WBC 2010 and WLAC 2010
30 June 2010
Caffe culture, while being a trade exhibition and offering an array of educational seminars on hospitality and coffee, is also the home to two of coffees biggest international competitions, the World Barista Championships and the World Latte Art Championships. While the former is held in higher regard, both offer the elite of the barista world in a battle of coffee supremacy, and both are rather exciting with 2010 proving to be no exception. Witnessing the events first hand and cheering on the WBC Australian competitor Scottie Callaghan and the Australian WLAC competitor William Priestley, the following is first an explanation of the event, the results and then a little bit of an account of aspects I found important.
What is the WBC?
The world barista championship is a paramount international coffee competition, which was founded by the SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe) and the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), and which focuses on advancing the barista profession, promoting excellence in coffee and engaging a worldwide audience. Every 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. The competitors are judged on the taste of the beverages served, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation. The signature drink is an opportunity for the baristas to show their wealth of coffee knowledge as an expression of their individual tastes and experiences. Overall, the competition is rigorous and the level of barista skill through the roof.
What is the WLAC
The WLAC is really about inventing and presenting good-looking coffees and has become has become an art of its own. Throughout the world baristas are taking latte art further every day with innovations and skill sets becoming more than amazing. In the WLAC competitors have to produce two identical coffee arts in 3 different beverages; a latte, a macchiato, and a signature beverage. The two first pairs are made just with the glass and milk. The signature beverage however can be created with any surface aid at the choice of the barista. The baristas are also required to show the judges photos of the art they plan to create prior to their heat to minimise co-incidences. The beverages are then judged immediately for their visuals, taste and aroma qualities and the scores are openly shown as the competition unfolds. The visual judges will look for creativity, for performance, for identical patterns in the pairs, and for the contrast in the patterns. Then to ensure that the quality of the beverages the taste judges review the quality of the coffee and latte taste. The WLAC is mainly about the quality and creativity of the art pattern in the top of the latte, but the competitors are judged on their abilities during the creation process.
The results:
The WBC 2010
The winner of the WBC for 2010 was Michael Phillips from the USA. This is the first year the award has gone to a competitor from the USA. Congratulations to him for his tremendous effort and great barista showcase.
the results overall were:
- Michael Phillips (USA) 706 points
- Raul Rodas (Guatemala) 691 points
- Scottie Callaghan (Australia) 672.5 points
- Colin Harmon (Ireland) 659.5 points
- Soren Stiller Markussen (Denmark) 644.5 points
- Stefanos Domatiotis (Greece) 632 points
Greece, Guatemala, USA, Australia, Ireland, Denmark.
The WLAC 2010
The winner of the WLAC 2010 was the Barista Haruna Murayama, representing Japan. She finished with an impressive score of 24.
The results overall were:
- Haruna Murayama (Japan) 24.0 points
- William Priestley (Australia) 22.0 points
- Sebastian Ryberg (Sweden) 22.0 points
- Sebastian Lšsch (Germany) 20.0 points
- Sineenart Anuwatanaphorn (Thailand) 19.0 points
- Claudie Donderwinkel (Netherland) 18.5 points
Haruna Murayama pouring some latte art and a snapshot of the brew bar
My notes on the events
There were several things I found important about the World barista championships. The first was the level of judging and the multitude of aspects the competitors were judged on. For example when the barista dosed the group head the judges made super careful note on the method of tamping, versus just that the tamping happened to make a good extraction. All the baristas then followed a specific over arm and open grasped tamping method that in my opinion left less room for individual flair, but I guess helped create a consistent ground for judging. The second was that the barista was not only judged on the coffees they created and the method in which they did so, but also the experience they presented while they were creating their coffees. They were expected to sell their choice of coffee blend and roast and also educate everyone around while still remaining charismatic and efficient under the strict time limit. This I feel is where the real champion barista appears and the extreme difficulty of the competition and the skill and brilliance of the competitors appears. The final aspect of the WBC I found important was the level of preparation. Every little element was predetermined to the second it was executed, and you could see this in the method the baristas set up their stations. From the choice of coffee blend to the signature drink, to the accompanying utensils and colours of the hand cloths and wipes. Like any elite athlete they put everything they had into their 15 minutes and each performance was a micro-chasm of theatre from which I feel all baristas can learn, and in my opinion a real treat to behold.
While watching the WLAC I was rather impressed at the creativity on show. The multitude of different images that can be inscribed through the crema of a shot of espresso is amazing. I saw swans, dragons, roses chasing roses, laurel wreaths and everything in between. The baristas had to be very quick and efficient as the optimum period to create the latte art was within a very short time frame. Overall the competition wasn’t as intense as the WBC, however it was very much in pursuit of one element, rather then the whole barista package.
A huge congratulations again to the Australian WBC competitor Scottie Callaghan for his third place and to the Australian WLAC competitor William Priestley for coming second.
Ending note
In conclusion it was an exciting three days and I saw quite a few brilliant things. I am definitely very lucky to have witnessed the event and would like to point out that while this year we did not take home either of these two titles, we did place very high at the top. The Australian coffee market is still at the forefront internationally and it is nice to note that we have a great reputation in the international coffee community for speciality coffee, as I experienced in my three days at Caffe Culture.
Signing off again with another coffee at hand.
Till next time.
Ciao
Boris
