The day is moving right along. Some snafus, as always — poor Raul, the Guatemala Champion, is still waiting to for his gear to arrive, so he won;’t compete until Day 2 (Wednesday) of the preliminary round. But nothing terribly major — and Raul is handling it all like a champ, as always.
Mostly things are going well! As we are hard at work documenting this event for our traditional huge coverage in the August/September issue of Barista Magazine, we have been photographing all of the champions as they come off the stage. And they seem pretty happy, pretty excited, about their performances!
Since I last blogged, champions from Lithuania, Italy, Sweden, and Iceland have performed (Poland, by the way, has been bumped a bit lower down for some circumstances).
MC Gwilym Davies, WBC Champ from 2009, interviews the Barista Champion of Iceland, Finnbogi Fannar Kjeld, after his performance.
Next up in the Barista Champion of Denmark, Torfi ÞoÌr Torfason , who works for the Coffee Collective in Copenhagen.
This is Omar, whom I just met last night, but I think is an A+ guy! He placed 2nd in the Danish Barista Championship, and he is here supporting Torfi, the Danish Champ and Omar's coworker at the Coffee Collective.Sweet Monika, the Barista Champ of Slovakia, with her husband Bruno. Monika will perform in just about an hour!And then Baca showed up? What?! It's so awesome that he's here, getting some love from Gianni.And then Katie walked out of the competitor practice area and saw Baca -- she's so excited!I took a stroll around the SCAE show floor, which is still a work-in-progress, since the show doesn't open tomorrow. I was so excited to see Anastasia and Pascal of Unic! They told me that plans are in the works for a Barista Nation Paris event in October!One of my fave moments of the day: Norwegian Champ Rasmus blowing off some steam over a game of ping pong with Charles Babinski.Merch. Get it.
Once again, be sure to log on to the World Barista Championship’s live feed of the competition online right now!
Sarah Allen (she/her) is co-founder and editor of Barista Magazine, the international trade magazine for coffee professionals. A passionate advocate for baristas, quality, and the coffee community, Sarah has traveled widely to research stories, interact with readers, and present on a variety of topics affecting specialty coffee. She also loves animals, swimming, ice cream, and living in Portland, Oregon.
