84,000 Baristas, One Champ: Inside the Battle for Starbucks' Coffee-Making Crown
LAS VEGAS—Every second counts. Points are at stake. Controversies are brewing: Should anaerobic processing be allowed? How about yeast fermentation?
Welcome to the competitive barista circuit, where coffee reputations are made and destroyed in 15-minute routines. Events that began around 2000 have mushroomed into cutthroat competitions grading everything from espresso shots to bespoke beverages.
There are even pundits.
On the 'Golden Brown Coffee' YouTube channel last year, the hosts dissected the one-point win by Mikael Jasin of Indonesia over Australian Jack Simpson in what they dubbed 'the most controversial World Barista Championship ever.'
While Jasin adopted a 'day spa routine' with his flowing beige attire and references to the body and soul of coffee, Simpson went high-tech. He treated his espresso with 'ultralow frequency magnetic waves' and anaerobic fermentation for 150 hours 'followed by a thermal shock.'
'That's insane,' said one of the hosts about the tiny margin between completely different routines.
Now, the company that made craft coffee mainstream wants in on the action.
Starbucks is holding a global competition exclusively among its baristas to showcase their skills and pump up the brand. The coffee giant has held regional contests for around a decade, but now it wants to crown its own world champ.
In Las Vegas this month, tension was high after 84,000 entrants were winnowed down to 12 contestants who sought to dazzle clipboard-toting judges with decades of coffee know-how. Hosts narrated the moves for cheering audience members.
'We've just seen the most beautiful rosetta from Sumayyah. That was gorgeous,' said one of the semifinal hosts, Laurence Unsworth, wearing a green and blue sequin jacket.
Participants crafted beverages with toasted sesame and citrus notes, explained coffee roasts in Italian and Japanese, and connected their drinks back to their lives.
'I'm going for a cherry pie vibe here,' said Cali Hegeman, a 22-year-old barista from Chicago, who dyed her hair burgundy and described growing up eating cherries from her neighbor's tree to showcase her layered, fruity espresso drinks.
The U.S. coffee scene has come a long way from Folgers and Maxwell House. The 'third wave' coffee movement starting in the early 2000s brought more sophisticated brewing practices to Americans, such as drinks made from coffee beans roasted in small batches.
Competitions came with it, offering contestants a chance to win cash, equipment and trips to coffee-growing countries.
After Dismas Smith went to his first World Barista Championships in Miami in 2001, he traveled to Denmark to boost his skills. One thing the Danes, who were then among the Scandinavians ruling the international coffee competition scene, imparted: Dress better. When they competed in the U.S. qualifiers in 2002, Smith and his team strode onto the competition floor in coordinated chef jackets.
'We looked like Cobra Kai,' said Smith, 54 years old, who is developing a new coffee roasting company.
When Smith went to the world championships later that year, he placed sixth. He didn't realize his machine cleaning towel had become soiled. (Contestants accrue points based on rounds of assessments from technical and sensory judges, scoring everything from an espresso's aftertaste to whether it has an unbroken sheen on top.)
'My Danish friends make fun of me for it to this day,' he said.
Competitions have grown more elaborate—and expensive. Hiring coaches, sourcing coffee from distant lands and acquiring a laboratory's worth of equipment can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars in expenses.
Agnieszka Rojewska, the 37-year-old World Barista Championship winner in 2018, built a table on top of her prep table to have more space for her routines. The Polish coffee master practiced for eight hours a day for three months.
'You put all of it together and keep repeating it until you don't like it anymore,' Rojewska said.
Ryan Wibawa, the World Brewers Cup third place finisher last year, spent nearly $15,000 to prepare for his performance, in which he blended coffees from Panama, Colombia and Indonesia. The 33-year-old employed a 'double immersion technique with the V60 Switch'—a seeping technique —to bring out the sweetness in his brews.
'It's definitely a big investment,' said Wibawa, who is now coaching contestants himself.
Starbucks paid for coaches for its competitors to refine their skills ahead of the Vegas showcase. Adrian Mata Pantoja, a 24-year-old Starbucks barista who last year placed in the top three in the company's North America championships, also turned to his cats and dogs to practice his presentations. With all the rehearsing comes a lot of caffeine.
'My coach has had to put a limit on how much I drink,' Mata Pantoja said.
For the semifinals, latte art competitors had to make concoctions randomly assigned by a Plinko board. In the signature drink round, an Italian barista crafted a 'Golden Ticket Milano Express.' Contestants were battling for the chance to have one of their own drinks featured in Starbucks locations across North America.
'She is an inspiration to this. I love you mom,' said Victor Diab, a New York City barista, after brewing a beverage inspired by black forest cake.
The final four contenders came from China, Japan and Jordan. During the battle royal, held before more than 14,000 ecstatic Starbucks store leaders, attendees gasped when they heard about some of the drink additions, like apple juice and a secret sauce of Japanese yuzu.
Japan's Nobuki Shimode took the top prize with his 'Blooming Yuzu Espresso' and called to the judges to 'please take a cup and smell it.'
'I think you are destined for the Food Network next,' Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said to Shimode after his win.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com
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