Oatly Challenges SCA Specialty Coffee Association for Being "Outdated"! The Result...

The Oatly Challenge to Traditional Coffee Competition Rules

As the 2022 World Coffee Championships (including the World Brewers Championship, WBrC, and the World Barista Championship, WBC) got underway, one long-standing rule — that competitors may only use dairy milk — drew fire from plant-based milk companies.

Oatly couldn't sit still. On the second day of competition, the oat milk company published an open letter on its official website declaring that the WBC's dairy-only rule is outdated.

In short, Oatly argued that oat milk drinks are now widely embraced in coffee shops, with demand from modern consumers only growing. The SCA, as the world's leading specialty coffee association, lists "sustainability" among its mission, vision, and core values — and research shows oat milk is more environmentally friendly than dairy. Yet the SCA requires WBC competitors to use dairy milk only, which Oatly called a blatant contradiction. Its demand: change the rules immediately and allow oat milk.

The Social Media Campaign

Beyond the open letter, Oatly went looking for public backup, launching the #OutdatedCoffeeRules campaign on Twitter: "If you're a barista, you probably know that the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has a rule that only allows dairy milk in the world's top barista competitions. If you're not a barista, then you now know some trivia that will surely make your barista friends happy."

A dairy-only rule does seem antiquated, Oatly argued, especially from an organization representing coffee professionals when thousands of consumers prefer plant-based alternatives. If the SCA insists on dairy, what other outdated rules might its competitions still carry?

Unexpected Public Response

Oatly presumably hoped social media users would pressure the SCA into accepting plant milks. Instead, the public response left the company decidedly awkward... (screenshots below are machine-translated)

Not many in the comment section sided with Oatly. Despite the company's efforts to argue oat milk's merits in the replies, most netizens stood firmly behind dairy — in competitions and in everyday café service alike.

Several pointed out that oat milk foam is unstable, that it overwhelms coffee's flavor, and that it isn't cheap. Products made from the two materials simply can't be compared, they argued, so allowing oat milk would be unfair to any competitor.

Industry Perspectives

This wasn't the first time Oatly had pushed the SCA to drop the dairy-only rule — just the first time it went public. The SCA had discussed the topic openly before, and most industry professionals still support keeping dairy as the standard.

Some former WBC contestants warned that admitting oat milk could open the door to further rule changes, and that rewriting the scoring system would take significant time and manpower, making competitions more complex.

A minority, however, believe allowing oat milk is inevitable, given its popularity in coffee shops and among consumers.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

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