Busan, South Korea is a heaving mass of coffee professionals right now and on centre stage is the World Barista Championships!
You can watch the Finals (and one extra semi-finalist!) tomorrow here.
One of the comments that resonated with me so much came from legend competitor, Ben Put, who is on the coaching side of the Champs this year:
"I love the barista competitions, but there is one part that is hard and I don’t like: There are so many good competitors that the people that don’t move forward to semis and finals often don’t receive the attention they deserve. Many strong and important messages or innovative courses lost because of other aspects of the routine. My message is to celebrate your people to boost their message."
And there have been many amazing messages on stage, coverage from Sprudge has been excellent, if you'd like to go read up on all the sets.
Congratulations to SA Barista Champ, Luke Letts, who was incredibly composed for his first time on the World Stage, but also in his first year of competing! An incredible accomplishment and he did all of his Team and supporters proud.
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