Colombia & the 2011 World Barista Champs
Espresso Corp’s (and Guinness’s) first global coffee / business trip – and what an adventure it was! Guinness decided to take a good friend Geoff Christopher aka TNT (2nd in the world at Monopoly, strategic advisor & video producer). The Duo got off to a great start on day one of the WBC exploring the trade fair, meeting new people and talking to potential distributors for the Coffee Catcha. By day three there were some serious conversations with international companies and a Colombia distributor locked in.
It was an absolute buzz watching the worlds’ best baristas competing on stage and also being able to talk to them afterwards. The layout of the event was perfect. There were 3 competing stations with brand new Nuovo Suminnali machines waiting gracefully for baristas to perform. Crowds were crazy as mainly packed with Colombian fans. When Hide from New Zealand stepped up, the butterflies were frantic from all the NZ crew – so exciting! And when Colombia made the finals and El Salvador eventually took the win, the place erupted! What a world class event.
The barista party (and a few throughout the week) were pure Colombian style. They know how to party and put on parties! Such tight relationships made within the global coffee community made. TNT had to head back to NZ at the end of the WBC and left Guinness to carry on and explore Colombia. After staying with some friends of friends and locals, Guinness was well cultured and ready to visit an origin.
Venencia, a 200+ha origin about an hour’s jeep ride from Manizales was such bliss. Guinness stayed in an old farm house with maids, tropical animals/fruits/plants and of course, beautiful coffee plants EVERYWHERE! The personal tour was mind blowing with learnings from growing to processing to shipping to recycling coffee waste as fertilizer for seedlings. Such deep understanding of the pre-barista / flatwhite world that we see in NZ.
A very special and unique experience to be apart of, even after an 11 day transit (damn the Chile volcano and its smoke cloud!). A country of beauty. We will be back.
