Every year, specialty coffee enthusiasts and communities all around the world excitedly look forward to World Coffee Championships, the pinnacle of the competitive coffee-making circuit. After the abrupt cancellation of the 2020 World Coffee Championships due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic, World Coffee Events and Specialty Coffee Association finally conducted the 2021 World Coffee Championships which took place in Milan, Italy on October 22 - October 26. If you missed the live stream of the events, read more to find out the three interesting facts about this year's World Coffee Championships.
The 2021 World Coffee Championships consist of the World Barista Championship, World Brewers Cup, and World Cup Tasters Championship. Originally, the World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup would take place at the same time while the World Cup Tasters Championship would take place with four other annual coffee events at a different time (yes, you read that right, there are seven annual coffee events indeed). Again, these changes were made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Indonesia was well represented in all three competitions
This year, Indonesia took part in all three events, with Mikael Jasin competing in the World Barista Championship, Santoso Ardiansyah competing in the World Brewers Cup, and Dahni Pawitra competing in the World Cup Tasters Championship. They previously competed in and won the 2020 Indonesia Barista Championship, Indonesia Brewers Cup, and Indonesia Cup Tasters Championship respectively. As a matter of fact, this is Mikael Jasin's second time competing in the World Barista Championship. He previously competed in the 2019 World Barista Championship which took place in Boston, United States of America and won fourth place.
While the odds were not in our favor this time, they will definitely be in ours next time around when we have come back better and stronger.
3. The pride in using Flores Manggarai coffee beans for the World Barista Championship
Mikael Jasin has always believed that there are ways to make Indonesian coffee culture more scalable and sustainable which eventually will provide better access for Indonesian coffee in the global specialty coffee market. This led to his decision to present coffee beans from Flores Manggarai on the global stage. Although he did not make it to the final, he started a way to revolutionize the Indonesian coffee culture so that all of us will be able to produce much better coffee. Indonesians should definitely take pride in knowing that Flores Manggarai coffee beans were served in the 2021 World Barista Championship.