Venue

Over eighty competitors will show their skills across four different skill-based competitions at the 2019 Berlin World Coffee Championships from June 6-8, hosted at the World of Coffee Berlin show. Berlin will be brimming with coffee professionals and fans, as the World Latte Art Championship, World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, World Cup Tasters Championship, and Cezve/Ibrik come to the Messe Expo centre on the city’s west side.


Competition

At the World Latte Art Championship, baristas focus on artistic expression in milk drinks — beginning by producing a single creative latte pattern at the Art Bar before moving to the main stage to create two identical free pour, and two identical designer lattes. Scores from both stages are combined to reveal the top 12 semi-finalists, who will create two matching sets of different free-pour latte patterns, and one matching set of free-pour macchiatos. The top six competitors qualify for the final round, where competitors make two different matching sets of free-pour latte patterns, and one matching set of designer lattes.

 

Sharing the stage in Berlin is the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, which promotes innovation in beverage recipes combining coffee and alcohol. The preliminary round is split into a stage round, where competitors produce two identical hot drinks, and two identical cold drinks, and the Spirit Bar round. The six competitors with the highest preliminary round scores will compete in the final round, where competitors produce two Irish Coffees and two coffee-and-alcohol-based designer drinks.

The World Cup Tasters Championship awards the professional coffee tasters who demonstrates speed, skill, and accuracy in distinguishing the taste differences in specialty coffees. Coffees of the world have many distinct taste characteristics and in this competition format the objective is for the taster to discriminate between the different coffees. Three cups are placed in a triangle, with 2 cups being identical coffees and one cup being a different coffee. Using skills of smell, taste, attention and experience, the taster will identify the odd cup in the triangle as quickly as they can. A total of 8 triangles are placed in each round. The top 8 competitors with the most correct answers and the fastest time proceed to the next Semi-Finals round. Then the top 4 will compete again in the Finals round to determine the next World Cup Tasters Champion.

The Cezve/Ibrik Championship celebrates the history of the cezve or ibrik, and the skills and understanding needed to prepare and present each cup. Competitors are encouraged to bring their own cultural twist or flair to their performance. Using sand or gas, competitors will have 15 minutes in round one and finals to prepare a simple cezve/ibrik, and a signature cezve/ibrik – complementing the quality of the brewed coffee.

If you need a quick break from the competition floor, you can sample international roasters at the Espresso Bar, or a variety of brewed coffee methods at the Brew Bar title-sponsored by Marco.


Travel Info

For more information on travel and accommodation, see the World of Coffee site.