Irn Bru espresso is not our cup of tea

Barista Championships are tough and unforgiving places full of bearded men and tattooed women. Wearing sunglasses indoors is like so ten years ago; it's the woollen hat brigade now. Everyone can pour milk into the shape of a swan on a bicycle scaling a scaffold on St Paul's Cathedral, so to stand out, to separate oneself from the masses, one must achieve the impossible - invent something new.

Necessity is, of course, the mother of invention. Desperation also does the trick. Daniel Todd can attest to that. Daniel was seventeen when he attended the Lever Barista Championships in Edinburgh. It was here that he invented his signature coffee. Daniel wowed the judges with his blasphemous creation and even managed to claim second place in the competition. We're not sure which is worse - the fact that he added Irn Bru to an espresso, or that he was rewarded for doing so.

Daniel is a first year Physics student in Edinburgh, but he travels home at weekends to work in Brodies in Linlithgow. Margaret Moyies, the owner, is so proud of her barista's "totally Scottish coffee" that she's put it on the menu. Brilliant. Linlithgow is a bit of a trek just to try a bad coffee, so we considered forking out 52p on a can of pop and trying Daniel's abomination. Then we decided not to bother.

We also considered a "totally Southern England" version, but we couldn't decide whether to use matcha green tea powder or elderflower breath.

One would hope that Daniel knuckles down with his studies now, puts his Physics degree to good use, and leaves the coffee industry alone. Bad news - Daniel's next step is to create a Jager Bomb version of his drink. Good news - that really shouldn't take him very long.