From 62 to 12 to now six, the field has been winnowed down and we now know who will be taking the stage one last time tomorrow. Unlike Round One, where live scoring kept the world abreast of the barista rankings, the Semi-Finals scores were kept hush hush, so no one had any idea which competitors would be moving on to the Finals until their names were called during the big announcement.
It’s safe to say no one was surprised by the top 6, because everyone that competed today could have easily made it to Saturday. Conversely, there were some surprises coming from who DIDN’T make it. The field was just that tight this year. Yet there can be only six, until there can only be one. And that time will come tomorrow, but for now, here are the six World Barista Championship Finalists who will give it one more go.
Sprudge.com’s coverage of the 2016 World Barista Championship is made possible by Urnex Brands, Nuova Simonelli, and KitchenAid.
(in the order in which they will appear tomorrow…)
10:45 AM Charlotte Malaval, Ditta Artigianale, France @MalavalC @ditta_art
11:25 AM Yoshikazu Iwase, Rec Collective Co., Japan @y_iwase @REC_COFFEE
12:05 PM Lex Wenneker, Espresso Service West, The Netherlands @lexwenneker @SpecialCoffeeNL
12:45 PM Lem Butler, Counter Culture Coffee, United States of America @sexyfoam @counter_culture
1:25 PM Ben Put, Monogram Coffee, Canada @putankhamun @monogramco
2:05 PM Berg Wu, Simple Kaffa, Taiwan @simplekaffa
See you tomorrow to crown a new World Barista Champion!
