Leva Contest

LEVA CONTEST, also back for this edition of Triestespresso Expo!

Leva Contest & Leva Sensory Contest

How to highlight human-machine interaction?

Leva Contest is the answer!

Leva Contest is a competition devised by Francesco Costanzo and the Association of Neapolitan Espresso Masters to highlight the skills of the barista.

In two separate competitions, both the speed of execution and the quality combined with the technology of La San Marco machines, which have always been linked to the image of the bar and espresso, will be assessed.

The Leva Contest is open to teams of two.

Each team will have to prepare as many coffees as possible with a lever machine within one hour.

At Triestespresso Expo, speed will be combined with quality thanks to the new Leva Sensory Contest, a competition devised by Francesco Costanzo and the Association of Masters of Neapolitan Espresso, where each competitor will have to extract three double-filtered brews corresponding to 6 espresso coffees of the highest possible quality with a lever machine in a maximum time of 15 minutes.

Complete regulations and entry form are available at this link

In the last edition, the Trieste-based couple Alice Cernecca and Ebe Sai Crescente beat the world record of Neapolitans Francesco Costanzo and Francesco Arcella.

Trieste triumphs at home in the Leva Contest and breaks the world record with the pair formed by Alice Cernecca and Ebe Sai Crescente. The previous record was held by the Neapolitan duo formed by Francesco Costanzo and Francesco Arcella with 703 espresso coffees extracted in one hour and was unbeaten since 2019 after their performance in Piazza del Municipio in Naples. The splendid result was surpassed by the two girls from Trieste with a new record of 714 cups drawn in one hour. The competition witnessed outstanding performances by many teams that were often able to come close to the existing record, and then beat it at the last gasp with the two young new winners.

‘We did not expect such a result,’ said Alice Cernecca and Ebe Sai Crescente, ’and it was a great satisfaction, we were aiming to beat the other women in the competition and maybe some boys but not the world record. However, we are well trained because we already work with a lever machine with an average of four kilos of coffee per day’.

Francesco Costanzo, holder of the previous record and organiser of the Leva Contest, is ready to challenge the winners again, ‘I am very happy, already halfway through the competition we sensed that the challenge was set in the right way. However, we are ready for next year when we will try to regain the title. To be beaten by two women was a wonderful thing anyway and I recommend that they enjoy the record because we are ready for a rematch.

Similarly, the Leva Sensory quality extraction competition saw respectable results, highlighting the growing passion for the Leva machine extraction technique. The winner was Robert Brinck from Tuscany, who was able to extract three pairs of top-quality espresso. ‘It went well,’ said the winner, ‘also because with Simone Celli we experimented and worked with these machines. In the various tests we realised that the type of coffee required a very low pressure and this was the decisive element in winning.

All races saw the use of La San Marco machines and grinders, while the coffees were respectively supplied by Antica Tostatura Triestina for the speed race and Lucaffè for the sensory race.