So I missed the plane. I missed the plane because the first plane was pushed back and back because when weather shows up in New York it’s like they haven’t ever seen weather before, and JFK is a hairdo. The whole sky clogs up and it takes hours to figure out how to land planes [...]

And it goes down like this: Sixth: Atilla Molnar (Hungary) 535.5 points Fifth: Lee Jong Hoon (Korea) 542 points Fourth: Colin Harmon (Ireland) 572 points Third: Mike Phillips (USA) 618.5 points Second: Sammy Piccolo (Canada) 619.5 points World Barista Champion: Gwilym Davies (UK) 623 points (Post-trophy Nick Cho interview first question: “How do you feel, [...]

Thus the day — and the long days before them — ends with Colin Harmon. His entry from this blogger gets the shortest shrift, largely because I could understand his Irish accent even less than I could get through the accents of Hungary and Korea! But all that said, Colin is great to watch, a [...]

So yes. Last we left Gwilym Davies in the preliminaries he was telling us why espresso is disappointing. It seems the judges weren’t convinced, and he is back again in the finals. He describes his Colombian Del Obispo as “loads of juicy fruit giving way to a treacle finish” — which probably sounds better to [...]

Oh, my journalistic abilities are tapping out a little at the moment. And I’m again behind. The milk and coffee must be in harmony, we are told. He looks like he is having so much fun — particularly when discussing his “special cream”. Signature drink is called “The Republic of Coffee Zone”, which gets coffee [...]

I am two competitors behind and Gwilym Davies is about to go on so this may be short and nonsensical. Phillips is better today than yesterday and yesterday was great. Signature drink is the same shot-splitting idea as referenced on these pages before, only with adjusted constituent elements (as the coffee has changed) like sea [...]

Atilla, in your powder blue sweater vest and with your colorful placemats and cappuccino caddies, you are a darling. This competitor from Hungary is using a single origin Beloya, a favorite coffee of so many people I know that when it is perfect is transcendent. He begins by assembling his signature drink, but I can’t [...]

This blogging stuff is going to be short and sweet, okay folks? It’s going to be hard to hold a camera and a notebook and your stomach in your throat all at the same time for a few straight hours. Sammy Piccolo is maybe the most practiced competitor here today, and this is the smoothest, [...]

Saturday morning. Chris and M’Lissa Owens are marching towards me across the spacious convention center floor. Do they need to borrow a car? No: they need me and my press pass to slip into the trade show floor before it’s open and find some of the “most fake tasting” cherry syrup I can find. I [...]

Sorry, whose idea was the flamenco club at 2am? Okay. Day one of the WBC went by so fast I barely had a chance to catch my breath, but day two, lemme tellya. When Nicaraguan champion Rebecca de Los Angeles Ramos Moran opened with “I Don’t Wanna Wait” (theme to Dawson’s Creek), did her entire [...]