Ireland’s Stephen Morrissey becomes World Barista Champion

24th June 2008

After demonstrating his exemplary barista skills in front of a packed audience at Copenhagen’s Øksenhallen at the SCAE’s Wonderful Coffee event, Irish barista champion Stephen Morrissey on June 22 took the top prize in the World Barista Championship.

The competition, which attracted the national barista champions from 51 nations, also brought in large groups of supporters, swelling the numbers at the Wonderful Coffee event, and spilling into a separate arena where more audience members gathered to watch the contest on huge video screens.

Morrissey achieved a score of 738.5 points in the exacting competition, edging out second place David Makin (with 733 points) from Australia, and third place Liesbeth Sleijster from the Netherlands (694.5 points). The other finalists in the closely followed contest were Daniel Remheden of Sweden, in fourth place, Canada’s Michael Yung who came fifth, with home team representative, Danish SCAE Chapter National Coordinator Søren Stiller Markussen, in sixth place.

The four-day WBC took place for the ninth time in Copenhagen, and Morrissey was the first-ever Irish winner of the barista crown.

The organisers estimated that Wonderful Coffee and the WBC had attracted about 5,000 coffee enthusiasts and industry people to Copenhagen for the events.