World Coffee Events (WCE) has announced the introduction of the first ever World Barista Championship (WBC) Teams competition.
WCE says the WBC has seen many evolutions over the event’s past 17 years in order to celebrate the continuing innovation in specialty coffee.
As such, WCE wants to take add another layer to the competition with the introduction of a Team’s initiative to be launched at the Dublin event.
“In specialty coffee, teams exist everywhere – producers, green bean buyers, roasters,” WCE stated in a statement. “Behind every competition baristas, there is a team of individuals who contribute to their success. In the spirit of acknowledging the global coffee community, we thought we’d also incorporate a different kind of team – and a different way to win.”
The competitors have been divided into six teams, with their individual scores figuring into an overall team score. The team with the highest score will win a trip to Seoul, South Korea to participate in the WBC All-Stars at CafeShow in Novemeber 2016. Seoul also happens to be the host city for the 2017 WBC.
When it comes to the actual WBC competition itself, rest assured, nothing has changed. A WBC winner will still be crowned. What has changed however, is that there will also be a winning team in addition to the 2016 WBC title holder.
The teams have been selected so that each is equally weighted, based on historical competition rankings.
Australia has been teamed with the WBC country representative from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Taiwan and Zambia, under the group name team Knockbox.
Team Portafilter comprises of Belarus, Iceland, Poland, Colombia, Philippines and the United States.
Team Blend consists of Austria, Finland, Romania, Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Slovakia.
Team Pressure combines China, Guatemala, Italy, Germany, India and Serbia.
Team Brew combines Ireland, Lithuania, Malaysia, Iran, New Zealand, and Ukraine.
Team Scale includes Nicaragua, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, and Canada.
Team Espresso includes Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Japan and Spain.
Team Steam includes El Salvador, Latvia, Singapore, Honduras, Norway and Thailand.
Team Extract includes Greece, Russia, South Korea, Kenya, South Africa, and Turkey.
Team Tamper includes France, Portugal, Indonesia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates.
At the end of the first day of competition, team Brew was in the lead, followed by team Extract and team Espresso.
WCE invites any ideas and comments on the WBC evolution to info@worldcoffeeevents.org
More information about the events, including schedules, can be found at www.worldcoffeeevents.org/Dublin.
Image: The six WBC 2016 finalistst: World Coffee Events.