The Coffee Olympics

As the world’s best baristas fly in to London for the Coffee Masters, we take a look at how competitions can help to spread the word about speciality coffee

The eighth London Coffee Festival, which takes place from 12th to 15th April, will once again see the speciality coffee community come together to learn, inspire, recruit and, of course, compete. Taking centre stage at the festival is Coffee Masters, a key event where “best class” baristas from around the world compete for glory and prizes across seven coffee disciplines.

“Competitions such as Coffee Masters are enabling the vision of a global community to become more real,” says David Donde, founder of Cape Town’s Truth Coffee Roasting and one of the judges at this year’s competition. “It’s great to see baristas competing against each other, rather than country against country. It helps to make the world a smaller place.”

The international panel of judges has high expectations for the 20 gifted baristas who are flying in from all over the globe to brew, pour latte art, prepare signature coffee drinks and face “the dreaded order”. “I am expecting the level to be higher than ever,” says Anne Lunel, who has been part of the Coffee Masters team since its launch three years ago. “The new competitors are likely to have observed previous competitions and picked up a few things. I’m excited to see what this year’s competitors bring to the stage.”