This week London plays host to the World Barista Championship for 2010. For competition baristas, this is the big gig, and it does tend to cause quite a fuss each year.
Here is the blurb straight from the WBC website. (http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com)
"The World Barista Championship (WBC) is the preeminent international coffee competition. The organization—founded by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and the Specialty Coffee Association of America—focuses on promoting excellence in coffee, advancing the barista profession, and engaging a worldwide audience with an annual championship event that serves as the culmination of local and regional events around the globe.
"Each year, champions representing more than 50 Nations each prepare 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos, and 4 original signature drinks to exacting standards in a 15-minute performance set to music.
"WBC Certified Judges from around the world evaluate each performance on the taste of beverages served, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill, and overall presentation. The ever-popular signature beverage allows baristas to stretch their imagination and the judges’ palates to incorporate a wealth of coffee knowledge into an expression of their individual tastes and experiences."
So what's the big deal? The WBC is a good thing for demonstrating the extreme dedication many baristas go through in the continual pursuit of the elusive perfect espresso. Making amazing espresso, and espresso based drinks takes more than a few hours training. It's a long term pursuit and requires all of the elements of the process to come together, from the seed in the ground at a coffee plantation, to the harvest, processing, grading, shipping, roasting, and finally to the barista who brews the bean hopefully to perfection.
Similarly, a good WBC barista spends many hours training, working with a roaster in selecting his or her blend of choice to use, creating a signature drink which gives a unique and interesting sensory experience, and honing every minute detail of their craft right down to the finest part. At the WBC level, a barista will generally have needed a great deal of support from other coffee professionals to allow them to prepare, and corporate sponsorship plays a big part of what goes on.
To even win the right to compete in the WBC, a barista must have won the national barista championship for their country of origin, something which generally requires rising through competition stages at a state or provincial level and in some cases a local level as well.
Of course, when you quantify what makes a good barista in the ways necessary to create a rule set for a judgeable competition, you will always have to turn some opionion into absolute. Therefore what makes a good WBC barista is not neccesarily what makes a good barista in the opinion of many other roasters, baristas, and cafes. Not to mention that specialty coffee is always advancing and changing, as we discover new and interesting ways to process and produce coffee and as the culture changes and advances. For this reason WBC rules are always being debated as to their relevance.
All that being said, the WBC is a big and important event in the coffee world and a great opportunity for baristas from all over the world to compete and show off their craft.
This year the Australian competitor (and hence, winner of the Australian Barista Championship) is Scottie Calaghan (http://www.scottiecallaghan.com/) who, incidentally was one of the original baristas at MeccaCQ when it began in October 2007. He's using two single origin coffees, one from Colombia and one from Kenya, both roasted at our Mecca roastery.
We'll be keenly following his progress and we wish him all the best. For those who are interested, the WBC is streaming live here: http://www.livestream.com/worldbaristachampionship2010.
Check it out.
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