2014 World of Coffee in Rimini

World Coffee Championships 2014

It’s not every day you bump into an Australian Brewers Cup champion on his way to a competition in Italy! But that’s what happened on the Milan to Rimini train just before World of Coffee 2014. To our surprise Devin Loong, and his family were in the same carriage as we were. The excitement set the scene for the event to follow.

Three World Coffee Championship events took place in Rimini – the World Barista, World Brewers Cup and World Cup Tasters Championships. The rest of the competitions were in Melbourne.

Representing Australia in 2014 in Rimini or Melbourne were …

Craig Simon (Veneziano Coffee) – Barista Champion
Devin Loong (Small Batch Roasting Co) – Brewers Cup Champion
Byoung-Woo Kang – Cup Taster’s Champion
Rie Moustakas – Latte Art Champion
Matt Perger – Coffee in Good Spirits Champion

Quite an effort to be there from Australia, initial issues with getting electricity and a lead recording device didn’t deter us, and we’re pleased to say Barista Bibles and Perfect Espresso barista guides sold well through the SCAE shop in the trade show foyer as well as at our stand.

The 3 days of the show were as hectic as ever they are. It was our first time exhibiting in ‘The Village’, which worked a whole lot better for us. It had a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere – and we made lots of new coffee friends

Rimini is on the east coast of Italy, and while it’s a popular holiday destination for Italians; it’s not really on the tourist trail for Australians. To our delight, it had a gorgeous old town centre where we stayed and we ate at some lovely restaurants. Seemingly, it’s famous for seafood and wide flat beaches just perfect for parties.

The SCAE beach party

On the beach in front of the Coconut Bar & Nightclub, The SCAE Party that launched the event, complete with a buffet of local food and a latte art smackdown, rolled on into the sunset. The barista ‘after party’ 3 days later was a wilder, more rowdy event with baristas and other competitors, judges and exhibitors celebrating the extraordinary efforts they’d put in to be there.

One highlight was chatting with Tim Wendelboe about the early WBC competitions. We were staying at the same hotel and shared a cab to the show a couple of times. Tim was the World Barista Champion in 2004 and a judge shortly after that. To our surprise, he explained how back then, judges sometimes had to remind baristas to tamp their doses! The WBC has clearly come a long way in the 14 years since it began in 2000.

SCAE Young Entrepreneur

Marta Dalton, a friend we’d made in Nice the previous year, was the 2014 winner of the SCAE Young Entrepreneur Award. We attended the event and dinner after with Marta’s Mum who runs their sixth-generation family farm in Guatemala while Marta is marketing their coffees out of London under her Coffee Bird brand. I believe we will hear a lot more about Marta and her amazing collection of Guatemalan coffees in the future.

The Enrico Maltoni Collection

One highlight that I ticked off my coffee bucket list, was a visit to the Enrico Maltoni Collection. Having first heard of this collection in London in 2010, then having met Enrico himself in 2014, I made a promise to visit his amazing museum of restored coffee machinery. It’s attached to the La Cimbali headquarters a little outside Milan and we just happened to be going there after Rimini! A long train and taxi ride away, it’s certainly worthy of a position on any coffee lovers bucket list – especially for one as interested in coffee history as I am. Here’s a photo of the outside, but there’ll be a separate blog on the exciting exhibits inside some time soon.

The 2014 World Champions

For the first time in years, I got to see the final announcements. The master of ceremonies, Steve Leighton, was as good as ever he is, at building up anticipation and excitement. Tribute to the hard work and dedication of the dozens of baristas from around there was a ticker tape extravaganza as Hidenori Izaki was announced as the 2014 World Barista Champion – significant as he’s the first person from Asia to win this title.

In 2014, the prestigious world titles and Reg Barber trophies went to …