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Congratulations to the UK barista champion, Gwilym Davies for winning the WBC in the recently concluded barista championship at Atlanta, US just last week.

After a gruelling 4 days of championship, he came out on top and continued the trend started by James Hoffman (2007 WBC champion from GB) & Stephen Morrisey (2008 WBC champion from Ireland) where the momentum shifts from the Nordic countries to the UK.The 6 finalist in this year WBC and their scores are as below.

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1st place: Gwilym Davies, UK – ? pts

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2nd place: Sammy Piccolo, Canada – 619.5 pts

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3rd place: Michael Phillips, US – 618.5 pts

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4th place: Colin Harmon, Ireland – 572 pts

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5th place: Lee Jong Hoon, Korea – 542 pts

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6th place: Attila Molnar – 535.5 pts

Looking at the scores of 2nd & 3rd place, I believe the scores between the top 3 are very close to each other and any of them is worthy winners.

I feel little sorry for Sammy Piccolo as he always comes 2nd or 3rd best when he competed in the WBC. Initially, I thought this year would be his as he had the experience under his belt and had the perfect preparation & support.

In the end, he could probably just missed out by a hairpin and if only his signature drink is bolder than Gwilym’s where his competitor assembled a collection of 16 ingredients for his signature drink instead.

Anyway, kudos to all the barista competitors who showed the world that barista is a serious professiona & coffee is just so special that you out there should appreciate it more.

For videos of the 2009 WBC, we will have to wait till the recorded shows are up. In the meantime, you can watch the recorded show of the 2008 WBC instead.

Watch out of the Thailand barista (a girl) as she free poured swan latte art. Impressive!