NETHERLANDS 12 July 2011

The much anticipated SCAE World of Coffee event at the MECC in Maastricht in late June brought together competitors from around the world and attracted an audience of over 3,000, the organisers said.

The coffee professionals, representing over 40 countries, arrived early at the event, along with their supporters, in order to perfect their performances in the practice rounds.

In the spacious exhibition hall, some 65 exhibitors set out their stalls, offering a huge range of coffee equipment and services, from green coffee through processing and brewing machines to products aimed at the coffee retailer and consumer. Coffee grower associations were present in force, with Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Rwanda, and Vietnam all showing their finest coffees. The SCAE’s own stand was busy throughout the event, recruiting new members and selling resource items from the Association’s shop. Exhibitors were very satisfied with the international mix of visitors at the accompanying trade show, and many have already signed up for space at the Vienna edition next year.

Part of this year's Exhibition was devoted to a popular new concept, The Village, where a number of local companies presented visitors with information on various ways of making and enjoying coffee, and there were tastings of a number of exotic coffees from India as well as high-level presenters offering their views of the coffee market.

Apart from the Championships, a well organised social programme made competitors and visitors quickly feel at home in the beautiful town of Maastricht. The festivities included a reception for the SCAE's Awards for Coffee Excellence at Maastricht's 17th-century Town Hall; a party raising funds for industry charity Coffee Kids at a bookshop inside a spectacular deconsecrated mediaeval church; a breakfast that allowed visitors to rub shoulders with a number of barista Champions; and an evening in the cellars of one of the area's oldest wineries.  

The completely sold out Barista Party marked the end of the event with a typical light-hearted and relaxed celebration attended by all the contestants.

Visitors were also able to take the World of Coffee tour of a number of coffee houses in the old town of Maastricht, and participating venues presented coffee roasted by renowned international specialty roasters. This was a huge success, and the specialty coffees themselves were already sold out after only two days.

The winners of the 2011 World Championships were:

The World Latte Art Championship was the first win for Greece, as Chris Loukakis scored 352.5 points to triumph over Mexico's Aurora Aleli Moreno Labastida, in second place, Ryan Tan of Singapore in third and Korea's Kim Jin-Kyu coming fourth.

Philip Leytes of Russia is this year's World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion, thanks to his score of 282 points, ahead of Gerard Meylaers of Belgium (second), Norway's Rune Andersen (third) and Thomas Schweiger of Germany in fourth place. Ireland's Ziad Abi Nakhoul was fifth, and the other finalist, Floriana Vlaicu of Romania was disqualified for running over the time limit.

Greece also took the World Cup Tasters Championship, with Kyriakos Ouzoundis scoring four correct in a time of 2:46. David Walsh of Ireland was second, with Terukiyo Tahara of Japan in third place and Brazil's Carolina Franco de Souza coming in fourth. 

Korea's Bae Jin-Saol was the winner in this year's World Cezve/Ibrik Championship, scoring 374 points, followed by Zoltan Kis of Hungary in second place, Kostas Arapoglu of Greece in third and Turkey's Turgay Yildizli coming in fourth.

Keith O’Sullivan of Ireland won the first edition of the brand new World Brewers Cup, narrowly ahead of James Hoffman of the UK, who came second, with Australian Luca Costanzo coming third. The other finalists in the new competition were Stefanos Domatiotis of Greece in fourth place, Poland's Tomasz Dziedzic in fifth and Miklos Gal of Hungary, sixth.

The particularly strong performance this year of Greece gave it the prize of Best Nation, in a competition that calculates each competing country's performances across all of the WCE Championships, including the World Barista Championship, held earlier in June in Bogotá. Second place for Best Nation this year went to Korea, and Russia took third place, ahead of the Netherlands (in fourth), Hungary (fifth), Norway (sixth), Ireland and Australia (who tied for seventh), the UK (at ninth position) and Turkey (tenth).

Next year's World of Coffee 2012 will take place in Vienna at the Messe Wien, June 13 - 15, and will include the next edition of the coveted World Barista Championship, along with World Brewers Cup, World Cup Tasters Championship and the World Cezve/Ibrik Championship. Mark your diaries now!

A fully illustrated report of the SCAE's World of Coffee in Maastricht will be included in the Autumn 2011 edition of Café Europa.

Pictured: The victorious Greek team celebrate winning Best Nation (photo by Phil Walker)