Scenes from Day 3 of the World of Coffee + the WBC Final Round

Agnieszka Rojewska makes history, becoming the first woman to win the World Barista Championship

FROM STAFF REPORTS

The final day of both the World of Coffee exhibition and the World Barista Championship, both held in Amsterdam this past week, was an emotional and celebratory one: By the end of it, Polish Barista Champion Agnieszka Rojewska had become the first woman in the 19-year history of the World Barista Championship (WBC) to win the title.

More than an hour prior to the awards ceremony, the stadium stands at the WBC were completely packed with people waiting to hear the results from the final round of competition, which found the countries of Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Greece, and, of course, Poland, taking the stage in the finals of the international coffee industry’s preeminent coffee competition. The final ranking was as follows:

1. AGNIESZKA ROJEWSKA – POLAND
2. LEX WENNEKER – THE NETHERLANDS
3. MATHIEU THEIS – SWITZERLAND
4. MICHALIS KATSIAVOS – GREECE
5. COLE TORODE – CANADA
6. JOHN GORDON – NEW ZEALAND

We at Barista Magazine are already hard at work putting together an extensive special section on this year’s World Barista Championship for our August + September 2018 issue, which will include extensive reporting on our new champion, what her victory means to this community, signature drinks, scenes from the show, and much, much more.

For now, here are some photos from that final, historic day in Amsterdam:

Swiss Barista Champion Mathieu Theis maintains focus in his prep time at the WBC finals. The stands behind him were packed with fans.
Past WBC champions provided live commentary throughout the final round. Pictured here, from left: Berg Wu (Taiwan, WBC champ 2016); Pete Licata, USA, WBC champ 2013); Hidenori Izaki (Japan, WBC champ 2014); Sasa Sestic (Australia, WBC champ 2015); and Dale Harris (U.K., WBC champ 2017).
Michalis Katsiavos of Greece was the first competitor of the day, and his beautiful performance set a high bar for the day.
Many of the WBC competitors at this year’s championship played with the new option to get creative with their table set-up (they could move tables around into different configurations, which was a new option added in 2017), as well as move their judges around to give a more personalized presentation. Here, John Gordon addresses his judges in the finals.
Cole Torode of Canada set up his tables in two parallel lines, so he was almost constantly engaged with his judges.
Each finalist signed the three custom Victoria Arduino Black Eagle espresso machines that were used in this year’s WBC.
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