UNITED KINGDOM 27th June 2010

Michael Phillips of Intelligentsia in Chicago became the first American winner of the World Barista Championship in late June, at the 11th edition of the competition at the SCAE Event at Caffè Culture in London.

Two-time US Barista Champion Phillips produced a complicated and expertly timed presentation that demonstrated the subtle differences to taste in three coffees resulting from different processing methods. The judges awarded him 706 points.

Second in the 2010 WBC was Raul Rodas of Guatemala, who achieved 691 points, with Australian barista Scottie Callaghan reaching a total of 672.5 points from the judges, to take third place.

The other three finalists were Colin Harmon of Ireland, with 659.5 points in fourth place, Denmark's Søren Stiller Markussen, whose 644.5 points netted him fifth place and Stefanos Domatiotis of Greece, who was sixth with a score of 632 points.

Many thousands of people were watching the live feed of the Championships, with hundreds of retail shops around the world supporting the event under the Go Live Streaming Project, the WBC said.

Pictured are WBC Champion Michael Phillips (centre), with second place Raul Rodas (right) and third place Scottie Callaghan (left), from the confusedbee flickr page.