The World Barista Championship is one of the great coffee events each year. The 10th annual 2009 World Barista Championship was held a few months back this year in Atlanta Georgia on April 16th to April 19th.

Watching the top baristas (or baristi) from countries around the world compete for “best in class” has always been an enlightening coffee experience for me as well as great coffee entertainment not to mention a specialty coffee education.

Each year, regional barista championships held in a growing number of countries around the world select the best local baristas and send them to their respective national barista championships. The winners of the national barista competitions then head for the World Barista Championship. This year, national barista champions from 51 countries came together in Atlanta and demonstrated the best in specialty coffee preparation for the world to admire and enjoy!

The World Barista Championship (WBC) Governance

The WBC is a non-profit organization governed by a board representing both the SCAA – Specialty Coffee Association of America and the SCAE – Specialty Coffee Association of Europe.

The WBC’s stated mission is to promote recognition and excellence in the Barista profession, to advance the practice, knowledge and expertise in the preparation and serving of specialty espresso coffee, to promote the knowledge and consumption of specialty coffee to the consumer, and to become globally recognized as the premier World Barista event.

How The Barista Competition Works

As explained in the 2009 WBC Rules and Regulations document, each competitor is judged by 4 sensory judges, 2 technical judges and 1 head judge. The competing baristas serve each of the four sensory judges a single espresso, a single cappuccino, and a signature espresso based beverage of choice (must be non-alcoholic) for a total of 12 espresso drinks.

The technical judges evaluate technical abilities and skill and adherence to proper and prescribed procedure including “keeping the station, equipment and work area clean”. Hey, cleanliness has its espresso virtue!

Each competitor is given a total of 45 minutes at their station in three segments; 15 minutes of setup/preparation, 15 minutes of performance, and 15 minutes of clean-up.

To level the playing field, each competitor uses the same set of equipment including the espresso machine and coffee grinders. This year, the baristas competed using a Mahlkonig K30 grinder (see below) and the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia espresso machine.

The winner of the WBC fulfills a specialty coffee ambassadorship role as the the representative of the World Barista Championship, the SCAA and the SCAE for the following year.

There is also a physical prize awarded to the WBC winner, usually sought after (if you’re a specialty coffee or barista enthusiast) coffee equipment.

This year, the equipment prize to the winner included a Victoria Arduino Athena espresso machine and Mahlkonig K30 grinder.

And the 2009 World Barista Championship winner is …

Congratulations go to Gwilym Davies who captured the distinguished first place position. The final competition included the following six “best in world” competitors:

1. Gwilym Davies, United Kingdom – 623 points
2. Sammy Piccolo, Canada – 619.5 points
3. Michael Phillips, United States – 618.5 points
4. Colin Harmon, Ireland – 572 points
5. Lee Jong Hoon, Korea – 542 points
6. Attila Molnar, Hungary – 535.5 points

This distinction for the UK continues a trend started by James Hoffman, the 2007 WBC champion from Great Britain, and Stephen Morrissey, last year’s 2008 WBC champion from Ireland.

Rather than bore you with more tedious WBC description, why not simply have a look at the following videos of the top 2009 WBC competitors. These videos are made possible by specialty coffee extraordinaire Nick Cho, SCAA board member who is usually involved in some form of officiating, hosting and announcing at these WBC events. That’s Nick in the white suit introducing Sammy Piccolo at the beginning of video #2.

As is the tradition, first place barista champions from prior years take care of the hosting and announcing as a sort of “handing off of the baton”. In case you’re not familiar, that is 2007 WBC champion James Hoffman (the taller, thin gentleman), 2008 WBC champion Stephen Morrissey (the bearded gentleman), and Nick Cho at the front of Gwilym Davies video #1.

Yes, yes, … a picture is worth 1,000 words. So that would make a video worth how many words (not including the words spoken in the video)?

Gwilym Davies – United Kingdom, 2009 World Barista Champion

Sammy Piccolo – Canada, 2009 World Barista Championship finalist #2

Michael Phillips – United States, 2009 World Barista Championship finalist #3

Colin Harmon – Ireland, 2009 World Barista Championship finalist #4

Lee Jong Hoon – Korea, 2009 World Barista Championship finalist #5

Attila Molnar – Hungary, 2009 World Barista Championship finalist #6

Now, just in case you didn’t get enough extraordinary barista excellence watching the 2009 finalists, for posterity’s sake, have a look at Stephen Morrissey, last year’s 2008 World Barista Champion.

Stephen Morrissey, 2008 World Barista Champion

Next year, the 11th annual World Barista Championship will take place in London scheduled for June, 2010.

In the meantime, why not track down and attend some of those local and regional barista competitions in your neck of the woods. It’s always great coffee entertainment, and most definitely a coffee learning experience as well!

You may not see it start. And you may not notice as it catches on and momentum builds. But at some point, when a cultural movement or a trend takes hold and seems to abound everywhere, you may ask how this came to be. Where did this change or shift in our life style come from, where did it get its start. And how is it defined?

Our modern coffee culture in the US is such a phenomenon. How is it that so many of us have replaced the simple cup of coffee brewed in our own kitchens every morning for a daily ritual of $5 lattes and other assorted fancy espresso drinks. And we’re perfectly willing to shift and adjust our daily routines and morning commutes to incorporate these coffee drinks into our lifestyle. Somehow, we seem to have redefined coffee and how we integrate it into our daily lives.

If you’re wondering where this modern coffee culture in the US comes from, how it all got started, the answer is the Pacific Northwest, coffee culture central. Between Seattle and Portland, and surrounding cities and towns, the hundreds of distinctive coffee houses and specialty rosteries come together to form a most remarkable and passionate coffee culture phenomenon.

Most are aware that several large and famous retail coffee chains originate from the region including Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tully’s Coffee. And to be fair, these companies have been important drivers behind the expansive coffee culture emergence throughout the US, exporting some of the indigenous and innovative coffee goodness that abounds in the Pacific Northwest.

Well I hate to break the news, but Starbucks doesn’t really define this remarkable coffee culture, at least not today. Starbucks certainly has its roots well founded in the Seattle coffee tradition, but those more influential beginnings go back almost thirty years. See “Starbucks History – A Tale of Innovation in the Coffee Industry“. Today, Starbucks has, by necessity, transformed into much more of a fast-food coffee drink specialist, running an impressive scaled-up operation with over 7,100 stores in the US and over 15,000 stores world wide.

The coffee culture that I’m referring to lives and breathes among the many independent specialty coffee houses and expert premium coffee roasteries that abound in the region. And more important, the passionate and creative coffee artisans behind these coffee establishments that push the envelope and define this dynamic and vibrant coffee culture that continues to evolve. And most important, the enthusiastic coffee customers that frequent these establishments and bring an unmistakable exciting energy to the table.

The best way I know to gain a better feel and understanding of “coffee culture central” is to take a look at some of the influential coffee roasteries and coffee houses that really stand out. And talk about some of the creative individuals that drive and contribute behind the scenes.

Over a series of articles and posts, I’m going to talk about some of the popular coffee houses and specialty roasters that help define coffee culture in the Pacific Northwest. It should be a lot of fun.

So stay tuned. And while your here, why don’t you go ahead and subscribe to the Gourmet Coffee Zone – Daily Blog so you can be sure not to miss out on the upcoming installments.

A recent article article in the Los Angeles Times, Tea revolution brewing in coffee-saturated Seattle, suggests that recent personnel shake-ups at Starbucks and Tully’s, two major coffee house chains with corporate headquarters in Seattle, might be an indication that the coffee culture in the Pacific Northwest could be shifting in a new direction.

The author sites the recent Starbucks announcement to cut 600 jobs, and the Tully’s announcement of several top executive resignations, as evidence that the retail coffee business continues to be a struggle for these companies. And follows with a segue that perhaps the hot beverage market in the Northwest might actually be shifting away from drinking coffee toward specialty tea.

There is definitely clear evidence that the specialty tea market continues to expand. In fact, this interest and enthusiasm for fine tea has been attracting a growing customer base for some time. Many of the specialty coffee houses and chains also offer gourmet tea products including Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and many independents as well.

The emergence of tea houses that exclusively offer specialty tea only, no coffee, is not surprising, given the expanding consumer interest and demand. Interesting speculation I suppose, but I think it’s a stretch to suggest that this constitutes a shift en masse from specialty coffee consumption to tea.

Rather, I think the growing demand for specialty tea is more likely cumulative on top of the consistent and sustained demand for coffee.

There’s no question that business challenges exist for Starbucks and Tulley’s. This is probably more indicative of current business cycles, the economic climate, and problems specific to the Starbucks and Tulley’s businesses, than a shift in consumer demand away from coffee over to tea.

With the number of stores at over 15,000 worldwide, and more than 7,100 stores in the US, Starbucks has a formidable shareholder obligation to sustain business growth and expansion year over year. A certain market saturation of their own stores may be a more significant barrier to sustained growth for Starbucks than a softening demand for coffee. After all, how many Starbucks stores can you pack into a single area and continue to have room for new store expansion?

In addition, Starbucks has it’s own problems with respect to product quality and customer satisfaction and the company currently has initiatives underway to improve in these areas. The quality and satisfaction problems combined with the current economic downturn have been attributed to a slight drop off of customer traffic. Nonetheless, in spite of the reduction in traffic, Q4 2007 earnings, revenue and same store sales were actually up year over year.

Problems at Tully’s is a slightly different story. There clearly seems to be a leadership challenge with seven CEO replacements in as many years. The recent resignation of Tully’s CEO John Buller, in apparent disagreement with cutbacks mandated by the chairman and the board to bolster the company’s finances, suggests continued problems for the 140 store Seattle based chain. In fact, the company has struggled to achieve any sustainable profitability for the 15 years its been in business, racking up total losses of over $88 million.

So challenges for Tulley’s aren’t new or the result of some recent shift in consumer demand for coffee. In fact, establishing and growing a larger scale retail coffee chain intending to compete head on with Starbucks is a tough proposition, and this has proven to be true for Tulley’s.

While Seattle has been the spawning ground for several impressive big brand coffee chains including Starbucks, Tully’s and Seattle’s Best Coffee, these corporate chains don’t necessarily continue to define coffee culture in Seattle today.

What truly makes the Pacific Northwest unique for coffee is the number of independent and distinctive specialty coffee roasters and coffee houses that continue to thrive and define innovative coffee culture that is indigenous to the area.

A similar phenomena to Northern California for world renown wine country, the Pacific Northwest including Portland, Seattle and surrounding cities and towns can truly lay claim as the driving force of coffee culture in North America. And this coffee phenomena remains robust and vital today.

The good news is that this coffee culture phenomena is spreading. More and more distinctive specialty roasters, and passionate coffee houses with truly talented baristas are popping up everywhere. And enthusiastic customers are seeking and tracking down these new and exciting coffee experiences, looking for the next level after Starbucks to take their coffee adventure.

Is the coffee culture fading in the Pacific Northwest. I hardly think so!