The new World Barista Champion is from Ireland and his name is Stephen Morrisey. After a final where all the baristas did an extremely professional presentation, it was from the audience very difficult to say who would run off with the title. Stephen took some chances - or at least he had decided to do a few things in a little different way - and maybe this was what paid off.

First thing to notice was that Stephen packed both portafilters and brewed both espressoes at the same time. He was the only on in the final to do this. He had also decided that he wouldn't tell the judges what they could expect to taste in the cups. He wanted them to be surprised and find out themself what kind of flavours and aromas was in the cup. This was quite untraditional since all other barista make sure to set up the judges expectations for what they are going to taste. Third thing was his use of music. He had chosen some very cool beats and when he was not talking the volume was increased and it worked out pretty good. Alle this resulted in a score of 738,5 points, which was only 5,5 points more than the barista who came ind 2nd, Australia's David Makin. Then there was a good margin to the 3rd place, Liesbeth Sleijster from the Netherlands who scored 694,5 points.

Michael Yung from Canada was very unlucky in his final presentation. For his signature drink he needed to brew some coffee on his siphon coffee maker. But when he wanted to heat up the water, his butane burner did not work. He had no choice but to substitute his siphon coffee with espresso. It was incredible to see how calm he was during this unprepared accident. The two MCs Carl Sara and James Hoffmann afterwards asked Michael if he had trained this kind of episode, and he explained that he knew what he would do if it happened, but had never trained it.

Speaking of the MCs they should receive a great acknowledgement for their work at the stage. In the final round the breaks between the baristas were quite long, but these two guys really knew how to make it interesting. Very well done! One of the topics they discussed was how great a cooperation the baristas has backstage. The interact, help and learn from each other and as such they are all getting better. In this connection I think that a lot of these baristas deserve a credit for taking this and other experiences out to all the baristas and home-baristas through different internet forums. In the few forums I follow, I often meet very good advices from people like James Hoffmann, Klaus Thomsen, Carl Sara, Stephen Morrisey and lots of other "competition baristas". It's great to see that the knowledge gets from the backstages to the public.

Congratulations to Stephen and all other finalists for they great achievements.