The World’s Richest Barista Competition wrapped up in Brisbane, Australia this week with a new team of champions proudly holding the trophy high.
Café Culture International is proud to announce the Australian Capital Territory’s Espresso Room as competition winners, and the team will take home $25,000 as well as $10,000 exclusive advertising via Café Culture Magazine.
After three huge days of competition from the world’s best, third place was claimed by the colourfully-capped Natvia Sweet Team, while Di Bella Coffee’s Brew Crew were tough and true and came second after battling Espresso Room in the final.
The Canberra team represented Espresso Room’s businesses in Woden, Tuggeranong and Belconnen, and say they couldn’t have done it without support from Espresso Room’s founder Michael Rose along with Ona Coffee.
Rose says the milk based coffee was the first harvest from Ona’s Sasa Sestic’s new farm ‘Finca Betti’ in Hondruas. “It was naturally processed which gave us the intense sweetness and body that we look for in milk coffee.”
The team also competed using Ona’s filter coffee which was a naturally processed Geisha from the Kotowa Estate Farm in Boquete, Panama.
It’s a coffee that won first and second in its category at last year’s Compak Golden Bean Australia, where Espresso Room also won gold as best franchise/chain.
The team has now carried on with their winning ways to claim the World’s Richest Barista Competition. Rose describes it as a “massive achievement for all of us involved. It’s boosted the confidence of our young baristas and their colleagues back home it is also great for our business to be able to share our news with our loyal regulars and customers”.
“We saw how the other competitors worked together,” Rose continues, “and we learnt how to adapt under pressure and be flexible.” But triumphing in a true café test was only possible because of the hours and hours of training. “There have been many hours of training and hard work to get us here, gaining feedback from colleagues on what can be improved, clearly communicating and ensuring respect for one another’s position,” Rose says.
Rose says there is a compelling reason for baristas to compete. “Passion! What we saw at the competition was people respecting each other for their individual strengths and abilities to bring something different to the table. So we’ll train hard and remain humble, and we’ll see what happens next.”
Organiser Kevin Chilvers praises all competitors for raising the roof with the highest competition standards and commitment to the bean. And the history-making presenting partnership that allowed the competition to happen could not be forgotten.
“We had three absolute titans of the coffee industry combine this year,” Chilvers says. “With Norco’s fresh milk, Almond Breeze’s almond milk and So Natural Barista Soy we could replicate a busy café, and it’s only through their support that the World’s Richest Barista Competition is a true café test.”
