London Coffee Festival has revealed the international line-up of baristas gearing up to grace the Coffee Masters stage.
From 7 – 10 April, sixteen coffee creators will fly in from around the world in attempt to impress a panel of judges, in a variety of barista competition disciplines.
Baristas will cup, brew, latte art, work against the clock in a docket challenge, and create their own signature drinks.
The barists were chosen for the 2016 Coffee Masters based on short – occasionally hilarious – application videos.
Patrick Rolf Karlsson is BeanScene’s pick of the bunch, appealing to this team’s love of coffee and love of…swimming.
Patrick works for Five Elephant, a micro roastery, bakery and café from Berlin. Patrick won fans with his application video in 2015, and then proved his skills on stage by coming runners-up to UK’s Workshop Coffee Co.
St Ali’s Ben Morrow took home the winning trophy in New York’s equivalent of the competition last year, after doing well in the inaugural event in London. Ben will return without St Ali buddy Matt Perger, or fellow Australian Craig Simon.
New Zealand’s Assembly Coffee has a representative making the trip to London this year too.
Nick Mabey created a Coffee Amaro Negroni in his application video, replacing Vermouth with a homemade Amaro and using Assembly’s Kenya Kamwangi coffee. It is unclear if either ingredient contain healing qualities, but Nick’s video contains a solid dose of Kiwi humour.
“The point is if the drink is more interesting than the person making it, you’re either a real boring person, or it’s some kind of space age drink that can cure cancer,” says Nick.
Click here to watch all of the application videos.
