It’s 2020 and the World Barista Championship is 20 years old!  So it’s timely to celebrate how the competition has grown over the years and to highlight the part many Australians have played. I especially want to pay tribute to those who were there during the formative years generously volunteering their time and expertise.

Known as the WBC, the World Barista Championship is an annual competition for baristas from across the globe. National champions compete for the prestigious title of World Barista Champion. Two Australians have won this title – Paul Bassett in 2003 and Sasa Sestic in 2015. Australians also ranked regularly among the 6 finalists – with David Makin, Matt Perger, Hugh Kelly and Craig Simon making names for themselves in the global coffee community by being there more than once.

The competition aims to ‘engage the specialty coffee community and promote coffee excellence.

Largely because of the WBC, being a barista is now a highly regarded profession and there’s a set of highly respected barista standards that are recognised globally. As an educator, I believe these have been very significant outcomes.

Founder of the WBC

When Alf Kramer from Norway became president of the newly founded SCAE in 1998, he proposed there should be a barista competition similar to the international culinary competition for chefs. There was already a Norwegian Barista Championship that had successfully promoted the skills and knowledge required to be a competent barista. Designed to elevate the position in a country where espresso was novel and filter coffee was the norm. 

With the support of colleagues Willy Hansen, Arvid Skovli and Tone Liavaag from Solberg and Hansen in Oslo, the first international barista competition got off the ground at the SCAE trade show in Monte Carlo – with pretty much the same format we know today. Inherited from the Norwegian competition, there was a set of rules for participating baristas to follow and a scoresheet for judges to evaluate the technical and sensory aspects of their performances.

In many ways, however, these early competitions were vastly different from what they are today. As the competition grew, changes and additions were added to the original format, and some enthusiastic Australians were there to help from the start. There were many others, including the early Australian winners and finalists, but the following made specific contributions worth mentioning.

Instaurator

While working at Michel’s Espresso in Sydney, Instaurator employed George Sabados as a barista trainer, then on seeing an advertisement for the inaugural WBC in a trade magazine, encouraged him to enter and generously offered financial support for him to be there. They were both at Monte Carlo in 2000, and on returning home, Instaurator became involved at both the national and international levels for many years, helping set the WBC on the path it’s on today.

George Sabados

George worked with Instaurator at Michel’s Espresso from 2001–2005 where he worked his way up to general manager. He was instrumental in the formation of the AustralAsian Coffee Association where he held the position of Executive Director for 4 years and was involved in getting Australian baristas to the international competitions. 

Emily Oak

While working Michel’s Patisserie as BDM for ?? in Sydney, Emily entered the first national competition in 2001 and placed second. Following a significant technical issue during the competition, Emily vowed for future competitions she’d make sure no other barista would suffer the traumatic experience she had and was to see a ‘technical timeout’ eventually added to the rules in addition to a whole range of guidelines and processes that helped professionalise the WBC. Emily was at the 2001 competition in Florida and was judging by 2002 in Oslo. She was Hemisphere Coordinator for the Asia Pacific from 2005 – 2008 and from 2008 – 2011, she was a WBC board member, the only Australian to do so to date. In this capacity, she contributed enormously to WBC progress on many different levels.

Justin Metcalf

Justin was a barista trainer, working at Box Hill TAFE in Melbourne when he started his international judging career in Oslo in 2002. He then became involved with the judging certification introduced in 2004 and contributed to the writing of the training manuals for judges. In 2005, Justin became the first Australian to be a Head Judge. This was at the WBC finals in Seattle, a position he has held at many events across the world since.

Inaugural World Barista Competition in 2000

At the inaugural competition staged at Monte Carlo, 12 baristas competed.  I picked up a comment Alf made on Facebook a few years ago …‘Great to see my ‘child’ growing. The first was born in Monte Carlo 17 years ago. 12 baristas competed. 7 really, the last 5 were pulled in by the hair.’

With no national championships at that time, baristas who represented their countries were selected by reputation and popular vote – or their willingness and ability to travel overseas. In this way, with the support of Instaurator, George Sabados represented Australia at Monte Carlo in 2000.

You could say those first 12 participants were the pioneers who highlighted what needed to be changed and added to the competition. They also revealed the potential such a competition held.

By 2001 the AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association was formed and a national championship event was inaugurated in Australia. Corinne Tweedale, then a young barista working at ??? in Sydney became Australia’s first qualified national champion.  She went on to compete in 2001 at the second WBC at Miami Beach, Florida and came sixth.

Corinne explained how she felt on arriving in Miami. While it was a great honour to represent her country, she stepped off the plane on her own feeling lonely and lost. In those days barista champions didn’t have the same support they have today – either in the lead up to the competition or when you got to the competition. You were really left to your own devices, she said. In these early years before the internet, Australian baristas were not aware of the coffee community that existed in the USA and Europe. All they had to rely on trade magazines and print photography for the transfer of information about what was happening elsewhere.

Needless to say, the support for baristas entering this competition has greatly improved on all levels. In 2015 Australian champion Sasa Sestic had an enormous team of supporters when he won the world title in Seattle.

As well as several family members and representatives from his company ONA Coffee, Camilo Merizalde, the farmer who grew the beans he used, was also there. There were dozens of Australian coffee professionals wearing the Ts and cheering him on – and Paul and I were thrilled to be among them.

In addition, they have prior champions to help either informally or formally, with some being employing as mentors.

Judging Certification

For the first few years. judges had very loose guidelines to follow. They simply volunteered or were selected on reputation and used their professional judgement to do the best they could. Early judges did both technical and sensory scoring together and recorded results on a single scoresheet.

The first judging calibration was in 2003 in Boston. Only after 2004 judges were required to pass both a written and practical test, following a one-day workshop with lectures and practical training with former finalists. Training that includes calibration helps to ensure all judges score participants within the same range.

Since 2003, 7 judges are required for each performance – 2 technical and 4 sensory. A head judge, who doesn’t contribute to the scoring, oversees everything and keeps the competition on track.

The scoring is recorded on two different scoresheets, one for technical and one for sensory. For some criteria, the judges are required to record YES or NO. For others, specific aspects of a performance are rated on a scale of 0 to 6.

Barista Performances

Participants have a set of Rules and Regulations to follow for both national and international competitions.  Originally the rules allowed 12 minutes to prepare 12 beverages.  Now baristas have 15 minutes to prepare 12 beverages …

  • 4 espressos
  • 4 milk coffee beverages (originally it was a cappuccino)
  • 4 signature beverages (non-alcoholic, with coffee the dominant taste)

There’s an additional 15 minutes for preparation beforehand and another 15 minutes for cleanup afterwards.

Technical judges move around to observe performances close up. Sensory judges sit at the workstation where beverages are presented to them for tasting although in the early days the judges were never seated, they were free to move around the workstation and watch the barista without interaction. 

Judges are now not allowed to speak with participants, but over the years baristas have trended to say more to sensory judges than they used to – aided by the standardised configuration for workstations where judges sit at right angles to the espresso machine, facilitating eye contact between barista and judges. Now scripted, and sometimes written explanations of the specific aspects of a performance are presented to the sensory judges.

PHOTO of a WBC standard workstation

The Trophies

In 2008, Reg Barber got involved with the World Barista Championships, making a very significant and generous contribution. As the manufacturer of high-end tamps for baristas, in Reg’s own words he ‘makes tamps for baristas and trophies for the best’. They’re presented, often by Reg himself, to the 6 WBC finalists each year.

The Master of Ceremonies

Another personality whose name has become synonymous with the WBC is that of Steve Leighton. Steve acquired the role of master of ceremonies at the barista championships in 2010. Over the years, starting with perhaps red socks or a red tie, we’ve seen Steve don a red shirt, a red vest, a red suit and a red hat, giving his own part on the competition more wow factor than the last. When there was nothing else red he could add, for the 2014 WBC in Rimini, he dyed his hair red.

 Other coffee competitions

Out of the World Barista Championships grew 6 more competitions …

  • World Latte Art Championship (from 2005)
  • World Cup Taster’s Championship (from 2006)
  • World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship (from 2010)
  • World Brewer’s Cup Championship (from 2011)
  • World Cezve/Ibrik Championship (from 2011)
  • World Coffee Roasting Championship (from 2013)

Please look out for subsequent blog posts on these competitions.

Best Performing Nation

Australia is one of the few countries that has had a participant at the WBC since its inception in 2000 – and embraced every additional competition as it has emerged.

Each year, the country that accumulates the most points scored across the various WBC championships is declared Best Performing Nation and Australia has won this competition twice – in 2010 and in 2015.

For Paul and I, 2010 was also a very special year, being our first trade display at an international coffee event. It was a very moving moment to hear the roar of the crowd and the Australian national anthem resounding throughout the trade show.  We were equally proud to be Australians at Australia’s win in Seattle.

The Australian baristas who contributed to this award in 2010 were …

  • Will Priestley – 2nd place, Latte Art
  • Scottie Callaghan – 3rd Barista
  • Mitch Faulkner – 4th place, Coffee in Good Spirits
  • Johnny Pisanelli – 6th place, Cup Tasters
  • Rob Forsythe – 9th place, Cezve/Ibrik.

 And in 2015 …

  • Sasa Sestic – 1st place, Barista
  • Caleb Cha – 1st place, Latte Art
  • Lucas Woods – 9th place, Coffee in Good Spirits
  • Dane Oliver – 10th Brewers Cup
  • Hyunsuk Ko – 33rd place, Cup Tasters.

 World Coffee Events

Organising all the coffee events was a collaborative effort by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) – until 2011, when World Coffee Events, an event management organisation was formed to take over the enormous task it had become.

World Coffee Events is now owned by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA); the association formed from the unification of the SCAE and SCAA in 2017. As ‘the premier producer of events for the coffee community world wide’, it currently has an advisory board, a set of committees and currently ten staff members.

World Coffee Events is also supported by volunteers. Aspiring coffee professionals are invited to volunteer their expertise on a committee or their time in supporting the logistical operations of an event.

WBC Host Cities

After the first competition in 2000, the SCAE and SCAA agreed the competition would be alternated between cities in Europe and the USA. This happened until 2007 when it was held in Tokyo, the first time in Asia. In 2011 it was held in Bogota, the first time in South America and the first time in a coffee-producing country.

In 2013, Australia hosted the WBC at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo and was set to do so again in 2020, but Covid 19 put a stop to that.

As these seven coffee events attract numbers too large to be staged in any one city, two or three cities are now involved as hosts each year. Locations and winners of the World Barista Championships over the 20 years are …

In 2012 Alejandro Mendez was the first barista from a producing country to become the World Barista Champion.

In 2018, 18 years since the competition began, Agnieszka Rojewska was the first woman to win the World Barista Champion. Interestingly, Jooyeon Jeon, another woman won the following year in 2019.

2000           Monte Carlo       Robert Thoresen (Norway)

2001            Miami                  Martin Hildebrandt (Denmark)

2002            Oslo                     Fritz Storm (Denmark)

2003            Boston                 Paul Bassett (Australia)

2004            Trieste                 Tim Wendelboe (Norway)

2005            Seattle                 Trouls Overdahl Poulsen (Denmark)

2006            Bern                     Klaus Thomsen (Denmark)

2007            Tokyo                   James Hoffmann (United Kingdom)

2008           Copenhagen        Stephen Morrissey (Ireland)

2009           Atlanta                 Gwilym Davies (United Kingdom)

2010            London                Michael Phillips(United States)

2011            Bogota                  Alejandro Mendez (El Salvador)

2012           Vienna                   Raúl Rodas (Guatemala)

2013           Melbourne            Pete Licata (United States)

2014           Rimini                   Hidenori Izaki (Japan)

2015           Seattle                    Sasa Sestic (Australia)

2016           Dublin                   Berg Wu (Taiwan)

2017           Seoul                      Dale Harris (United Kingdom)

2018           Amsterdam          Agnieszka Rojewska  (Poland)

2019           Boston                   Jooyeon Jeon  (South Korea).

‘Alf’s baby’ has grown up

Over 20 years the competition has grown enormously. I’ll never forget a conversation I had in 2014 with Tim Wendelboe, the 2004 world champion. We were sharing a taxi heading to the WBC in Rimini and chatting about how the competition had changed in 10 years. He said when he started judging in 2006, judges had to occasionally remind a barista to use their tamp. I was shocked!

Tapping the side of the group handle to settle the dose and etching were ‘cool’ in the early years. Everyone thought so back then. Now, no self-respecting barista would be seen doing either.

During early performances, judges were free to move around and baristas worked with their backs to the spectators from tables fitted with banquet skirts. Mirrors were fitted above the workstations for them to see what was going on. Now sensory judges sit at right angles to the espresso machine where they can see what they’re doing, make eye contact and hear what they’re saying.

There are very few photos and records of the early competitions. In Tokyo, the 2017 competition was pre-recorded and uploaded to YouTube for viewing later. With advances in technology, performances have been broadcast live for spectators to view in real-time wherever they are.

Here’s a comment from Scott Conary, judge from the WBC 2013 Year in Review …

‘Over the years we’ve seen baristas up their games in myriad ways, from designing their own bar tools and equipment to formulating precise recipes hinging on the most minute of details, to working with coffee producers at source to ensure the coffee they use for competition is of the highest calibre.’

To see how the competition has changed between Paul Bassett’s winning performance in 2003 and Sasa Sestic’s in 2015, click on the links below.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdVS0ZYqC3A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxmeLn4F4ds

 Finally, I’d like to thank Emily Oak for providing the photos of the early competitions and for answering my questions and clarifying a few things that happened back then.