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Urnex Brands Named Official Cleaning Product Sponsor for WBC

Posted by Matt Milletto on December 19, 2008 at 8:09am

Just received this release from Andrew. Urnex, also an official Barista Exchange Partner, has been named the Official WBC Cleaning Product Sponsor. Thanks Urnex Brands, Inc. for your support for the specialty coffee industry! - Matt Urnex / Puro Caff Named World Barista Championship Cleaning Product Sponsor LONG BEACH, Calif. (December 19, 2008) - The World Barista Championship (WBC) has selected Urnex Brands Inc. / Puro Caff Group as the competition's official Cleaning Product Sponsor for 2009 - 2011. Once every 3 years, leading coffee industry suppliers vie for the prestigious opportunity to have their products featured as the official tools used by national barista champions at the annual World Barista Championship. All candidates considered for sponsorship must meet exacting technical standards set and tested by the WBC, but only one supplier from each category may be named an official sponsor. At the next World Barista Championship this April in Atlanta, barista champions representing over 56 countries will compete for the title of world's top coffee maker in front of a live audience of several hundred spectators and thousands of online viewers. About Urnex Brands / Puro Caff Urnex Brands, Inc. / Puro Caff Group is the world's leading manufacturer of specialty cleaning products and accessories for the coffee and espresso industry. Founded in 1936, the company manufactures and distributes its products to more than 50 countries. Urnex Brands, Inc. proudly offers 10 NSF certified products, including 5 listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute. For more information, please visit http://www.urnex.com About the World Barista Championship Jointly owned and operated by the Specialty Coffee Associations of America (SCAA) and Europe (SCAE), the World Barista Championship is the world's premier competitive coffee making event. The first WBC competition took place in Monte Carlo in October 2000 and has since held annual competitions Miami, Oslo, Boston, Trieste, Seattle, Berne, Tokyo and Copenhagen. The organization's next event will be held in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A., April 16-19, 2009 in conjunction with the 2009 SCAA Annual Symposium and Exposition. For more information, please visit http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com.

World Barista Championship selects top coffee machines for top baristas

Posted by Matt Milletto on August 29, 2008 at 5:17am

Press Release from the World Barista Championship Committee:

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World Barista Championship selects top coffee machines for top baristas World Barista Championship UK Ltd. has selected the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia as the official espresso machine and MAHLKÖNIG K30 (Vario and Twin) as the official espresso coffee grinder of its 2009 – 2011 competition seasons. LONDON (August 29, 2008) – The world’s top baristas will test their coffee making skills in competition using the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia espresso machine and MAHLKÖNIG K30 espresso grinders at World Barista Championship events in 2009 – 2011.

Once every 3 years, leading manufacturers of commercial coffee machines vie for the prestigious opportunity to have their equipment featured as the official tools used by national barista champions at the annual World Barista Championship. All candidates considered for equipment sponsorship must meet exacting technical standards set and tested by the WBC, but only one supplier from each category may prevail as the official sponsor. In the most recent contest held this June in Copenhagen, national barista champions from 51 countries converged to compete for the title of world’s top coffee maker in front of a live audience of several hundred spectators and thousands of online viewers. Next year’s World Barista Championship will be held April 16-19, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. in conjunction with the 2009 Specialty Coffee Association of America Annual Symposium and Exposition. About World Barista Championship UK Ltd. World Barista Championship UK Ltd is jointly owned by the Specialty Coffee Associations of America and Europe. The first WBC competition took place in Monte Carlo in October 2000 and has since held annual competitions Miami, Oslo, Boston, Trieste, Seattle, Berne, Tokyo and Copenhagen. The organization’s next event will be held in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A., April 16-19, 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com. About Nuova Simonelli S.p.A. Nuova Simonelli S.p.A. is an industry leader in the production of high quality commercial espresso machines and related equipment. Nuova Simonelli has been manufacturing espresso machines in Belforte del Chienti, Italy since 1936, and today has a worldwide reputation for reliability and innovation. For more information, please visit http://www.nuovasimonelli.com. About MAHLKÖNIG GmbH & Co.KG, The high quality of MAHLKÖNIG grinders guarantees precise and constant grinding results and long lifetimes. For more than 80 years MAHLKÖNIG has been the leading brand for high quality, professional grinders. For more information, visit http://www.mahlkoenig.de.

SCAA Names Emily Oak to World Barista Championship Board

Posted by Mike Ferguson on July 22, 2008 at 1:14pm

The Specialty Coffee Association of AmericaAppoints Emily Oak to World Barista Championship BoardLong Beach, CA. U.S.A. (July 22 2008) —The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) announces the appointment of Emily Oak as the newest member to represent the association's interest on the World Barista Championship (WBC) Board of Directors.Oak is Director of Training and Development for Australian Independent Roasters, an SCAA member and wholesale roaster located near Sydney, Australia. She is slated to serve a two-year term on the internationally-recognized barista competition's board.In addition to four representatives from the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), with whom the SCAA jointly owns the WBC, Oak joins current SCAA representatives Cindy Chang, of Counter Culture Coffee, Nicholas Cho of murky coffee, and Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers, LLC on the WBC Board of Directors, These volunteers are tasked with continuing the interest and growth of the WBC on a global scale while building a stronger educational and social platform for the worldwide barista community.Oak represented Australia as a competitor at the 2001 World Barista Championship in Miami. Since then she has served as a WBC judge, WBC regional coordinator for the Asia Pacific region, and chair of the WBC regional coordinator committee, in addition to other professional and volunteer accomplishments in the global specialty coffee industry."SCAA is pleased to select Emily to represent our association on the WBC Board of Directors," said SCAA Executive Director Ric Rhinehart. "We are confident she will provide SCAA with a strong presence within the internationally-recognized specialty coffee organization while also contributing to the WBC's continuing growth and success."“I’m very excited about representing the SCAA on the WBC board,” said Oak. “I have believed in the goals of the WBC since its inceptions and look forward to helping the organization continue to grow.”The stated goals of the WBC are:--To promote the growth, excellence and recognition in the barista profession.--To grow the barista's knowledge of and expertise in the preparation and serving of specialty, espresso coffee through competitions.--To promote the knowledge and consumption of specialty coffee to the consumer through the Barista.--To become globally recognized as the premier world barista event in the coffee calendar.About the SCAACelebrating 26 years of success, SCAA is the world's largest coffee trade association. SCAA members are located in more than 40 countries and represent every segment of the specialty coffee industry, from coffee growers to coffee roasters and retailers. The SCAA's mission is to be the recognized authority on specialty coffee, providing a common forum for the development and promotion of coffee excellence and sustainability. The SCAA's dedication to excellence in coffee is realized through the setting of quality standards for the industry; conducting research on coffee, equipment and perfection of craft; and providing education, training, resources and business services for members. The SCAA's annual conference is held in a different U.S. city each year and is the coffee industry's largest gathering and exhibition.About the WBCThe World Barista Championship was created initially by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe. The first WBC took place in Monte Carlo in October 2000. The Specialty Coffee Association of America quickly joined and the WBC is now a joint venture among the two sister organizations. The WBC is a nonprofit corporation headquartered in the United Kingdom. Ownership is shared between the SCAE and SCAA. The organization's 2009 event will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 16-19, 2008, in conjunction with the Specialty Coffee Association of America Symposium and Exposition.

Kaffa Cafe will have their own cafe again in Beijing.

Posted by Peter Tam on April 11, 2008 at 5:59am

Even if we decided not to have any cafes recently, we were asked to set up a cafe in a big office building, in Beijing area, with the most attractable conditions in the market.Yes, we decided to take it for such a good condition and also a chance to educate people how good an esresso and coffee drinks can be tasty. As the market need more cafes where people can find good coffee drinks, we can do it slowly and one by one. It seems that there will be more people knowing what a good coffee drink can be and where to find it. We shall have more and more chance to set up our own cafes, in such a big city. Or, maybe also for other cities.Chinese clients are new to taste coffee, and need longer time to get used to it. It takes more longer time to know what is good or not. For this reason, we have waited for years and at last, it is started.About months ago, a Singaporean market runner offered a good place and condition to the runner of *$s for northern China, and one of our trainees in 2002 was their chief of coffee operators, baristas. What they do is obviously a copy of *$s, and as you can imagine, what it will be. In my understanding, *$s is really succeeded in commercial and marketing, but not products of coffee drinks. The most important can be the time of end of 1980s, which no one can copy at all.My comments:As my business experience, the one who can win the game with *$s is only the one who has stronger conditions than *$s in some way, to compensate the time which *$s owned. A simple copy of the original can make no sense, I believe. Such things had been seen so many in different fields of the world market.Forget about the different opinions of espresso and its quality, let's concentrate on the marketing and the business side of the coffee market. It could be happened around the world.Blenz Coffee, came to Beijing of China, five years ago. Their first cafe was closed due to the poor business and poor organizaiton. They have only a copy of *$s, but worse than it. So, they are not able to open their own cafes, but receive only franchisees as investers. They are limited only in Beijing and Guangzhou, but almost not seen in Beijing, at least not in the downtown. For Guangzhou, there are not many cafes use prof. machines, so we have to educate local investers and to change the situation.For other cafes, from different countries, no osunds can be heard, neither good comments from clients.Welcome to comments and discuss about the business of coffee market around the world.

How do we improve the quality level of the world coffee drinks' market?

Posted by Peter Tam on June 7, 2008 at 1:30pm

For the top level of those coffee professionals, we may be at the similar level for the quality of espresso drinks.But, most people cannot make others to do the same, or even better coffee drinks. It is mainly due to the understanding about espresso and its brewing skills.As I said once, we can train about 30 - 50 people in 15 days, if there are enough people coming.Someone said that, they can do many more. Does it mean that they can have those people to make their cafes and the coffee drinks great? OK, let us make a simple calculation.Suppose they can train 80-100 people, then it would be > 150 people per month, and 1800 people per year. How many cafes they can have? it is probably 500 cafes? Or an half of them? In three years, their cafes will cover the whole country and improve their local coffee market totally. Does it happened somewhere?For us, the difficulty is mainly too few people who want to be trained, or know how to choose a right place to be trained. There are indeed many trainers here. If one care enough to visit some of them, and taste their coffee drinks, they can easily find that we are better. But, most people do not. Specially for those young people, they chat with others on the internet and go with them, without careful searching.On the other hand, our trainees are mostly the potential investors for cafes, only few would work as barista. They are mostly high educated and know how to choose the right one from several training places. So, the number of "high qualified cafes" are still small, but continuously increasing. For last year, it was about less than ten, but for this year, it is expected to be around 20-30 for the whole country.As many people knows, we are extremely different from the world coffee industry and those professional organizations. But, our theory really works well. Do you want to give it a try?If someone would have our "barista training" set up for other countries, we can give the best condition for cooperation, because the globel market is so huge and we cannot cover it all. We also expect to improve the quality level of the world coffee industry. So, we need your help.

Bellissimo wins Award at the 2008 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival for WBC documentary

Posted by Matt Milletto on June 5, 2008 at 5:00am

Bellissimo Media Productions wins Award at the 2008 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival for documentary about The World Barista Championship Portland, OR - Bellissimo Media Productions Wins Bronze Award at the 2008 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival for The World Barista Championship 2007: Tokyo. “The World Barista Championship 2007: Tokyo,” co-produced by Bellissimo Media Productions and the World Barista Championship (Wbc), was honoured with a Bronze Remi Award at the 41st Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival held April 11-20, 2008 in Houston. This elite award was given to only 158 video/film productions out of a total 4,500 category entries from 37 countries. WorldFest-Houston is the 3rd longest-running International film festival in North America and one of the premier film festivals in the world. Previous WorldFest-Houston winners include Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Demme, Ridley Scott, the Coen Brothers and Ang Lee, who were novice filmmakers when they each received their first awards at WorldFest. WorldFest-Houston offers 12 major areas of competition and awards. “The World Barista Championship 2007: Tokyo” won its award in the Film and Video Production Category in the training sub-category. “It’s a great honor to win this award,” said Bruce Milletto, Bellissimo president and the DVD’s director. “Knowing the criteria and how difficult it is to win an award at WorldFest makes this particular honor very sweet.”

“The World Barista Championship 2007: Tokyo,” documents the 8th Annual World Barista Championship (WBC) held in Tokyo, Japan July 31 to August 2, 2007. The DVD is the first of its kind produced in the eight-year history of the WBC, and uniquely captures both the heart and mind of the exciting 2007 championship event. This documentary-style DVD includes interviews, local colour shots and footage of many of the competitors in action. The film was shot and edited by Dana Vion of Sky’s the Limit Productions also based in Oregon. “The DVD documents the full WBC experience, and allows viewers to see and feel the excitement generated by this competition as well as to hear from the participants, attendees and coffee professionals from all over the world,” said Milletto. This is the third time Bellissimo Media Productions has been honoured by WorldFest-Houston. In 2001, the Bellissimo/Kenneth Davids production, “The Passionate Harvest,” was one of only 15 festival entries to win a Platinum Award, and in 2005, “Advanced Barista Training: Extreme Pours,” won a second place Gold Award in the training category. You can also find this DVD at PT's Coffee Roasters website or at Espresso101.com

Kaffa Cafe, a lonely walker on this lonely planet!

Posted by Peter Tam on May 5, 2008 at 9:17am

For years after I joining the website and forums abroard where we can meet the baristas, home-baristasm, and coffee professionals, we had been still alone for the good coffee and espresso drinks.In Chinese phrases, we say that it is the coldest when you are at the high level of development. It is what we have to be, and let us be there.I cannot conclude that the effects for the trainees from other training of baristas, while for us, it is so nice to have more and more trainess to have their own cafes opened aorund different cities in China. And for those who follow our suggestions, their cafes must have the high quality espresso drinks from the first day of their openning. No more time needed.After two opened in Hainan by one of our trainees, now one is going to open in Shenzhen, and another one is in Harbin, again, following another which was opened a couple of years ago.In Guangzhou, the coffee market is going down, and one can see only the cafe closed, not opened. The next wave will come after the new cafes opened by our trainees in near future.A couple of years ago, I and our colleagues were worried about this, due to those cafes with rather poor coffee drinks are opened fast, to decades of cafes in a year. But now, the market is down and everybody is quiet, and looking at the coffee market without investing any. In this case, our trainees' cafes are going to open one by one, steadily.Go, go, go, Kaffa Cafe is going, without any respects and worries from those who used to drink coffee and may know more about coffee, and good in business in this free market. We are practicing a new, or maybe in fact, the oldest business spirit for success.While everybody say NO, some people are copying from us but in terms of many different sources like taiwan and abroad. Our standards are also going to the people, the baristas, and the cafes finally. The world is changing, and the earthquake may occor some day.Recalling to the posts in the beginning of 2006, we knew only that we are learning. But, one day, we were surprisingly to find that we are just in front. Why the world is going so slowly?Wait, and see. What will happened, in near future.

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Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.