Latest news with #WorldBaristaChampionship
NZ Herald
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Tauranga barista Matt Ross to compete in Aotearoa Barista Champs 2025
'They hired me with no experience, which in hindsight was probably not the smartest move.' Ross said he was trained by a latte art champion, and discovered the competition side of the coffee industry. 'His passion and love for it just kind of flowed out into me.' Ross takes his coffee black and said he drinks a lot of filter coffee. 'You can taste more of the flavours, so I generally drink it black, but I just enjoy all coffee.' Ross competed in last year's Aotearoa Barista Champs, placing fifth. He said he learnt a lot from some of the mistakes he made. 'I was able to take those on board and tweak things to not make the same mistakes going into this year.' The competition requires baristas to present three coffees: a short black, a white coffee and a signature drink. This flat white topped with a seahorse is an example of Ross' latte art. Photo / Kaitlyn Morrell Entries are scored by technical judges, who examine how each coffee is made, and sensory judges, who focus on flavour. 'It's all based on what you say and how things flow, but you get the most points for the coffee itself and the flavour.' He said this year he had a big focus on his signature drink. 'I'm working a lot with molecules and how they tie together with other flavours that you wouldn't think cross over.' Matt Ross' signature coffee for the Barista Champs will be a cold beverage using a variety known as geisha coffee. Photo / Kaitlyn Morrell Ross's signature coffee is a cold beverage using a high-quality geisha coffee. 'I'm working with chrysanthemum flowers and turning them into a cold brew, and a rose cold brew, so it's quite floral. 'Then I bring things in like cacao nibs, and so that brings a bit of depth and earthiness to it.' The competition winner will represent New Zealand at next year's World Barista Championship at the World of Coffee Panama event. Ross said that would be an amazing opportunity for a 'little old shop' from Tauranga. 'No one around here has done that in the coffee industry so it would be pretty special.' Ross said 'loving what you do' was the key to being a good barista. 'That then stems into everything else because they care about making their palate better.' His top tip for home baristas was simply to put a little bit of extra time into their brew. 'It's focusing on extraction and the timings to get out a better product than just whacking in it and not really caring.' Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Baristas compete to represent Canada at the World Barista Championship in Italy
Wake up and smell the coffee! 17 competitors from across the country are competing at the Canadian National Barista Championship in Edmonton. It's all to represent Canada at the World Barista Championship in Milan, Italy in October.
CBC
28-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Baristas compete to represent Canada at the World Barista Championship in Italy
Wake up and smell the coffee! 17 competitors from across the country are competing at the Canadian National Barista Championship in Edmonton. It's all to represent Canada at the World Barista Championship in Milan, Italy in October.
CTV News
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
5 Edmonton baristas compete in national competition being held in town
A barista presents their coffee to a panel of judges at the 2025 Canadian Barista Championships being held in Edmonton, on July 24, 2025. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) Eighteen competitors from across Canada are gathering in Edmonton for the 2025 Canadian Barista Championships, including five hometown heroes hoping to claim the top prize. The event is being hosted by the Colombian Coffee Bar and Roastery at the Oliver Exchange Building on 120 Street and 102 Avenue. • Get the latest Edmonton updates right to your inbox Kristin Panylyk de Lopez, one of the co-founders of the coffee shop, told CTV News Edmonton how the baristas will be competing for the best brews. '(Each barista will) have a 15-minute set. Within this set, they have to do a performance and tell a story with a theme,' Panylyk de Lopez said on Thursday. 'They have to (prepare) four espresso drinks, four milk-based drinks … and a signature drink. Think of it almost as a mocktail, but it has to include the coffee that you've used in your competition,' she added. As each barista makes their demanding list of drinks using coffee they've sourced themselves, and they will be explaining their rationale behind their theme to a panel of 10 judges who will take note of every move and every word spoken during the barista's process. The judges will grade each barista based on ingredients, taste, technique and how well their theme fits with the final products. Josh Hocklin, the competition's coordinator, said the reason the competition has so many judges is due to its original goal. 'It's a competition that's been around for 25 years, and it's grown and built,' said Hocklin. 'The original vision of the competition was to find an ambassador who could represent the barista profession to the world, and they want to make sure that they possess the skills to present the technical skills, the knowledge of coffee, as well as the sensory knowledge to know how to communicate a sensory experience to people. In past competitions, Edmonton has placed as high as second but never won the top prize. One competitor from Calgary said a lot goes into preparing for the championships. 'I've been doing around three rounds a day for two weeks leading up to the competition,' said Kitty Chan, co-owner of Sought and Found Coffee in Calgary. 'From 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. my kids will be there at the shop. They will be doing their own thing and they'll be waiting for mommy to finish practice 'talking to air.'' The winner of the event will be crowned on Sunday. They will go on to represent their country in Milan, Italy in October at the World Barista Championship. For more information on the event, visit the Specialty Coffee Association's website. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson
Time Out
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A local Melbourne barista just made history at the 2025 Australia Barista Championship
If you haven't had your second coffee of the day yet, here's a triple shot of good news to put a spring in your step. For the third year in a row, local Melbourne barista Jack Simpson from Axil Coffee Roasters has just been crowned the Australian Barista Champion at the nation's fiercest espresso-fuelled competition: the ASCA (Australian Specialty Coffee Association) National Coffee Championships. With talent like this working in our cafés, it's no wonder Melbourne is consistently ranked among the world's best cities for coffee. The final verdict was handed down after 5pm on Sunday, June 15, after the judges spent an entire day pondering expertly prepared brews from Australia's top six competitors. Every year, each entrant has only 15 minutes to impress the judges through creating their very best milk-based coffee, espresso, and signature drink. The latter aspect of the challenge, in particular, is a chance for the baristas to showcase their creativity. This year, Jack rose to the occasion with a coffee from Colombian specialty producer Jonathan Gasca, leveraging its natural notes of pineapple, raspberry kombucha, cola, and peach, as well as honey vinegar, cascara and passionfruit husk in order to highlight the utility of so-called 'waste' products. Jack tells Time Out that while Melbourne's coffee culture is thriving, he believes specialty coffee is booming everywhere around the world right now. "I've noticed the emerging coffee scene in Montréal, Paris and Spain recently," he shares, crediting the dedicated producers for the growing love. " The work they put in to get specialty coffee to taste as good as it does is amazing! It's their livelihood and the risks they have to take to make it work inspires me daily." Not only is it the third win for this young barista (who simultaneously serves as Axil's head of innovation), it's also the fourth time a barista from Axil has carried the Aussie torch on the global stage. In 2022, Anthony Douglas won the Australia Barista Championship before going on to win first place in the World Barista Championship. Jack will now go on to represent Australia at the 2025 World Barista Championship in Milan, Italy, in October. He came runner-up in the 2024 global championship, missing out on the title by just one point! So let's stand behind our nation's homegrown bean genius as he competes with some the world's brightest and most brew-obsessed. Learn more about the ASCA here.
