Note sull'episodio
At the World Barista Championship, national champions get 15 minutes to serve 12 drinks to four sensory judges: four espressos, four milk beverages, and four signature beverages, while a technical judge who never tastes a drop watches for flushed group heads, wasted grams, and stray grounds. In a representative year like 2018, 55 national champions entered, the top 15 plus a wild card reached the semifinals, and six made the final. The signature beverage is essentially a non-alcoholic espresso cocktail built to showcase one specific coffee.
The first championship, in Monte Carlo in 2000, went to Robert Thoresen of Norway, and Nordic light-roast pioneers such as Tim Wendelboe, Troels Overdal Poulsen, and Klaus Thomsen ruled the early years. In 2007 the event left Europe and the United States for Tokyo, where James Hoffmann won. In 2016 the rules standardized grinders from sponsor Mahlkönig and replaced the cappuccino with an open milk drink category. Agnieszka Rojewska of Poland became the first woman champion in 2018, and later winners from Colombia and Indonesia marked a shift toward coffee producing nations.
- The competition is run by World Coffee Events, the event arm of the Specialty Coffee Association.
- Standard grinders were framed as removing the advantage of competitors who could ship custom $10,000 gear.
- Juyeon Jeon of South Korea won in 2019, and the 2020 Melbourne event was canceled by the pandemic.
- Diego Campos of Colombia won in 2021 and Mikael Jasin of Indonesia won in 2024 in Busan.
- In 2023 the rules began allowing infused and co-fermented coffees, some fermented with fruit.