Competition vs. Reality…?

By Emily Oak

Every year between April and June, the World Barista Championships are held somewhere on the globe, in search of the world’s best barista. And every year across the world, and particularly in Australia, the question is often raised and fiercely debated as to the value of such ‘staged’ competitions – primarily that the baristas who participate in such competitions are more performers than professional baristas.

The main argument against competitions that I have encountered over my ten years in the specialty coffee industry is that the condition of competition and the tasks that the baristas have to perform are not valuable in ‘the real life situation or a café’. Many baristas who work day in and day out behind an espresso machine producing hundreds of coffees for their loyal following, are not willing to have their skills judged by their peers because the format of competition does not mimic reality…. Or does it?

In a limited time (15 minutes for 12 coffees in most situations) baristas must compete to consistently produce the best coffee they can, whilst conducting a conversation with their assessors, keeping their workspace neat and tidy, and working with integrity, flare and passion. They are judged on four main areas. The taste of the beverage, the look of the beverage, their technical skill, and their personal presentation and interpersonal skills.

In my experience, this not far off how any retail situation or coffee experience may be judged. Primarily, you would look for a product that tastes good, that is delivered in a reasonable period of time; you would look to enjoying interaction with the barista or sales assistant and questioning them on subjects both coffee related and non coffee related. The technical ability of a barista in producing consistently sound coffee reflects back on the taste and presentation of the beverage. Can anyone argue that these are not real attributes?

In any situation where an individual plans to compete against his or her peers, training, self discipline and education are required to win. This can be applied to any situation of competition in any field, be it sport, academia, or being a barista. Training, in any situation, improves the ability of an individual at any task.

As a competitive barista, training occurs on two levels – at a day-to-day level and at an elite level (outside of a customer situation) practicing individual elements of making coffee – extraction, grinding, dosing, tamping, milk texturing, pouring, coffee art, cleaning and working.

By practicing at an elite level, and applying this at a retail level, the benefits are many for the barista, retailer, coffee roaster and grower. By improving each individual cup quality, for each individual customer, a barista is giving a customer a better coffee experience, an education in taste and a better understanding of coffee itself. This, on a basic sales level, improves business. Repeat business and new business is the key to a successful coffee industry.

So the benefits of competition are twofold. Firstly it improves the attitude and ability of a barista to make any cup of coffee. Secondly it holds valuable marketing for a barista, coffee brand, coffee shop and roaster. There is no shame in being recognised as the best when you have been judged by a grouping of your industry colleagues. By opening up to judgement by peers, a barista is making the ultimate commitment to improving his or her individual ability to pull a shot of espresso, and a general commitment to improving the quality of the coffee industry as a whole.

Tags: barista champions australia, coffee australia, espresso, espresso coffee, specialty coffee, world barista champion

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am and is filed under Online Magazine, Opinion - news & views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.