| The Barista Camp |
| by Fritz Storm |
| I am very proud to say that we now have finished two exiting camps. One in Japan and one in Italy. If you visit www.thebaristacamp.com you will find pictures of the past camps as well as informations about The Barista Camp. |
| WBC 2011, Bogotá, Colombia |
| by Fritz Storm |
| A big congratulation to Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador, the new World Barista Champion 2011. What a great achievement, the first world champion from a producing country. This year I had the pleasure to work with Lina Zea from Colombia and Miki Suzuki from Japan, and they got number 8 and 5. I am honored and privileged to have had the chance to meet two such wonderful coffee people. They are still young, but what a mind setting. They both had to learn English besides a very tough training schedule and travel program. Lina can now after only 4 month speak almost fluently english. What makes them stand out is their personality, they simply have that ability to look at you and make you fell welcomed and special, they are extremely professional but also humble. This is a rare combination of many things, but it is everything I believe in. I am also very happy to see that another two micro roasters have made it all the way to the top. Maruyama Coffee, Japan and Amor Perfecto from Colombia. Congratulation, I am proud to work with you. |
| The Barista Camp |
| by Fritz Storm |
| I am very proud to announce that I finally have been able to create a new training space, together with Kentaro Maruyama. It is called "The Barista Camp" www.thebaristacamp.com It has been a project that slowly has been growing over the past 1 1/2 year, and now is ready to open its doors to the whole world. It is a training space where you can learn about the whole process in coffee from the ground to the cup, and it is all in the same camp that will last for 3 days! Go have a look at the exiting new offer to the coffee world! |
| The Colombian Barista Championships |
| by Fritz Storm |
| It is with great pleasure to announce that Lina won the National championship in Colombia 2010 2 days ago. Congratulations! I had the privilege to train her, Ever and Diego from "Amor Perfecto" in Colombia. They have all been very dedicated and passionated about the training. They have given 100% of their personality into the training, which I think is the key to a good result in competition. And they got rewarded for this with a 1., 2. and 7. place. So now Lina will be ready to represent Colombia at the WBC next year IN Colombia. |
| WBC London |
| by Fritz Storm |
| What a great show in London. The whole set-up looked fantastic. This year we had a semi-final round for the first time in history. It was a great success for everyone. More baristas and countries came in the spotlight due to this. It felt like to final rounds, very exciting and also much more reliable, in terms of making sure that the right finalist were selected. I am very proud to say that I had trained 4 out of the 12 semi-finalist, and 1 made it to the final. This was Colin Harmon, and he ended no. 4. It was a great presentation with a very serious but interesting message around water and coffee. I think that all "my" baristas made very passionate performances, with a lot of heart and knowledge behind. Please have a look at achievements, there you will find the ranking. |
| The Barista Camp |
| by Fritz Storm |
| Time is going really fast! I must admit it has been some time since I last wrote on the news. Wintertime is over us and I just started the second part of my training with "The Barista Camp". Please visit www.thebaristacamp.com In November we had the group training for the baristas, and now it will be followed up by individual training here in Copenhagen, where I just finished my training with the Japanese Champion Mie Nakahara. In two weeks it will be followed by Colin Harmon, then Attila Molnar and Daniel Remheden. |
| Mexican Championship |
| by Fritz Storm |
| After holiday time the competitions are beginning again. The Mexican Championships has just finished. It has been an exiting and busy week. 2 days judge training and 3 days competition. Many spectators and 23 competitors. It was a close final with many nice performances. The winner Fabrizio had an outstanding personality, and was able to control the situation best in the final round, congratulation. |
| Returning home after WBC Atlanta |
| by Fritz Storm |
| It has been an interesting WBC this year in many aspects. First of all the competition is growing (if everyone could get VISA). The baristas brings much more "new"coffees into the game. We are mowing away from the very stereotype picture of what espresso blend is. Seeing more single origins. The baristas are also getting better in knowing the coffees, and we now have a good mix of "old" baristas and new ones in the competition. THe judge-level has been raised as well due to our new certification program. We have a much more uniform judge group now. The calibration prior the competition was very good this year. Overall I look forward to continue my work on the board and to continue this road towards an even better competition in London next year. |
| New Pre-competition seminar in my program |
| by Fritz Storm |
| I am very happy to have created a new seminar that was launched at "Stockholm Coffee Academy" here in January. It is seminar that was created to meet those baristas who are interested in competing but never done it earlier. I go through most of the aspects in creating a competition-program and the rules and the new changes. I now have 6 years experience in training some of the best baristas all over the world, and created top 6 results every year in the WBC. This gives me great comfort in bringing knowledge to the new young generation of baristas. Meaning they will have a platform to create their own space in this, to develop from. |
| Fritz Storm is now WBC board member |
| by Fritz Storm |
| Beside being on the Judge certification committee, I am now also on the WBC board of directors. I am very proud and honoured to be on this board, where I will try to keep the competition "on both feet" and for the benefit of the baristas. But also be prepared to meet the future and what this require. I also look forward to work with some very professional coffee people. It is a fast growing competition with almost 60 countries competing now, after only 10 years. It tells me that coffee, its history and the craftsmanship behind, is one of the most fascinating things in the past 10 years and the coming. |