Introduction of 2016 International (WBC) Competition process and registration method

The content of the WBC competition is mainly composed of three parts: Espresso,Cappuccino and Signaturecoffee, namely espresso, cappuccino and creative coffee. In the past, the requirement for cappuccino was quite strict, with single espresso mixed with whisked milk, the thickness of the foam was not less than one centimeter, and the size of the container was limited to 150~180ml. How to make delicious and coffee-flavored drinks under such stringent requirements has always been a great challenge for contestants. The new change replaces "cappuccino course" with "milk coffee course". There is no rigid requirement for the thickness of milk foam, and the size of the container has been relaxed to 30~240ml.

With regard to the changes in milkcoffee course, the explanation on WCE is:

After fifteen years of focusing on a single definition of a milk drink on the WBC stage, we think it's time to open up the milk beverage course to something that better represents where we are today as an industry: open-minded to anything new and delicious.

In the whole coffee industry, the mixture of milk and coffee is undoubtedly the most accepted and loved by the public. But on the WBC stage, milk coffee has been limited for 15 years. Therefore, from the next year, the WBC competition will accept the independent ideas of players from all over the world on the milk coffee.

"I'm also looking forward to seeing new combinations of milk and coffee being explored." when Matt talked about the changes in Milk Coffee, he also expressed expectations for the creativity of baristas in the future, but it may also be a hidden worry for the coffee industry.

"The freedom to choose the volume of the drink will promote laziness and could result in the stagnation of Roasting and Barista technique."

Relaxing the coffee-to-milk ratio is likely to slack off baristas and bakers. At present, many coffee roasting will have the problem of insufficient flavor development, and many people will confuse shallow roasting with flavor development. In the past, for a fixed proportion of cappuccino, if the flavor development of coffee beans was not enough, it would lead to the problem of weak drink and weak sense of balance, thus prompting roasters to improve in the direction of complete flavor development. now it only needs to reduce the proportion of milk when mixing to cover up the incomplete development of coffee beans. Obviously, this is not good for the improvement of the skills of baristas and bakers.

I love me a good Cappuccino. Well made Cappuccinos are rare. These changes could put them on the endangered list. " When the next perfect cappuccino is actually relatively rare, Matt worries that the rule change will make the perfect cappuccino less likely to appear.

The same worry comes from the 2009 WBC champion Gwilym Davies, "The capp is the most difficult milk drink to make: the balance of foam depth, bubble size and temp is a skill baristas should have, like being able to pour a classic capp, not just a swan."

I like a 5oz single Capp made well and it is very difficult to get, I fear it will now be even harder. "