UK Barista Championship results announced

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB">Jana Slamova, a barista from contract caterer, Baxter Storey has picked up third place at the finals of the UK Barista Championship, the first time that anyone from a company outside the dedicated specialist coffee trade has achieved such a high position.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB">Slamova is head barista at the contract caterer's GE Capital site in London and also trains baristas in Baxter Storey's internal coffee academy.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB">Her colleague, Don Altizo finished in seventh place, just missing a place in the final by just three points.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB">The annual contest in which the "hippest" of the speciality coffee trade compete for the British title battle it out for the opportunity to compete for the world barista championship.<?xml:namespace prefix = "u5" /?> <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB">Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood of the Colonna and Smalls coffee house in Bath, lifted the national title for the third time, while Dale Harris of Has Bean, the Staffordshire roaster came in second.