First things first, your connections are most important. They want to see how you "live Starbucks' mission and values". Smile and chat with whoever is grading you, make jokes. And if you notice you slip up, ADMIT IT and CORRECT yourself; that counts for a lot. You also definitely don't have to do latte art; that only counts as a single point if I remember correctly! That being said, this year's championship is focusing on the shaken espresso so come up with something different and special and you shouldn't have to worry! If you do have to do any sort of latte, choose a flat white and just perfect the dot. If you wanna come across really talented, perfect it with an alternative milk (soy or oat are the easiest). Go above and beyond learning about the coffees and their origins. If you make it to district level, you'll have to do a coffee tasting. Make something. Don't use Starbucks food. They want to know how you and other people can incorporate Starbucls coffee in everyday life. Choose a coffee you like (or at least can stand to drink) and look up the notes for it on Partner Hub and go from there. For example, I used Papua New Guinea and told them about how that's the coffee that got me into coffee. It was the first one that tasted really different from all the others and it got me looking for the notes in other coffees to try and learn more about them. I paired it with homemade Chammomile Vanilla Tea Cookies with Lemon, because the coffee has subtle tea and citrus flavors. No matter what, just be yourself and have fun!