The level at the World Barista Championships was unreal this year. Judges were taken on a wild ride of mindfulness, electromagnetic waves, origami, emotion - not to mention the best coffees in the world, exclusively from Colombia and Panama in the Finals round (interesting, but unsurprising!). Congratulations to longtime competitor and excellent human, Mikael Jasin!
In an unusual and enthralling World Barista Championships Finals day in Busan, competition veteran Mikael Jasin of Indonesia claimed top spot by just ONE POINT over Jack Simpson of Australia (Springboks at the Rugby World Cup style!). To give you some context, there are upwards of 700 points to play for and half points are also a thing, so to be separated by only one point is absolutely wild!
Not only that, Ian Kissick of Ireland smashed his surprise semi-final performance (placing second in that round!) after being left out of original semi-final line-up due to a clerical error and found himself in the Finals, making it a World first, with seven finalists in the last round.
Wow!
Mikael has been competing for a decade and this culmination of his competitive pursuits was emotional and must also be a huge relief after all he and his Team have invested over the years to achieve this pinnacle of coffee competition.
His set focused on his journey to achieve mindfulness after burning out and it was both calming and joyful. A great combination for a performance. The live coverage by Sprudge was awesome and you can catch up here.
Huge shout out to Jack Simpson who had an incredible set using amazing technology with low frequency electromagnetic waves (you can read more about this in our latest magazine!). He achieved his goal of being better than he was the year before. 3rd last year, 2nd this year, who knows what the future holds!
Congratulations to all the Finalists, you were all so impressive!
South Africa's Luke Letts placed 38th out of 53 competing baristas. Well done Luke, amazing for your first time on the World Stage! You can see the full list of rankings here.
From left to right: 7th Zjevaun Lemar Janga, The Netherlands, 5th Junghwan Lim, South Korea, 3rd Takayuki Ishitani, Japan, 1st Mikael Jasin representing Indonesia, 2nd Jack Simpson, Australia, 4th Honoka Kawashima, Aotearoa / New Zealand, 6th Ian Kissick, Ireland
Images by World Coffee Championships
Watch Mikael Jasin's winning set below:
And Jack Simpson's crazy tech is well worth a watch:
