The World Barista Championship this year was phenomenal. James Hoffmann is sure to be an incredible spokesperson this year for specialty coffee.
We’re not sure if Heather is going to compete again next year, but we’ve heard rumors she’s planning to make a comeback and win gold at the 2008 WBC in Copenhagen. The forty-five competitors are all on their way home to get plenty of rest.
They deserve it! We can’t stress enough what an amazing event this all has been. The SCAA and SCAJ put on such a brilliant show!
Check out all your World Barista Champion updates at
What an amazing day!! I am proud to announce that Heather Perry has won the prize for best espresso in the world! Her espresso, roasted by the Coffee Klatch, was picked among forty-five unique espresso blends from around the world! If that’s not enough, she took second place as the World Barista Champion! Heather is proud to be not only the first female United States Barista Champion, but the only two-time United States Barista Champion. She is now the world’s first United States Barista to place second - the highest ranking of a US barista ever! Congratulations, Heather Perry. The entire world is proud of you and your hard work, dedication and passion!
First place went to James Hoffmann of the United Kingdom. He and Heather are now the two top baristas in the world. Fantastic job!
Heather competed at 1:30, which gave her all morning to watch how her fellow competitors were shaping up. She was calm and confident up to her prep and competition time. Thankfully, the grinder she carried all the way from California ended up actually working. She was very grateful to the Swedish team (and expressed that to them on stage) for helping her identify and fix the problem yesterday.
See video of Heather in action!
Heather’s performance went off without a hitch. For those of who were there at the USBC, Heather was just as polished and smooth as her performances there, but there were a few changes made. First was that she changed the recipe for her signature drink slightly. The final drink combined cream infused with cinnamon, sugar, vanilla bean, lemon and orange with two layers of espresso mixed with sugar and egg yolks (which are, according to Heather, very consistently high quality in Japan).
The second change was that Heather explained a little bit more to the judges and the audience about where her passion for coffee comes from. “When I compete in the U.S., everybody knows me and I don’t have to work as hard to make sure my coffee passion comes through in my performance,” Heather tells me, “but no one knows me here.” Even for those of us who know and love Heather, it was nice to hear how her first trip to origin, Costa Rica in 2003, inspired the girl who had spent year’s in her family’s coffee business to make coffee her life. With Heather’s dedication, ambition, and intelligence, she would have been successful at anything she chose to do. Luckily for the coffee world and her co-workers and customers at Coffee Klatch, Heather chose to be a barista!
Satisfied with her performance, Heather spent the rest of the day mingling and socializing. 5:30 came soon enough and it was time for the finals announcement. Along with the barista champions from Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil, the U.K. and host country Japan, Heather was named one of the 6 finalists!!!
Team Klatch left shortly thereafter, in order to rest and refresh for tomorrow’s big performance. We wish her the best of luck and check back tomorrow to find out how she places!
23 competitors kicked off day 1 of the World Barista Championship and although Heather Perry was not one of them (she competes tomorrow) this does not mean that she had a relaxing day watching her fellow competitors duke it out. When we caught up with Heather to talk to her about day 1, she said it was “bad, very bad.”
First, the grinder that Heather carried all the way to Tokyo from California died not just once but twice today. Luckily, some skilled baristas were more than willing to help out their fellow competitor. The Swedish team had a crack at fixing the problem, and though it seemed to work for a while, the grinder later had problems that the Japanese engineers may or may not have worked out. “I’ve been working with the Compak grinder I won at USBC all week” Heather told us, “so if I end up using that grinder, I think I’ll be okay.”
However, things were further complicated when Heather found out that her practice time had been changed from 8 am tomorrow morning to 3:30 p.m. today… at 3:45. Luckily, this did not phase Heather and like the true champion she is, she practiced within the time she was given.
Team Klatch won’t reveal any secrets about the special milk or cream that Heather will be using during her performance time tomorrow, but we can report that they are still concerned about the Nitrous Oxide machine she has to use, and how that affects the her signature drink, which relies heavily on the texture of what comes out of the canister. “It just doesn’t get firm enough,” says Heather, who’s working on a solution.
One thing’s for sure: if anyone can handle all these curve balls it’s a seasoned pro like Heather. When we asked her how this year’s competition compares to the last WBC she competed in (in 2003) she says the skill and knowledge level of the baristas has evolved tremendously. She says she as a competitor has evolved even more than the competition itself. Sounds to us like that means she has a good chance of taking home the gold!
Check back tomorrow for an update on how Heather’s performance went, and for the announcement of the 6 finalists! Good luck Heather!
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