Q & A with Pete Licata

Q: How long have you been a barista?

A: I’ve been a barista for 8 years. I started when I was going to college and needed a part time job in Kansas City.

Q: How long have you been competing?

 A: I’ve been competing for 6 years now. I kind of went with it and explored it a bit and it’s become a huge part of my life. I started doing it and did really well my first year, which was encouraging. I think when people don’t do well their first year they get discouraged, and they’re not as likely to keep going with it.

Q: What brought you to Hawaii?

A: I moved to Hawaii in 2009 to work [at Honolulu Coffee Company] and I didn’t compete that year because I was still settling in and still trying to catch my bearings.

Q: What is your role at the Honolulu Coffee Company?

A: What isn’t my role there. I do a lot of work with our wholesale accounts. My title on my card is coffee quality manager and head barista training. And I’m in charge of designing the layout of our new stores and tasting coffee. Right now, I’m basically a warehouse and production manager and just all this stuff. Apparently, I’m good at a lot of little things, but not the best at anything.

Q: What is you concept this year in the contest?

A: I said I was going to stop competing several times now. It’s a lot of stress, it’s a lot of work, and there’s not a lot of pay off sometimes.

I told myself the only way I would compete again is if I go and pick the coffee myself and do the whole thing myself, which is what this year.

So I can firmly say that after this year of competition is over, I will not be competing ever again because there is nothing more for me to really do.

Q: Is this how you came to use Kona coffee?

A: Last year, I wanted to get some espresso for the competition and make it all Hawaiian. And so we had a coffee from Maui and a coffee from Kona—Kona for the balance, and Maui for the mouth feel.

But this year, I needed a higher grown coffee that was at a higher elevation, which tends to make more acidity and more vibrant flavors in a coffee, so we ended up at Waiono Meadows coffee farm.

Q: How was experience going through the entire process from fruit to espresso?

A: Everyone that I talked to and told my concept to has been very supportive and willing to help out.

It’s much more precious when you actually experience it.

We went up to [Waiono Meadows] and it was beautiful, just gorgeous. And that’s the way coffee is supposed to grow—at a higher elevation, it ripens more evenly, and has big juicy cherries on the tree—it’s just awesome.

It’s been and eye opening and just an amazing experience overall and I really appreciated it.

Q: How much coffee did you come away with?

A: For this competition, we picked 250 lbs of coffee cherry, and it got me just maybe 50 lbs of roasted coffee total, and it’s like—that’s a lot of work for that amount.

Q: Why Kona?

A: Hawaiian coffee hasn’t necessarily been considered a really highly rated coffee because it doesn’t have that acidity, that vibrancy. What it tends to be a sweet and smooth and non-offensive.

But what I say is that it’s a great coffee for people to start drinking if they’re not used to some of the other things. I think we’ve been doing things in Hawaii kind of the same way, but now we’re really trying to push envelope and the industry forward in Hawaii and people are seeing that.

Q: What was it like preparing for the SW Regional Barista Competition this year?

A: I had four days to get ready for this competition, I did five runs through the actual talk speech and the whole presentation, and that’s it. You go through it in your head and you kind of organize things in your head better, you know what to expect and try to account for it by preparation opposed to trial and error.

Especially in competition, it comes down to experience—you know a lot of what you need and what you don’t need.

When I first started doing this, I would go through that whole routine of competition like 2 or 3 months beforehand in preparation.

Q: So what are your plans now?

A: I figured I’m here for at least a while longer, I have a great connection with the industry, coffee and people there and that’s wonderful. At some point, I’ll move away somewhere. But for now, I’m here.

Q & A with Row Aczon

Q: How long have you been a barista?

A: I’ve been a barista for about seven years now and never really was a passion at first for me. I didn’t think I was going to get into coffee at all.

I felt like my barista skills were at their peak two years ago when I was just working at the coffee shop (Honolulu coffee co.)

Q: How long have you been competing?

A: I competed for the first time last year. It really opened my eyes to what was out in the coffee industry and now I know I have more forward even more.

Now, competing has become one of my passions. It’s crazy, I never would have thought that before. And having Pete help me out has definitely pushed me forward a lot faster than if I would’ve done it on my own. He’s a big part of why I’m here right now, if it wasn’t for him, I honestly probably wouldn’t be out here.

Q: What made you decide to use Kona coffee?

A: The reason I want to use Kona coffee is because its from Hawaii, mainly, and I want to represent. Last year, I used coffee from other countries, but I want to stick to something that we are still perfecting.

Q: Do you feel like Kona coffee is a contender in barista competitions?

A: Over the years, I’ve heard Kona coffee has been looked down upon by other countries as not being a complex enough coffee for somebody to serve by itself, but I think that’s totally false. I feel like we can still move forward with Kona coffee, and I’m glad to be a part of it and putting it out there and letting everybody know that it is more complex than it seems.

Q: What sets certain coffee apart from the rest?

A: I think it all depends on presentation. Like for my presentation, I did different roast profiles to bring out different complexities. So you can do that or use a different processing method to bring out complexity of the coffee. And I think that Kona coffee, especially from Waiono meadows with the high elevation, it is one of the most complex Kona coffees out there—in tasting and quality.

Q: Roast profiles, what do you mean exactly?

A: When you’re roasting there’s a first and a second crack—with the lighter roast, we hit the second crack and dropped it about five seconds after we heard the second crack. With the darker roast, we dropped it about 25 seconds-30 seconds after the second crack. That’s the main difference and it made a substantial amount of change in the actual taste profile—it brought out a lot of sweetness. Like today, when I pulled a shot on stage for my prep time, that was probably the best shot I’ve tasted of the coffee.

Q: Do you think you will stay with Hawaii coffee in future competitions?

A: Honestly, I want to explore in the islands, I want to keep it Hawaii, just like what Pete is doing, but I may take a different turn, who knows.

Q: For you signature drink, you paired the coffee with a slice of pineapple and a piece of chocolate, both from Hawaii. What was the purpose of that?

A: My concept was varietals so I went to a chocolate festival the day before we left to taste all these different chocolates, and I wanted to get chocolate that was grown and processed in Hawaii, and it just so happened that the most complex yet subtle chocolate that I found was just south of Waiono meadows. So the chocolate was the sweetness and the pineapple was the acidity.

Q: If you were a judge, what would you look for?

A: Mainly, if it has well-roundedness, that’s what makes a good espresso. Something that has a nice body, is sweet, and should have acidity.

Just being more intimate with your actual coffee for sure give you a better chance, depending on how well you put it out there. So next year, I will hopefully be able to prepare a lot earlier.

Q: You helped Pete pick his coffee for the competition, what was your experience through that process?

A: What really opened my eyes was being out there and realizing what the farmers and pickers have to go through in maintaining that quality just blows my mind. Like one wrong bean can ruin the whole batch, and that really excited me, so the next chance I go out there, I’m going to be very, very particular about what I get. No matter how long it takes, because my picking skills are very expensive.

Q: Are you planning on competing in the future?

A: At first, for this competition I felt really unprepared, and I’m sure everyone feels that way coming into it. I love the fact that you’re nervous the whole week before hand and after stepping off the stage, you want to do it again. There’s so many things I want to do better—everybody feels that way. And it’s always awesome to share that passion you have with other people.