Matt has turned absolutely everything about the barista competition format on its ear here—he’s developed a new tamping method, which he calls “nutating,” wherein he circles the tamper around, pushing the grounds together to keep the water from pushing through the grounds very quickly. He also is using perhaps the strangest grinder ever to appear at the WBC: a batch grinder, rather than an espresso grinder.

All 1,200 seats in the WBC area are filled, and there are gobs of people outside waiting to get in to see local boy Matt Perger.

He’s using a red bourbon from Colombia, fully washed. He also worked very closely with a local dairy farmer adjusting the diet of the cows who would create the milk Matt would use in competition. He tells the judges today that the milk ghe’s using on stage is from a cow named Blossom.

It’s pretty crazy here: I don’t know if Ive ever been in as intense a WBC environment as this: Melbourne is a hugely coffee-centric city, Australia as a whole has one of the most progressive coffee cultures in the world, if not the most progressive. And Matt is the Australian barista champion, competing in the final round of the World Barista Championship. The level of excitement in this room is staggering.

For a 25-year-old, Matt has confidence in spades.

Matt was in the finals of the WBC once before, in Bogota in 2011. Truly though, I would assume being surrounded by so many locals cheering you on to represent the host country.

Matt is doing something totally bizarre for his signature drink: he’s pulling long shots — he calls them coffee shots. So his signature drink doesn’t even use any other ingredients besides espresso. He’s using 3 different varietals of coffee from Colombia, all of which have been pulled long. He then pulls shots of his red bourbon, and adds the long shots to the espresso. He tells the judges they will taste tart cherry cola, subtle raisin sweetness, among other flavors.

Matt Perger has been in the WBC finals once before: in 2011 in Bogota.

Matt calls this his dream signature drink, and the judges have loved it thus far. Matt’s got the audience on the edges of their seats. He’s shown very well this weekend—very well done, Matt!

Pete has competed at 7 USBCs, and this is his second appearance (and second time in the finals) at the WBC.

Today the the WBC in Melbourne, Pete is using a beautiful coffee from Colombia—in fact, it is a CoE winning coffee, but Pete says he fell in love with it way before that. When his friends at Cafe Imports sent it to him to consider for competition, Pete fell head over heels in love.

Pete has a deceptively simple WBC performance: he simply wants to pay homage to all the hands that have touched his coffee along the way—the farmer, the roaster, the barista. He has provided the judges with little booklets to follow along and actually meet these people who have helped Pete along to this place.

Pete is always a model of composure.

OK, Pete just poured his cappuccinos and they looks amazing! Beautiful shots, amazing milk. Fantastic. He tells his judges they will taste caramel, sweet malt, and chocolate n the cup. Pete is using a double hopper Mahlkönig grinder for a very specific reason: he switches up the grind between espressos and cappuccinos, a very risky thing to do. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Pete.

We featured Pete on the cover of the December/January 2012 issue of Barista Magazine. Back then, he was libving on a coffee farm in Hawaii, and his development as a coffee professional was truly developed there.

Back to the simplicity of his routine: Pete only has 3 ingredients to his sig drink, and espresso is one of them. The other two: a palm sugar simple syrup that he created at the beginning of his performance. He also puts dropper fulls of a mixture of orange peel, lemon grass, bitters, and quinine, into the espresso.

The other competitors have endless respect for Pete Licata—he’s a friend to many of them.

The drink truly looks like a cocktail, minus the alcohol, which is really what a signature drink should be. Pete tells the judges that he is the last set of hands in the chain to touch this coffee before the judges, and as such, his responsibility is to communicate all that is good about it.

Pete, you totally rock. We love you, the U.S. is proud of you. Well done!

Colin is everything a champion should be: humble, honest, sincere, funny, and genuine.

Colin is one of the most incredibly honest, humble, and sweet guys I’ve met in this industry. Truly he has every reason to boat: he owns and operated Third Floor Espresso (3FE) in Dublin (co-owned by his good friend, Steve Leighton, owner of the roaster Hasbean). If you want to learn all about Colin, you can check out the cover article on him in Barista Magazine (click HERE to read it for free online). Not to mention he is incredibly well respected by his barista peers. And again, just look at his track record.

As he served his espresso stout to the four female sensory judges, he said, “I never expected I’d say this, but when I turn around, I want to see four women with mustaches.”

Each year, Colin finds new boundaries to push. In 2012, he stripped barista competitions down to their bare bones, taking away almost all frills and focusing on the essential elements of the character of his coffee. This year he is using coffee from Finca Patrona (yep, that’s right—the same coffee being used by El Sal champ William). To blend this Salvadoran coffee with something Irish he created a coffee stout (of course!). He actually was sitting in a pub in Dublin enjoying a stout when he came up with the idea.

For this competition, Colin actually bottles on stage an espresso stout using pacamara from El Salvador’s Santa Ana region. Using malted barley hops, with an infusion of cherry, fresh pressed apple juice, and he pours it all into a whipper, shooting it out through nitrous to recreate the frothy texture of an Irish stout. He actually caps each bottle before serving it to the judges in an adorable carry-out box. Then judges then pop the tops of the bottles and enjoy.

Colin graced the cover of our magazine in December 2012. Read the article here! http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/96027

Having watched Colin over the years, I think this is truly his more progressive and innovative performance ever. Well done, Colin. Well done!

Francesco keeps breaking down in tears, he’s so honored to be here.

At every WBC, there is a story—in 2011, it was that a barista from a producing country (Alejandro Mendez of El Sal) won the WBC for the first time. Last year, in Vienna, it was that the top 2 spots went to Central American baristas (Mexico’s Fabrizio in 2nd, and Raul of Guatemala in 1st). This year, the story is of Francesco, and of Italy. Italy: where our industry was born, but where we lament that it’s the hardest place to find a decent coffee. Italy, we shake our heads and say, is decades behind the best baristas.

Well with Francesco, no longer. This guy has dedicated his life to this, and his mission is to inspire the next generation of baristas from Italy to continue pursuing quality. He has told me more than once that baristas in Italy think they can never win, they think there is no use in trying. Changing that idea is Francesco’s primary goal here in Melbourne, and even before the ranking is announced this afternoon, he has already won. Francesco has changed the history of coffee for the better.

This man is a role model for the entire country of Italy, whose coffee history is long and storied, but whose recent history has not been positive, coffee wise.

He was better yesterday,in the semis, than he was in the preliminary round. And I think today is his best performance yet. His goal here is to take the coffee apart from the point where a barista serves it to a customer, and through all the levels and complexities of his espresso. Francesco is using the astounding Nikisse coffee from Ethiopia.

Francesco’s judges can’t stop smiling, he is so enchanting.

He serves three shots with three different temperatures, to reflect the life of the espresso. The first glass is the warmest, and is to represent the fine acidity of red fruit. The second shot is a reduction of peach and cane sugar, and the third shot is a combination of bitterness and sweetness: chocolate, sweet plum. He has prepared these in a siphon that he pours into glasses that he has warmed to precise temperatures on a flat heater. And now, as he prepares the espresso to go into those glasses, he’s got the crowd clapping and cheering for him—he’s truly a crowd pleaser.

Wonderful job, Francesco! You’re amazing!

Nick is a fantastic guy—so friendly, so humble, and a large part of the growing barista community in New Zealand.

There are tons of Kiwis in the crowd today—Nick’s family and friends from nearby New Zealand. This guy is tops in my book—I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with him and his pals over the last few days, and they’re such a bunch of fun. Nick is one of the best kinds of competitors: humble, honest, fun loving, and super duper passionate about coffee. It’s no wonder he’s here in the finals, though a Kiwi hasn’t made  it this far in the WBC since Carl Sara (current chair of the World Coffee Events organization) made it to finals at the WBC in Tokyo in 2007.

Everyone’s buzzing about how Nick incorporated a tactile representation of the coffee, which he says was inspired by a wine theory.

Nick’s got a cool tactile component to his performance: he’s created little boards for each judge, with different textures—rough, smooth, silky, etc.—that he instructs them to run their fingers across to demonstrate the way his coffee is going to taste. It’s cool—I’ve never seen anything like it.

It’s impossible not to be engaged by Nick—he’s got charisma in spades.

It’s a concept he comes back to for his sig drink—he deconstructs the coffee in relation to the processing method. He offers the judges little bottoles, each of which represents one of three components: sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. For example, for acidity, he uses raspberry but tempers it with rose petals; for sweetness, he uses sundried nectarines; and for bitterness, he uses coconut infused with water. He tells the judges, “Just like the sundried natural processing method, it takes time to get it right.”

Bravo, Nick. You killed it.

William meticulously setting up his station in his 15 minutes of preparation time.

All of Viva Espresso’s competitors are created in the image of Federico Bolanos, who owns Viva Espresso. Federico works with the barista champions around the clock all year long to make sure they’re equipped to play hard at the WBC. In fact, no one outside of Viva Espresso has ever won the national championship.

William actually has changed up a lot of his performance throughout the rounds in the WBC—a risky, but sometimes smart move.

William’s performance is based on a processing method that was specifically created for his coffee, which comes from Finca Santa Petrona, the family farm of Lily Pacas, who is Federico’s wife.

For his signature drink, William incorporates a siphon, an AeroPress, lime juice, ground coffee, and again the wine glasses for aroma.

His performance is also a lot about aroma. He uses upside down wine glasses to catch the aroma and condensation of his coffee. Then he asks his judges to right the glasses and take a whiff. William certainly has a commanding presence on the stage; he’s confident and charming—no surprise he made it this far.

Final time: 14:56

The announcement of which 6 baristas will advance to tomorrow’s final round is coming right up (3:30 p.m. Melbourne time), so stay tuned. While you’re waiting, here are some photos from around the event today…

Barista Champ of El Sal, William, was the final competitor today. He totally nailed his performance.

And on the Melbourne International Coffee Expo show floor, things were lively and fun—there was even live music!

The Marco Brew Bar was busy today!

Colin Harmon, Barista Champion of Ireland, was ever so charming in his stellar performance in today’s semifinal round.

Cosimo and friends in the Nuova Simonelli skybox.

Thanasis Nikolis, Barista Champion of Greece, killedit in his semifinals routine.

Sponsor DaVinci hung flags all around the competition space, each competitor’s country represented. Today, there were only 12 flags left up, and tomorrow there will be only six.

Obviously you’re pumped about the World Barista Championship that starts tomorrow in Melbourne (scratch that, make it starts TODAY!). In Melbourne time it’s already started. Don’t forget you can watch the WBC and World Brewers Cup streaming live here, and you can follow all of Barista Magazine‘s ongoing coverage on our blog with this link, and also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Ok, moving on, you want to know if you’ve won. We’ll get there.

This week’s winners of Humpday Giveaway get a whole year of BMag!

The prize this week, a one-year subscription to a little ol’ periodical covering the people working in coffee the world over that we like to call Barista Magazine! Not satisfied to have only one winner this week, we’ve got three!

Of course, that’s one less than the winning country in this week’s answer.

We asked: Which country has produced the most WBC Champions, who are they and what years did they win?

And the answer: DENMARK, of course, with FOUR World Barista Champions! They’re Martin Hildebrandt 2001; Fritz Storm, 2002; Troels Overdal Poulsen, 2005; and Klaus Thomsen, 2006!

And the three winners of a one-year subscription (or renewal, or addition, or a gift subscription) are:

Mikhail Sebastian

Rachel Bebee

Darren Pedler

Thanks again to everyone who played this week, and if you didn’t win, as we always say, Wednesday’s only a day away!

Here are some fun photos from around the WBC and the show on this first day…

Argentina’s Daniel’s signature drink set up.

Barista Champion of Argentina Daniel Andres introduces himself to his judges.

Team Malaysia told me they were big fans of Barista Magazine. I told them we were big fans of Malaysia!

Sebastian from Chile, with Team Guatemala, reigning WBC Champ Raul, and WBC judge Roukiat.

Barista Champion of the United Arab Emirates Romeo during his preliminary round performance.

At the WBC store, you can get everything from water bottles to tshirts to buttons!

Nuova Simonelli put this awesome Hall of Fame together, with a hanging poster of every WBC Champ lining the path from the main MICE show floor to the WBC area. It’s so cool!

T3 down under! The branded Nuova Simonelli espresso machines are hot, hot, hot!

2009 WBC Champ Gwilym Davies holds court at the Nuova Simonelli booth.

Local roaster St. Ali is where Australian Barista Champion Matt Perger works. At their stand, they have hundreds of these Team Perger cycling caps.

The booths here at MICE are simply stunning.

Custom La Marzocco machines on display at the 9 Bar stand.

Axil Roasters in the house.

The Brew Bar, outside of the World Brewers Cup stage, features some hella cool brewing equipment.

More from the St. Ali family

Everybody loves rainbows!

Hanging out at the UNIC booth, Scottie Callaghan made me a sweet shot of espresso.

Anastasia and Sebastian of UNIC under the basketball hoop.

Scottie on the Stella.

La Marzocco’s booth is all sleek, sophisticated wood, to showcase the new Linea PB.

World Brewers Cup Champions gather for their orientation meeting. The World Brewers Cup Championship starts on Friday!