World Barista Championships

admin

Hi guys - I realise it's a while out, but because it's in London, thought I'd put in the dates for this year's WBC well in advance.

The 11th Annual World Barista Championship will be held within the Caffe Culture show in Olympia Exhibition Centre, in London from June 23-25.  

There will be national champions of over 50 countries at this year's event, so it's going to be a big one.

Please indicate your interest here - if we get enough people, I'm wondering if it might even be worth approaching an airline for a group rate; anyway let's see first how many people might be interested in going...

A

admin

forgot to mention: here is the link, for those that are interested: http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/2010-the-event

DoubleRistretto

Hi Admin - I'd like to go - am just investigating my finances; then see if i can get the time off work!

admin

Sounds good DR - my understanding is we need about 10 to qualify for a group rate, so will see how we go! A

admin

Hi guys - the World Barista Champs site advises there are a number of hotels offering accommodation specials in London, in time for the champs - see: http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/2010-the-event/travel-information

admin

also, thought it would be worth mentioning that entry is free if you pre-register online - see link:  www.caffeculture.com/register

admin

Good news - Phil Walker, a barista from Adelaide will be filling us in on happenings in London related to the upcoming champs - keep tuned! A

Unknown

Hi folks, Phil here in London, and despite my best intentions, I'm writing this after a little more time had passed between arriving than I had intended. My apologies, but hopefully the next couple of weeks will prove to more than make up for that. Firstly, there is but a dull murmur around London right now, and especially in Square Mile account cafes, as their current delivery boy John Gordon (A Gold Coaster by origin) is also current UKBC, so there is a special sense of anticipation for the WBC in a little over a week. Unfortunately the presence of Square Mile in London has caused some animosity, and this is set to continue, as their approach to quality and service is unheard of here. Many London based roasters (and there are a great many) prefer the slightly more typical approaches to both roasting and customer service, and so the present Square Mile attitude of roasting well and greeting people seems alien to many.

Unknown

Now I realise that this shameless free plug for Square Mile might suggest that I am biased, and I won't deny this, but their incredible sense of energy and enthusiasm for this championship and also for the UKBC has forced many to recognise what an important event this is for London. It was only a few years ago that there was one good coffee shop and this was Flat White in Soho, with sister shop Milk Bar also doing valuable work. Now there's as good a chance of finding a good coffee nearby as there was a bad one anywhere a few years ago. As there aren't very many international baristi yet, I will only comment that in the next week I will try and speak to as many as possible. In the meantime I will add a link for a Flickr account, for photos of both cafes and faces worth seeing. More soon, Phil

askthecoffeeguy

nice one phil thanks for the update look forward to finding out a bit more about the london scene - melbourne is taking off with a coffee explosion! surely its only a matter of time before the rest of the world follows suit? ACg

admin

HI guys - well it's starting at last - judges' calibration and barista meet and greet took place yesterday [last night] and first round of the actual comp tonight... Scottie and Luciano Marcolino [of NZ] are on tonight; looks like Australian John Gordan of Square Mile [see Phil's earlier post] will follow at 10th time slot... A

admin

congrat's to Scottie for getting through to the semis - list of semi-finalists as follows: Soren Stiller Markussen, DENMARK Raul Rodas, GUATEMALA Fabrizio Sencion, MEXICO Kyle Straw, CANADA Ana Lucia Hawit, HONDURAS Michael Phillips, USA Scottie Callaghan, AUSTRALIA Yara Castanho, BRAZIL Thomas Schweiger, GERMANY Colin Harmon, IRELAND Alejandro Mendez, EL SALVADOR Stefanos Domatiotis, GREECE

Unknown

Hi folks, Phil here again, and the last couple of days has seen many baristi arriving, finding milk and trying to practice on any machinery that was made available to them. Raul from Guatemala was in at Square Mile practicing, as was the Norwegian team, and there were several visits from Klaus Thomsen, Cindy Chang and many others. The Russian girls were at Present with Gwilym, Scottie bashed around at Columbia Rd., and when there weren't people racing around and practicing, people were paying regular trips to cafes. Penny University, the recently opened Square Mile brew bar in Shoreditch, saw many visitors from around the world.

Unknown

The first day of competition saw a few favorites gather crowds, including John Gordon from the UK and Michael Phillips from the US. Scottie was fortunately, or unfortunately, pushed to this morning, but given the higher temperatures late yesterday afternoon, he might have been fortunate to be competing first thing this morning with a fresh panel of judges and a little more rest. Many interesting signature drinks and methods, including Colin Harmon preaching on the virtues of quality water and the qualities of water for a sig drink, and Scottie continuing to wrench the judges away from their safe highchairs to gaze longingly at his cardamon. Both techniques seemed to have worked. The afternoon of the first day of competition was becoming a bit tedious for some, as the great glass spans of the Olympia hall provided little shade from the delightful London summer sun. As such, many who had been visiting in the morning left for the comfort of a pub and some football.

Unknown

Rob Forsyth represented Australia in his signature cavalier style, using (Again) monsoon malabar (Pre ground, and probably from the same guys he commandeered it from last time) amongst other coffees, to display typical Ibrik coffee which included a stockwhip. Unfortunately, I'd spent most of my time around the Barista side of things, but was glad to hear Will placed second in Latte Art and Fiefy, representing Thailand, but working in Adelaide, scored a 5th. Cupping tomorrow! Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peedubblyu/ Phil

admin

Hi guys - waiting to get a full update from Phil, but looks like Michael Phillips, the US entrant is the winner this year; looks like Scottie came third! cheers A

Koffee_Kosmo

Congratulations Mike Phillips (USA), the 2010 World Barista Champion! ThumbsUp Final Results: Michael Phillips (USA) 706 points Raul Rodas (Guatemala) 691 points Scottie Callaghan (Australia) 672.5 points Colin Harmon (Ireland) 659.5 points Soren Stiller Markussen (Denmark) 644.5 points Stefanos Domatiotis (Greece) 632 points The latte art competition has been run and completed It was a close fought competition with very little separating the top 6 Final results 1st Japan - Haruna Murayama 2nd Australia - Will Priestley 3rd Sweden - Sebastian Ryberg 4th Netherlands - Claudie Donderwinkel 5th Thailand - Sineenart (Fiefy) Anuwatanaphorn 6th Germany - Sebastian L

blanyon

Seems like Australia won the overall comp so that makes it official we are the best coffee nation on earth!!!

admin

3rd in Barista Finals & second in Latte Art is great, congrats to both Scottie and Will! A PS don't forget to read OE's comments in Postcard from London in the Off Topic board, as he was one of the Australians there on the day.

takeaim

Australia won the best coffee nation title as it's based on the ranking of all 5 competitions. Scottie finished 3rd in the barista comp Will Priestley finished 2nd in the latte art comp Jonny Pisanelli finished 6th in the cup tasting comp Mitchell Faulkner finished 4th in the good spirits comp and Rob Forsyth finished 12th in the Cezve/Ibrik (turkish coffee) comp So overall Australia finished as top of all nations that entered a competitor in each comp.

admin

hi mate - that's great, thanks!

askthecoffeeguy

nice one guys thanks for the update and congrats to Scottie on coming 3rd in the world! and apparently Australia is the 'most improved' coffee nation - whatever that means! Cheers, ACg

admin

Hi guys - Emily Oak was at the WBC in London - you can see her update on the Crema home page www.cremamagazine.com.au! cheers A

Koffee_Kosmo

Does anyone have the results of the Cezve/Ibrik (turkish coffee) comp As I cant find any info on it ? A Greek lass one last year KK

blanyon

All the results can be found here http://www.scae-championships.com/blog/ The UK won this year. Cheers Brett

admin

Hi guys - just to let you know, Scottie has agreed to make a couple of posts on his experiences in preparing for and competing in the WBC - hopefully in the next couple of days. will keep you posted! A

SC

I wasn't planning on competing again. But last year in October I was watching the NSW barista championship and helping out and I wanted to be one of the competitors, 9 months later I found myself standing in the finals of the World Barista Championship. It seems like years since I made that decision to compete again, I guess that explains how intense the last nine months has been and also how relaxed I was when it was finally all over, relaxed but also elated at making the top six and slightly disappointed with just missing out on the top spot. That said Mike Philips is a great guy, an awesome barista and an excellent choice to represent specialty coffee and more importantly I tasted his coffee the day after the finals. For those who don't know Mikes coffee was from a farm in Costa Rica Copa Dota and they picked his coffee and processed his coffee 3 different ways for Mike for the worlds and it tasted awesome. More soon. Scottie.

DoubleRistretto

hey Scottie - looking forward to hearing more about your experiences! dR

SC

So as I said when I was watching the NSW barista Championship in October 2009 I decided to compete again but first I had to get the okay from Jemima (my wife who some of you probably know) you cannot do well in barista competitions if you don't have help and support and if she wasn't in I was definitely out. And so when I approached her with the question of competing again Jemima said that she was hoping I would compete again (one step closer!) and so then I had one more person to chat to and that was the MD of Belaroma Coffee, my boss and my friend Andy Simpkin, it may seem to some of you that this is a no brainer "Off course they would want you to compete!" but there is more to competitions than just deciding to jump in the ring again, in 2007 when I won the Aussies and went to Tokyo for the WBC (World Barista Championship for those who might be new to specialty coffee) it cost Jemima and I something in the vicinity of $40,000 over 6 months and we were not in a position to wear that again since in late 2009 we were still in considerable debt from all my years of competing. Andy was very keen for me to compete again and offered for Belaroma to cover all the costs of competing, this was very big of Andy because there was a possibility that I wouldn't even make the finals of the Australian Barista Championship and that would not have looked good for Belaroma. And we took one more sacrifice and that was to move in with Jemima's mum, at the time we were paying $380 a week in rent and being a barista I do not make loads of money so moving in with Jemima's mum was helpful financially and also helpful by helping with our daughter Peach. Scottie

askthecoffeeguy

mate I commend you for the sacrifices you make for your profession which I'm sure make you a better barista and coffee educator and australia a better place for having you in it!

DoubleRistretto

yes, but can't wait to hear a bit more... Scottie??