NBC 2009 « weechuan.com

If you never heard of Nordic Barista Cup or in short NBC, you should. So what is this NBC all about? It is a team barista competition between the Nordic countries. I consider this competition as the best as I was lucky enough to attend once in 2005 at Oslo, Norway. I will post about that in the near future.

Every year, the NBC will be held in a different Nordic countries, which includes Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden. This year it is back to Iceland and it will be held at Saga Island from 17th-19th September 2009. The aim of NBC is to provide a yearly event where leading thinkers and doers in the coffee industry meet to inspire. Yes, it sure does as I have experienced first hand.

Ok, how can a competitor qualify to be competing in the event? First of all, the competitor has to be a member of the national team. At the Nordic Barista Cup only 4 national team members can compete. But the great thing of this competition, anyone can join this event too by signing up.

Every competition has rules but the primary rule of this competition is that there is no rule….

According to the NBC site, it is not a goal of the Nordic Barista Cup to focus on grams, extraction times etc. Instead the 3 important evaluation criteria is Team Spirit, Creativity and The Drinks.

At the end of day (after few days of competition), eventually there will be only a winner. This competition is not about winning as all the competitors are winners but it is the sharing of knowledge and a great event to meet so many great coffee people in the industry.

I just wish I can be there AGAIN because it is just so much fun! Anyway, good luck to the competitors in NBC and I will be keeping tabs on the NBC Live blog and Barista Magazine’s blog for the latest updates. And don’t forget to also follow Klaus Thomsen’s twitter updates.