Oatly Challenges SCA Specialty Coffee Association for Being "Outdated"!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

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The Oatly Challenge to Traditional Coffee Competition Rules

As the 2022 World Coffee Championships (including the World Brewers Championship WBrC & World Barista Championship WBC) kick off, besides attracting attention from coffee professionals and enthusiasts, the long-standing rule that only allows contestants to use dairy milk has become the target of criticism from many plant-based milk companies.

Oatly, the oat milk company, couldn't sit still any longer! On the second day of this year's competition, Oatly published an open letter on its official website stating that the WBC rule requiring contestants to only use dairy milk is outdated!

According to Oatly's explanation in their official letter, simply put, Oatly believes that oat milk coffee products are now widely loved and welcomed by consumers in coffee shops, with increasing demand from modern consumers. As a globally recognized specialty coffee association, the SCA's mission, vision, and core values include "sustainability." However, research shows that oat milk is more environmentally friendly than dairy milk and better aligns with sustainable development. Yet SCA requires WBC contestants to only use dairy milk, which is clearly contradictory to their stated values. Therefore, they demand that SCA immediately change the WBC competition rules to allow contestants to use oat milk.

The Social Media Campaign

Besides publicly challenging SCA, Oatly also began seeking supporters for their position. They launched the #OutdatedCoffeeRules campaign on Twitter, stating: "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."

The rule of only using dairy milk in competitions seems outdated. Especially coming from an organization representing coffee professionals, when thousands of people prefer plant-based alternatives to dairy products. This makes us wonder, if SCA continues to insist on dairy milk, what other outdated rules should their barista competitions include?

Unexpected Public Response

Oatly likely wanted to encourage social media users to pressure SCA to allow plant-based milks in WBC. However! The public responses put Oatly in an awkward position, to say the least... (The following screenshots are all web-translated)

Yes, there weren't many people in the comment section who agreed with Oatly's position! Although Oatly tried to argue in the comments about how good and environmentally friendly oat milk is, most netizens still believe that dairy milk is the way to go! Whether in coffee competitions or daily coffee shop service!

Some netizens pointed out that oat milk foam is unstable! Moreover, it overpowers the coffee's flavor, and it's not cheap either. The product quality made from these two materials cannot be compared or referenced. If oat milk is allowed in competitions, it would be unfair to any contestant.

Industry Perspectives

This isn't actually the first time Oatly has demanded SCA change the WBC's dairy milk-only rule, but previously they hadn't publicly challenged it. SCA had previously discussed this topic openly, and most industry professionals still support the dairy milk-only rule.

Some former WBC contestants expressed that allowing oat milk in competitions could lead to further rule changes. However, modifying existing scoring rules would require significant time and human resources, making competitions more complex.

A small number of contestants believe that allowing oat milk in competitions is inevitable, given its popularity among coffee shops and coffee consumers.

Image source: Internet

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