I spent the past week immersing myself in the strange world of competitive coffee at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. It was a highly technical, highly caffeinated environment so you can imagine how frayed many nerves were by the time it came to announce the winner of the World Barista Championship (one of the oldest, most well-known, and prestigious competitions on the world circuit), late on Friday afternoon.

Here’s my news report for goodfood.com.au and The Age – stay tuned for a more in-depth feature on competitive coffee in weeks to come.

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This story was first published on goodfood.com.au on 30 September 2022.

By Peter Barrett

Melbourne’s own Anthony Douglas has been crowned the 2022 World Barista Champion at the prestigious World Coffee Championships, held today at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The 31-year-old barista trainer from Axil Coffee Roasters represented Australia in a field of nearly 50 competitors, whittled down to six finalists (from the UK, Canada, Japan, Sweden and USA). Each had 15 minutes to impress a panel of judges with an espresso, a milk-based drink, and a unique signature drink of their creation.

Known as the ‘Olympics’ or ‘Formula 1’ of competitive coffee making, competitors from across the globe backed by teams of specialty coffee enthusiasts spend months and even years developing and honing routines. Spectators watching from bleachers rising up on three sides of the barista ‘pit’, erupted in applause and cheers when Douglas was announced champion.

“It’s such an honour,” says Douglas about what it means to him to win on home soil. “It’s something I certainly don’t take for granted but we put a lot of work into this and I’m incredibly proud of myself and the team for this to finally happen. It’s taken seven years with a bit of push but we got there.”

In a 15-minute spectacle that feels at times part MasterChef, part Curiosity Show and part TED Talk, Douglas themed his routine around truth and delivering on promises as a barista. He also used cutting edge techniques including cryodesiccated milk (a pressure and slow heating method to concentrate flavour) and aroma discs (to enhance coffee aromatics).

Cool as a cucumber on stage (he rehearsed the routine more than 100 times), Douglas says he still felt the pressure when the winners were being announced.

“It’s always a nerve-racking process. You never know what’s on the score sheet. I was confident in the routine that I put up, but that being said, I don’t know how the other competitors went. So yeah, it’s just very nerve-racking.”

Head WBC judge and Melbourne coffee consultant Ben Bicknell says competitions like these provide a unique expression for the industry, but they’re far from “normal” café culture.

“They’re not what you will experience in the day-to-day cafe. But they provide a platform where people can really explore and innovate. And then that starts all trickling down into the rest of the industry. And in a couple of years’ time, you might see some of these techniques, or these conversations, starting to be present in your local cafes.”

Melbourne also produced Australia’s Brewer’s Cup Champion, Harry Ko, who competed in the World Brewers Cup Championship, highlighting the craft of filter coffee brewing by hand, earlier in the week. That competition was won by Taiwan’s Shih Yuan Hsu (Sherry).

The event brought to a close the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, which has been in full flight since Tuesday, hosting 120 exhibitors touting everything from cutting-edge roasting technologies and sleek Italian coffee machines to plant-based milks and the latest pour-over gadgets. The interest has been high, with more than 16,000 packing the halls – testament to Melbourne’s collective coffee obsession.

If you need more proof Melbourne is the centre of the coffee universe, take it from Poland’s Agnieszka “Aga” Rojewska – the first female to be crowned World Barista Champion, in 2018, in Amsterdam. She says Melbourne is the most developed market for specialty coffee (the highest grade of coffee available) in the world.

“If you’re living here, this is where the coffee ends. Every other country wants to be Melbourne,” she says. “It’s the most saturated market, [with] very educated customers that are not buying the coffee because it’s cheap, or its price, they’re looking for quality and they can recognise quality. […] This is where everybody wants to be: Australia.”

Asked what the World Barista Champ will be doing tonight to celebrate Douglas raised a (non-caffeinated, canned) beverage and said he’ll be drinking a few of those.

The World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup Championship move on to Athens, Greece in 2023.