It really happened. Two days, 62 competitors, damn near 24 hours of hot barista action. But Round One has officially come to a close and we know the 12 baristas who will be moving on to compete in tomorrow’s Semi-Finals round, where they will compete for one of the coveted six spots in the Finals round on Saturday.
The competition has been thrilling thus far. Every barista was competing at such a high level, making it to the round of 12 is no small feat. And I have no envy for the judges, even with all those tasty beverages coming their way. Without further ado, here are the 12 Semi-Finalists and when they will be taking the stage tomorrow…
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9:45am Berg Wu, Simple Kaffa, Taiwan @simplekaffa – 483 pts
10:08am Ying Hu, Outman Coffee, China – 473 pts
10:31am Yoshikazu Iwase, Rec Collective Co., Japan @y_iwase @REC_COFFEE – 478 pts
10:54am Hugh Kelly, ONA Coffee, Australia @hughkellyona @ONACoffee – 489.5 pts
11:17am Dawn Chan, The Cupping Room, Hong Kong @dawn_cfu @thecuppingroom – 456.5 pts
11:40am Charlotte Malaval, Ditta Artigianale, France @MalavalC @ditta_art – 501 pts
12:03pm Erna Tosberg, Roestbar Joka e. K., Germany @kommissar_ern – 482.5 pts
12:26pm Natalia Piotrowska, Independent, Ireland @NataliaFilo5 – 476.5 pts
12:49pm Lem Butler, Counter Culture Coffee, United States of America @sexyfoam @counter_culture – 487 pts
1:12pm Dan Fellows, Origin Coffee, United Kingdom @danfellows1 @origincoffee – 481 pts
1:35pm Ben Put, Monogram Coffee, Canada @putankhamun @monogramco – 508.5 pts
1:58pm Lex Wenneker, Espresso Service West, The Netherlands @lexwenneker @SpecialCoffeeNL – 456.5 pts
Stay tuned for more live coverage of the World Barista Championship in Dublin. If you missed any Round One action, full recaps can be found here and here.