Winner of 2022 BM Caterers Barista Championship revealed

Natasha Boshoff has been crowned winner of BM's (Bartlett Mitchell) barista championship (BMBC) 2022, which was held at Brentford Community Stadium on 29 July.

Boshoff joined the contract catering company as an area manager and has been an operations manager since April, overseeing numerous BM sites across the South East.

The judges were impressed by the close attention she paid to the taste profiles of her drinks.

Speaking to The Caterer on her win, Boshoff said: "I'm actually over the moon. It's a surprise as well, because obviously I'm not a barista, but I entered to support my team. I can now taste the flavours of espresso, so I've learned a lot throughout this experience and made new friends and that's all that our company is about."

She beat five other candidates, all of whom were tasked with delivering 12 drinks in 15 minutes.

Prior to the final, competitors had to make four beverages in seven minutes (two single espressos and two single shot-based milk beverages) during the first round, and six beverages in 10 minutes in the second.

The BMBC was launched in 2018 to celebrate BM's coffee partnerships as well as Perkee, BM's premium coffee brand, which was developed in collaboration with Nicaraguan-based co-operative Soppexcca in 2016.

The judging panel for the BMBC included members of BM's senior team, partners Lofbergs and Extract Coffee Roasters.

Miguel Camara, Head of Coffee & Tea from BM said: "It's incredible to be able to get back to these events after recent difficult times. The most astonishing thing to me was the quality and the calibre of the competitors this year. Our coffee is in good hands."

The full list of finalists is below:

• Natasha Boshoff
• Dominic Perry
• Sandor Kovacs
• Bryan Calixto
• Csilla Kelecz
• Nikki Napdor

BM Caterers was established by Wendy Bartlett and Ian Mitchell in 2000 and has since grown to over 1,000 employees who provide catering across 95 locations.