German barista champion, Matthias Lincke, overcame technical difficulties (the water hose for the espresso machine became disconnected) and a restart of his routine to deliver a fine performance. He was the only competitor I noticed […]
Hungarian barista champion, Antal Kovacs, created his own competition espresso blend featuring 80% arabicas from Latin America, and 20% robutsa from Asia. He also used a sort of wooden stencil to create an interesting chocolate […]
James Hoffmann, barista champion of the United Kingdom, was the first competitor of the day. His microphone didn’t work. One of the burners on his table didn’t work. He noticed that at about the 12 […]
Day 2 has drawn to a close, and we have our six baristas for tomorrow’s final round. And we’ll get to them in more detail in a later post. First we’ll run through all 22 […]
The barista champion of Slovakia, Stanislav Cibula, spent more than 10 years as a bartender, but has switched for the last three to work as a barista. Perhaps that’s why he invented the coffee martini. […]
Russian Champion, Olga Melik-Karakozova, had many people in the audience showing support by waving her nation’s tri-colored flag and cheering loudly for her efforts. The Colombian champion represented his country well but fell into trouble […]
The day started off with a big bolt of energy in the form of Austrian champion, Goran Huber. “Simply said,” he said, “coffee is my life.” His passion for the bean and the craft of […]
Well the sun has set here in Tokyo, and Day One of the 2007 WBC has drawn to a close, and I feel like there’s only one word to describe it all: Unbelievable! No really, […]
The WBC board organized a barista meet and greet event tonight at the hotel many of the competitors are staying at in Tokyo. It was a new addition to this year’s WBC. All the competing […]
Two rule changes seemed like they would have a major effect on the competition. For the first time at a WBC, competitors will be allowed to set the judges’ table during their preparation time instead […]
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