Should Baristas Participate in Coffee Competitions? How to Register for the World Coffee Championships?

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The Value of Coffee Competitions

Recently, as the WCC (World Coffee Championships) kicked off, many people currently working in or planning to enter the coffee industry have been asking whether they should participate in competitions.

Some believe that coffee professionals need to compete to enhance their expertise and career direction. Others question whether competitions are truly important or beneficial.

"After all, competing is so expensive!"

Participating in competitions is a valuable experience and certainly beneficial. However, the premise is that competition is not the ultimate way to prove your professionalism, but rather an opportunity to discover your shortcomings.

For competition goals, we shouldn't set them too high initially. If we set overly ambitious goals from the start, the process becomes extremely torturous, ultimately leading to a loss of passion for coffee-related matters and entering a state of confusion.

Therefore, regardless of the type of competition, victory and fame are not the only objectives. They represent opportunities for learning, stimulating in-depth research and innovation in coffee knowledge, and developing social networks. Winning is certainly good, but not meeting expectations shouldn't be discouraging – instead, we should identify reasons and work on improvement.

What Can You Learn from Competitions?

Participating in a coffee competition can actually bring many improvements. During practice, you continuously enhance your understanding of coffee extraction and find more solutions suitable for brewing extraction. When mistakes or improper operations occur during the competition, post-competition discussions with judges and fellow competitors will further improve you in various aspects.

When returning to your workplace, your work mindset will also change – you'll want to treat every customer as your judge, presenting them with a delicious coffee and showcasing your best self. In today's era where chain coffee shops are flourishing everywhere, independent coffee shops remain needed by the public because they offer different consumer experiences.

For the general consumer, not everyone can distinguish the differences between coffees. While the high quality of coffee itself and consistency in production are certainly important, people are willing to pay more at independent coffee shops for better, more professional coffee atmospheres and more detailed/customized services.

What Can Competitions Bring to You?

Before participating in competitions, how to make a consistently high-quality, better-tasting coffee is a question that every contestant constantly thinks about. Therefore, there's a greater desire for professional coffee knowledge!

During preparation, you'll learn more about water quality, extraction principles, creative coffee, and various other knowledge, constantly experimenting and practicing~

During competitions, besides technical improvements, personal communication skills, adaptability, and confidence will also be enhanced! One participant described themselves this way: going from socially anxious to socially confident takes just one competition.

He mentioned that competitions offer only one chance, and any hesitation or delay on the competition floor can affect the outcome. Therefore, when unexpected situations occur, we need to calmly and quickly find solutions. If mistakes happen during the competition, we must not lose confidence – we must confidently complete every subsequent step.

In many ways, competitions not only improve baristas' technical skills and professionalism but also represent a transformative experience. Even if future work isn't coffee-related, these skills will still be applicable~

For every competition, victory should not be the only or most important goal!

As with competitions, failure and success always complement each other. This is a way to connect yourself with coffee industry pioneers and social networks, as well as a great opportunity to showcase and communicate with more experienced people in the industry. Those who compete alongside you, with their great ambitions and depth of knowledge, will also help your career development.

Coffee competitions are not the only way for baristas to prove themselves! Regardless of which competition you join, make sure it's within your capabilities~ After all, the investment cost is truly significant!! If you can't apply what you've learned in the future, it's like throwing money into the sea...

Image source: Internet

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