With a cover featuring newly crowned 2022 World Barista Champion Anthony Douglas of Australia, our latest issue includes articles on specialty chocolate, barista culture in India, batch brewing, and much more!
BY KENNETH R. OLSON
BARISTA MAGAZINE
As one year draws to a close and another opens on the horizon, we welcome you all to our bridge issue of Barista Magazine, December 2022 + January 2023. The Barista Magazine team has worked tirelessly to once again put together the sort of collection of articles, stories, and photos from around the specialty-coffee world that our readers have come to expect.
For the first time in more than two years, the Melbourne International Coffee Expo returned at the end of September and served as host for the 2022 World Barista Championship as well as the World Brewers Cup. The coffee-loving city celebrated big-time when one of its own, Anthony Douglas, was awarded the first-place trophy. We’re excited to have Anthony on the cover and think his story of perseverance and triumph is one that you’ll enjoy reading. There’s much more in the December 2022 + January 2023 issue, and we invite you to check out some—but not all!—of the best features in this edition below.
You can order a subscription or single copy today in our online store, or as always, you can read the new issue for free online with our digital edition.
Cover Feature: Anthony Douglas
Australia is famous for its specialty-coffee scene, and two of its national champions have won the World Barista Championship (WBC) previously. Interestingly though, neither hailed from what is arguably the country’s top coffee city: Melbourne. But in 2022, that changed: After years of trying to win the national event, Melbourne’s own Anthony Douglas not only took top place in his country’s event, but went on to win the World Barista Champion title for himself, as well as his city.
Specialty Chocolate
Coffee and chocolate have long been linked, not just because they taste great together, but by commonalities that run deeper. They have followed similar paths from colonial trade to spread around the globe, but they each originated on opposite sides of the world. In “A Specialty Chocolate Primer,“ writer Tanya Nanetti takes a look at the growing movement for specialty chocolate, which once again sees the two plants and products, coffee and chocolate, finding themselves on similar ground as consumers and producers seek greater transparency and quality. In this article, we speak with specialty-chocolate companies Mörk Chocolate in Australia and Puchero in Spain, as well as some of the world’s top specialty-coffee makers, including Ghirardelli, Hollander, and more.
Barista Culture in India
India has a long and storied history as a tea-producing and -consuming country, but it also grows some exquisite coffees and boasts a growing café culture. People across India are finding new career paths by following their interest in coffee. Writer Reshil Charles interviews baristas across the sprawling country about their work, community, and why they love coffee in “The Evolving Culture of Baristas in India.“
Additionally, in the December 2022 + January 2023 issue, Melind John of Josuma Coffee writes about the most famous coffee in India, “Monsoon“ coffee. This unique coffee-processing method creates a distinct flavor profile drawn from the earliest days of international coffee commerce.
Batch Brew
Creating a hand-crafted pourover for one customer at a time can be a signature service of a specialty café, but it’s not an efficient way to serve multiple customers quickly. But batch brewers are built to do exactly that, and today they are better at crafting top-quality brews than ever before. In the article “Believe In Batch Brew,“ writer Josh Rank examines modern batch brewers on offer from BUNN and Fetco, and finds their abilities have bloomed. These days, offering batch brew has an even greater capacity to boost sales and keep the lines moving than in the past.
One on One: Gary Horne
Gary Horne has spent decades working in specialty coffee on the equipment side of the industry—grinders to be specific. In his role, he’s seen technological improvements, modern innovations, and some reintroductions of older equipment. He’s always been drawn to taking machinery apart, tinkering, and rebuilding it better, so he feels a natural affinity for the inquisitive nature of the barista community. Gary talks about his career, which includes working with United States Barista Champions Lem Butler and Kyle Ramage, and how he has seen the specialty-coffee community evolve in “One on One“ in the December 2022 + January 2023 issue.
All of these articles, plus field reports from Paris, France, and the Canary Islands, and much more are in the latest issue of Barista Magazine!
Thank you to all of our readers, advertisers, and all of the people who worked so hard to put together another issue of the magazine! None of this is possible without all of you, and I am grateful to each of you. We at Barista Magazine wish you a joyful end to 2022 and hope for a better, more peaceful world in 2023.
Subscribe and More!
As always, you can read Barista Magazine in paper or digital format. Read the December 2022 + January 2023 issue for free with our digital edition. And for more than three years’ worth of issues, visit our digital edition archives here.
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