC Seattle 2005 rolled around I has started (...just started...) to grasp the concept of how to build a great signature drink.

An analagy might work something like this. You search high and low for a nice car, you know exactly what you want from it, how it should look and drive. One sunny afternoon you find it. A stunning Ferrari Enzo sits waiting for you to take her home. A stunning car with many quirks that make it so distinctive. You can still put some touches on it to make it a little more personalized, say some custom seats, maybe even a new paint job, but you would NEVER put on 22" chromed spinners with 4x4 Mud Tyres and a spoiler from a Toyota Corolla. All things in balance!

To achieve this takes time, and building a great signature drink can be really enjoyable, but I cannot emphasise enough that it needs to start and end with the flavours of the espresso. I have learnt a huge amount about some of the coffees that I have used over the years through the evolutionary process of building signature drinks. I never start with ingredients I would like to use, or even have a process in mind to make the drink, the starting point is always with cupping/ tasting of the coffee/ blend and a detailed understanding of it descriptors and flavours. From that point I start assembling options to construct the drink. While sometimes you strike gold early, the norm is for a drink to constantly evolve throughout the whole training process. It is not uncommon to have drinks move through >50 evolutions and ingredients and processes are refined, added or removed.

A great signature drink should always start with the simplest ingredient. The coffees.

Signature drinks offer a unique and inviting glance into the deepest nuances a coffee can offer. They should never be the main focus of a competition, but they are a great "eye" into the heart of a coffee, and a great medium for baristas to express their understanding of their coffees.

Viva la Signature!