Every year, since 2000, competitors from around the world come together to show the world everything they can about coffee. The competition this year comprises of four separate events; The World Barista Championship, The World Latte Art Championship, The World Cup Tasting Championship and The World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship. Along with the competition are a series of functions all about coffee which participants can attend and be educated on various aspects, techniques and topics of coffee.

Photos from previous competitions

To get there, competitors must face regional and then national championships to get on the international arena. Our own Catherine Ferrari managed to win the Western Australian Cup Tasting Championship then went on to win the Australian national competition; now she is competing for the international title. Cup Tasting is a little known technique where a competitor is challenged with 8 groups of 3 cups of coffee. From these groups, 2 coffees are the same and one is different. A cup taster must go through each of 3 coffees, and put forward the odd one out. A champion cup taster should be able to do this in under 3 minutes.

The competitor does not have to judge the coffee in anyway, but should be able to use their palate and knowledge to decipher the different coffees, either by origin, roasting technique or taste. Below is a photo of 2007 competitors from the SCAE.

The Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, SCAE is the host of the competition this year held in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, Denmark. The competition runs from 19th - 22nd June 2008.

Including Catherine Ferrari for Australia, the competitors for the World Cup Tasting Championship are:

• Jae Bum Kin - Korea
• Walter Stingl - Austria
• Bart Van Sanden - Belgium
• Nikola Ziganto - Croatia
• David Paclt - Czech Republic
• Casper Engel Rasmussen - Denmark
• Marta Piigli - Estonia
• Ivan Ore - Finland
• Florian Benkhofer - Germany
• Arni Ragnarsson - Iceland
• Stephen Morrissey - Ireland
• Ram Evgi - Israel
• Sauro Dall’aglio - Italy
• Adib Maksoud - Lebanon
• Vytautas Kratulis - Lithuania
• Janneke Neutelings - Netherlands
• Rasmus Helegebostad - Norway
• Piotr Dominiczak - Poland
• Alexandr Selivanov - Russia
• Anna Nordström - Sweden
• Ingo Rogalla - Switzerland
• Aysin Aydogdu - Turkey
• James Hoffmann - United Kingdom
• Jacques Pereira Carneiro - Brazil
• Jorge Escobar - El Salvador
• Edwin Martinez - United States of America

The competitor line up is a rich selection of coffee tasters from countries that produce, export and consume coffee.

To find out more information on the rules and judging of The Cup Tasting Championship visit http://www.world-cuptasting-championship.com/competition.php. The official start of competition is Saturday 21st June.

To find out more information on the other competitions click on the following links: