The judges came closer as they carefully examined the vivid latte art in each of the cups.
Judging from the appearance, they all looked amazingly satisfying and delicious! They came in the forms of little hearts and cute leaves.
One of the cups then caught everyone's attention. It had six tiny hearts in the middle and a dozen smaller hearts on the outline. It was truly a very talented presentation.
Lola wrote down the contestant's number: No.16. The same contestant also had another cup, with a drawing of a cute little panda bear. She fell for it straightaway.
After Lola carefully examined every cup, she then started to taste them.
Contestant No.16's cups won her heart both in terms of presentation and taste.
Each judge had now made up their mind and decided their scores. The second part of the competition now followed.
Now, the challenge was brewing. It mainly examined the taste created by each contestant's brewing skills.
The contestants were allowed to use their own coffee beans for the brewing; in top competitions like this one, they were supposed to only use Geisha beans.
Many contestants would spend tens of thousands only on practicing with Geisha beans for the contest; it was quite difficult to win the challenge.
This section was not Lucas' s strong point. Based on his financial status, he did not have the chance to practice with the expensive coffee beans. Right now, he could only rely on his own experience and skills.
He looked very concentrated on the stage. The way he measured the water temperature and bean quantity was very professional. Deep down inside her, Lola thought highly of him.
Harry noticed that Lola had been watching Lucas since the very beginning, and he was not very pleased by the fact. He now had made up his mind that he would definitely not vote for Lucas.
Lucas was still indulged in his own work, and little did he know that he had already unintentionally crossed Harry.
The third section of the match was the final one. The challenge consisted of brewing the original flavor.
Nothing else was supposed to be added to the coffee. The judges were looking for a unique and authentic taste of only pure coffee beans.
The taste needed to be smooth and rich, perfect.
If the contestant did not manage to bring the authentic flavor out of the beans, the cup would end up being bitter and unappealing to taste.
Fifteen minutes later, all the contestants had to stop. All of the freshly ground coffee beans were brought forward to the judges.
Contestant No. 10 was a guy that came from Germany, who had spent over a decade on studying coffee beans. The coffee he made brought smiles on the judges' faces. They could not stop praising his excellent work.
After tasting all of the freshly ground coffee beans, the judges returned to their seats. They exchanged opinions with each other, and Lola had similar thoughts with those of the Italian judge that sat next to her.
Harry felt slightly annoyed as Lola was trying so hard to support Contestant No. 16, the big boy whom in his eyes was not even a fully-grown man.
Five minutes later, all the judges had cast their votes. Lola saw what Harry wrote on his board and was not pleased by it at all.
She pinched him hard on his arm underneath the table. In this way, she successfully forced him to write number 16 instead of number 10.
Lola then nodded her head with satisfaction. She could not be impartial, because deep down inside her, she wished that Lucas would win the competition. His coffee was, indeed, very inviting.
Lucas, on the other hand, did not fail her with his extraordinary skills. If he did a bad job on the stage, she certainly would not have voted for him.
The result of the competition was published pretty soon. Contestants No. 10 and No. 16 both ranked first place, while Contestant No. 23 from England ranked second.
Therefore, an extra game was called for to settle the tie between the two. Contestant No. 10 and No. 16 were required to make a cappuccino on the spot.
At 11 o'clock sharp, several cappuccinos were brought for the judges.
They tasted them carefully one by one and then carefully decided their votes.
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