Original subtitles

♪ Standing right in front of me ♪

♪ I see what you are

♪ Fall apart with that look on your face ♪

♪ Known this type before

♪ I thought I learned my lesson ♪

♪ But I can't seem to let it go ♪

♪ Nothing left and it's pulling me under ♪

♪ It's all out of my control

♪ Cause we can't get enough of this lately ♪

♪ Trying hard in our best in life ♪

♪ So tell me what you are

♪ And don't plainly doing what we love ♪

♪ In our best case life

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Doing what we love

♪ Cause we can't get enough of this lately ♪

♪ Trying hard at our best in life ♪

♪ So tell me what you are

♪ And don't plainly

♪ Doing what we love

♪ In our best case life

- Should we get some competitors out?

Pardon?

Should we get some competitors out?

- You really don't know what to expect

when you get there.

You'll be surrounded by

some of the best baristas

in the world.

These are the best of the best,

the cream of the crop.

And they're all representing their country.

They're all hungry to do very well in this competition.

And that can be very stressful.

- It's super, super intense.

To make it to world,

you're already one of the better baristas.

You're the best barista competitor

from your country.

When I won the title,

initially, people treated me different.

I think there's the expectation

that when someone wins a title that

everything changes.

Oh, that man has a title now.

Oh he must be taken more seriously.

I had a guy in here take a selfie with me one day.

It was weird.

He like tanty on the counter,

he's like,

you're the Irish barista champion.

I kind of like, I am.

And he's like do you want to take a selfie with me.

I was okay.

This is weird for me

that someone wanted to take a selfie with me.

I just found that so bizarre.

And I kind of really awkwardly like.

One of our most regular customers

took it upon himself one day

to write a poem about my coffee shop

a proper order.

And that's the name of the poem,

proper order.

He starts talking about me in the poem,

and you know,

He starts talking it's hard not to feel it.

- Morning Niall.

Can I get a flat white, please.

Innocently, he took over solicitors.

Striped the back and painted gray,

laid hardened oak,

handmade,

and an oversized window that shed light on this

proper order.

Loving Dublin highlighted this,

Dublin loving

and roasters like playlists change with moods.

This is the birthplace of the caffeine inquisition

with an ala carte menu

that became his carte blanche.

Opening too early and closing too late,

this dream transformed his life in ways unforeseen.

There are no baristas here,

only friends,

and they'll slap and tickle if you order properly.

Accidentally he took over an industry,

stripped it back with childish play,

created bespoke memories,

a gentle perfection that illuminates this

proper order

- As a kid, I always used to get nervous

about what other people thought of me.

Of course you still get nervous

when you're about to go on stage.

But I love to remember the wet room,

so it's this exhibition at the Natural History Museum

in Berlin.

It's a room within a room

that's made out of glass.

And it's just huge.

When you look at it,

you feel small and inferior.

If I don't want to do what I'm anxious about,

if I don't want to go onstage

and I'm freaking out,

like I can't do this,

I just picture myself in one of those creepy,

cylindrical glass bottles.

I may as well just be in there

if I don't do what

I'm meant to be doing.

There's no point to

being scared of life.

-Tasting is a huge part

of what makes me who I am,

and it kind of irritates my wife

to a degree because I like,

she'll ask me how dinner was.

I have this thing were if people ask me a question

about how something tastes,

I kind of go into it like coffee taster mode,

and I just begin to analyze

and like let them know what I'm thinking in my head.

And sometimes those things aren't positive.

Smells kind of like blue cheese.

- He has an amazing palate.

And I think that's where the competition is all about.

You have to not only know your coffee,

but you have to explain why

they're tasting what they're tasting.

And if you don't have a palate for that,

you're gonna suffer in this competition.

- I've hurt my,

I hurt my wife's feelings a few times

just being pretty honest about

I hurt my wife's the way things taste.

- It is both frustrating

because I'm the one that cooks for him,

and really fascinating.

I love the way he tastes things.

- Let me do this Grim Reaper

in the like avalanche size.

- [Claire] I get kind of like jealous

that I can't taste things the way he tastes them.

- This is like green apple,

tangerine and blue raspberry.

It has a lot of acidity,

and it's pretty fruity.

That's one of the things that I've really drawn

to love about coffee

is that coffees can be comprised

of such complex acids.

But yeah, being at that it's not only like my livelihood

being a taster,

but it's also like

a thing that I can't turn off.

- Hi.

Welcome to Coffee with Brian,

brought to you by,

- [Computer Voice] Sanremo coffee machines.

- So, you want to be a world

champion barista.

Well heres a few things that you'll need to know.

Baristas will need to make 12 drinks

in 15 minutes,

four espressos,

four milk beverages,

and four signature drinks

for a panel of,

a panel of judges.

[upbeat music]

Baristas will receive points

for how accurately they describe

their coffee's flavor notes to the judges.

Competitors will loose one point

for every second they go over time.

Anyone that goes a full minute over time

will be disqualified.

A barista's signature drink

may include any ingredient you wish.

The ingredient must complement the coffee,

and create a new flavor experience.

You may not use alcohol.

Here's a good one.

Judges may assign points

for inspiration,

passion and originality of a barista's routine.

In conclusion,

people often say your best is good enough.

Sometimes those people are wrong.

Winning this competition is gonna be tough.

But think about this,

how good would it feel

to be the best in the world at something?

Right.

[electronic music]

♪ You buried me

♪ Right where I belonged

- That's my bad.

[electronic music]

♪ A song so sweet

♪ From back when I was born

♪ The loving creak

♪ Of Floorboards by the door

♪ Hopeful I waited hopeful I called ♪

♪ No one would answer at all

♪ On Division Street

♪ I would like to find to find the answers ♪

I'm ready to talk whenever you guys are.

Cup A.

I liked it.

I got a little kind of cooked fruit,

and some stone fruit on it.

- It's a little dry.

A bit like dry and crispy.

- Cereal fruit,

like fruit cereals.

- Oh, you mean like fruity pebbles kind of situation.

- Kind of savory,

still like juicy, citric, right.

Still good sweetness, but had like this onion

kind of like herb quality coming back.

- Very minor amount of savory,

so it also.

So it wouldn't be my favorite.

- This would be a coffee we could serve out like

holding up over

the long term.

- [Man] What did you think of D?

- Interesting one.

Not one of my favorites.

I feel pretty confident

it's not gonna hold up.

- Yeah.

Yeah, that coffee scared the living crap out of me.

- These were probably selections

that we made in Panama

that tasted really amazing,

like super fruity,

really bright and floral

that haven't held up.

It's a little bit disappointing in that

the fruit is really kind of like fallen apart.

[electronic music]

- I guess I'm unique in the fact that

being synesthetic,

when I taste the coffee,

it's like a little flash of color.

Some people are gonna watch this and go

your man's talking shit.

He does not see color when he tastes the coffee.

But I do.

So like when I taste the coffee,

you know, for example,

we have natural Coast Rican on the bar at the moment.

That is like bright pink

with a black line underneath it.

But it's got like a wavy texture.

And I know now,

like after a couple of years in the coffee industry,

that that is, you know,

cherry's dark chocolate

and the wavy texture is like a natural.

Like it's funky.

[synthetic music]

I don't talk about it anymore

because it becomes one of those things

oh, taste that.

What color is that?

With my synesthesia anyway,

when I taste something,

sometimes it can be like a blessing,

and sometimes it can be a curse.

So sometimes I can see something in a coffee that

maybe other people wouldn't taste.

So like there might be a little green,

a couple of green spots down in the corner.

And I say what is that.

It kind of makes me look into things a little bit more.

But then other times,

something will appear and it's like this big band of color.

I'm like I don't know what that is.

I can't figure it out.

It helps me probe a coffee,

but then sometimes it can be really frustrating

if I can't figure out what it is.

[soft music]

That one would be like way more compact,

still like a lot of the favorable,

like really, really kind of blueberry dominant.

And when I tasted it,

it had like golden sparkles in it.

Magical.

Definitely. Taking that one.

All right.

We have a recipe.

Here we go.

- He wants nothing but to compete.

I mean I don't know if it's a swimming background.

I don't know what he was like as a six year old, but

I wouldn't want to have been in the same playground as him.

- I just remember, you know,

my mom bringing me to a pool

was one of my first memories,

and just being thrown in.

And from the age of 15,

swimming just started to get really, really serious.

I was lucky enough to be

flown all over the world for swimming competitions.

I think most of my life has been defined by

my career in swimming.

[soft music]

The whole swimming thing is ingrained competition in me.

When I stopped swimming,

realizing that what I had done,

and done really, really well

in my life so far,

just wasn't for me anymore.

That's a tough thing to do,

like something that my whole life was dedicated to,

just realizing that I didn't enjoy it anymore.

- From the day one,

he wanted to be the best.

He's almost his own worst enemy.

Sometimes his ambition

outweighs his ability.

[soft music]

- [Kyle] I am naturally a pretty competitive guy.

[soft music]

Last year,

it was the qualifying event in Kansas City,

and like I prepared really, really well.

I had this amazing coffee,

and then something happens on stage,

and apparently the shots just tasted awful.

I scored really poorly.

I didn't qualify to even compete at nationals last year.

Defeat is really difficult.

And missing the mark,

like it shook me to the core.

- I really just stress so much for him.

Because I know that he stresses out so much,

and I hate to see him anxious,

and worried.

And he's kind of,

he can be sort of,

what is the word I'm looking for,

like inconsolable.

- Personally in my own life, and

in the life of my family,

we struggle with

clinical depression.

And that's like a thing

that is real in my life,

and it's like,

it's most definitely the hardest thing.

- This dude wasn't gonna compete again

after

he didn't do so well in qualifiers

last year.

And he was very down on himself,

down on the competition.

Dude is really hard on himself.

He sets the bar really high for himself,

and then when he

doesn't hit it,

I mean he just beats himself up.

So when he said he wanted to compete again,

I thought that was super, super inspiring.

- [Announcer] First place,

United States Barista champion,

give it up

for Kyle Ramage,

the current USA

Durham, North Carolina.

Give it up folks for your new champions

representing the United States

in Seoul, Korea.

- Having people in my life

that love me and correct me

when my mind is just wrong,

like my wife is a great grounding force in that,

and Lem helped me

just try to stay grounded

in knowing that I have worth,

and I have meaning,

and that they love me.

- It all started just from being in a small town

in Australia.

And my parents split up.

They got divorced when I was 15.

It was a lot of shit taken out on me.

Yeah, anyway.

They, yeah

childhood.

I guess Berlin will forever be the place

that I became an adult.

It definitely was the first place

that I was alone for the first time in my life,

moved from my family

with my partner.

Moved to Berlin,

and then all of a sudden,

he wasn't there and I had

no one who I considered family.

And that was a really hard time.

But,

[electronic music]

It's just the place I learnt to be alone

and go after what I wanted.

And I have made my family here.

It just feels like home now.

[electronic music]

- In terms of Miki's personal life,

I think it's pretty tough.

Because it's Miki's the one who's competing.

Me? It's okay, you know.

I go training

and say what I need to say.

And I go back home

and I eat dinner, and I sleep.

But for Miki,

she need to work really hard

even after

heading back to home.

She need to work on so many things.

And she need to coordinate so many things.

And her personal life,

I think it's all about coffee now

I think. It's 100 percent.

[soft music] [intercom chattering]

[soft music]

- [Miki] Wow

- What I hate about barista competitions is how

boring everyone's set up is.

It's all made out of wood.

And it's like,

all like

the most unstimulating

things you can find put on to tables.

I wanted to have a really good representation diagram

that was engaging,

and actually quite cool to look at.

Your example.

[laughter]

I know okay,

it looks more complicated than it is.

But,

also the colors, like if the colors match

my cups.

- It should be colorful,

that's the whole point

is that everything's colorful.

It's like making specialty coffee fun

and not boring as shit.

And I thought a popup book would be really cool

because it's just like everyone loved,

I loved that as a child,

like loved it.

- Turns out

they're very hard to make.

And whilst my boyfriend is very talented,

I wouldn't want to put that pressure on him

to try and make this giant, complicated popup book

that pull tabs,

and oxygen comes out.

And like pull tabs, and green beans come out,

and they split.

So we're looking into other avenues

now using the same concept,

but just not so complicated.

Is it possible?

Are you a genius?

Can you do it?

- Uh huh.

- [Chole] If you want clean underwear for the next month,

you don't have a choice, no.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- [Chole] Thank you.

He's so understanding.

I could not imagine

being with someone

who's competing in one of these competitions.

Like you're fucking crazy.

- My life changed the most when

I heard Ali say I do.

Being Irish, you're always like filled with self doubt.

So I it's really, really nice to get

the pat on the back from Ali to be like

you're a good guy.

You're worth spending the rest of my life with.

I wouldn't be the Irish barista champion

without Ali.

In my preparation for the championship this year,

I was like

rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing,

and really kind of like not enjoying the whole process

cause it was just draining.

Ali pushed me to do better and better and better.

And yeah, if it wasn't for Ali pushing me forward to do it,

I would have just packed it in

two weeks before the competition and withdrawn.

- We've really grown up together.

Like I think one of the dumbest

things that we did

was we graduated from college,

two weeks later we got married,

and two months later we moved 800 miles away

to North Carolina.

- 800 miles away

with like 1200 bucks , I think we had.

- Oh yeah, we had like $1200 in our bank account,

no job prospects,

and we were so broke.

And I remember going to bed that night

thinking like this is our life.

Like we're gonna be poor,

broke, grad students for the rest of our life.

And we just need to pack up

and go home to Mississippi

because this is not,

this isn't gonna work.

And so to look back on that like moment of disparity now,

and see how far we've come because of Kyle's hard work,

and dedication, and success,

and love for the craft of coffee,

and his passion,

I mean it's just,

it's the most humbling thing ever.

It really is.

- Yeah.

She said it pretty well.

I don't know.

It's been hard, but it's been fun.

- I don't even know what worlds can bring for us,

but I know it's huge.

I made our flights

in such a way that we don't have to fly out

of South Korea the day after

cause I fully intend to be celebrating

all night on November 12th

because my husband is the new World Barista champion.

- No pressure.

- I don't know whether she has a boyfriend or not.

[laughter]

I don't even know.

Like I can't really ask.

I feel responsible for that.

- Here we see Chloe Nattrass

practicing her lines for the World Barista Championships.

Each competitor has 15 minutes

to be able to produce a lot of really technical information

and still make 12 drinks.

So knowing every single one of these lines

can really pay dividends.

Let's watch.

- This results in an incredibly clean,

sweet espresso

with an amazingly bright acidity,

in my opinion, a perfectly balanced espresso.

And yeah, so right now it's just workflow

and making sure everything's timed right,

and getting a loose.

Cause last night, I got a little bit high,

and read through my speech again,

and was like delete, delete, delete,

fuck that, fuck that,

fuck that.

And I rewrote half of it.

And it's better now.

- Okay, once from the top.

Do you want to go,

do you want to start from the top?

- Firstly, I freeze my coffee by "liquid nitrogen."

- That was good.

Liquid nitrogen,

liquid nitrogen,

you want to combine together.

Liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen.

- Liquid nitrogen.

- Yeah, good, good.

- [Miki] Liquid nitrogen.

- Good, good. - [Miki] Liquid nitrogen.

- Good, and same as before.

Double grind, you combine together.

Double grind.

- [Miki] Double grind.

- Good, good.

- [Miki] Double grind.

- Like that, like that.

Janet Jackson.

Janet Jackson.

Janet Jackson.

Sorry. [laughter]

Janet Jackson.

- Janet Jackson.

- Janet Jackson.

Say Janet Jackson.

- [Miki] Janet Jackson.

Janet Jackson.

Double grind.

Double grind.

- Good, good.

- What we talked about last week

was with the hands were a little bit floppy

a bit vague.

You didn't know what to do with them.

All I said was to keep them down,

unless you're gonna use them.

Use them to enhance,

and to emphasize what you're saying.

And you did.

So much more going on with your hands,

you were telling a story with your hands

as well as your eyes.

That was great.

And of course, the content of what you were saying too.

So I was very pleased

where there's much more going on,

much more confidence,

much more presence here.

Just a little bit

sunk in your lower body.

Be proud.

Be very proud of the work that you're doing.

You're not Irish Barista champion for nothing.

And you want to scale up those heights again.

So it's fantastic work.

That first 30 seconds,

really enjoy that

cause that's the hardest and the nervous,

very nervous beginning.

- So I always start with a hello.

Hello judges.

My name is Niall, and I'm the Irish Barista champion.

- Hello, my name is Niall.

Hello my name is Niall.

I'm the Irish Barista Champion.

I'm here to talk to you about this and that.

You didn't have to,

my name is Niall.

I'm the Irish Barista champion.

The last important word dropped away.

- [Niall] Okay.

- And we need them, especially when you're nervous,

to get them to have a bit of weight.

- Just kind of cut the bullshit.

- No pleasantries.

- Yeah, no pleasantries.

It's like okay, he's talking about something.

I need to start listening right now.

So if I'm like on this side,

and you're like delivering that message,

I'm gonna be like okay,

he's talking about something.

What is he talking about?

- Well I've kind of composed myself a little bit,

Get it back together.

And time.

16 months ago,

Christopher Hendon

and Maxwell Colona Dashwood,

along with a few other specialty coffee professionals

in the United Kingdom

got together to conduct an experiment.

It's both qualitative

and quantitative.

- I don't want you to get too scientific with them.

- People always remember the sciencey stuff

I talked about

because it's kind of interesting and cool and different,

but a lot of the things that are getting really high scores

for them are that I kind of hook them

with the scientific thing,

and then I showed it with a beautiful coffee.

- Right.

- If what I give them is good,

they're hooked.

- Every barista can explain

flavor notes.

But when you explain why you're tasting cherry,

why are you tasting lime,

why are you tasting florals,

you connect that to the farm,

to the processing,

making it unique, yeah.

There's a lot of people in competitions in geishas.

but this is why this geisha

is unique.

- So just thinking about easing a load of tension

in your jaw.

there's about four exercises we can do.

And very simple ones.

Put your finger there

just underneath your ear.

Yawn.

Now just explore that little gap

that has opened up here.

That temporomandibular joint.

Watch how just gently,

just very gently with your finger,

other direction as well,

open that space and think about space

from your upper molar teeth

and your lower molar teeth.

Now with the heels of your hands,

come down

and let the lower jaw go.

Let the tongue go with it.

So you've turned into

Edvard Munch The Scream

Good.

Think that was silly?

This is very silly.

Interlace your fingers.

You're gonna shake here,

relaxing your wrists there.

Work there,

release here.

Now do one, two, three, four, five like this.

One

Two

Three

Four

- The secret drink

is the part of the competition

where the barista gets to express themselves

and maybe their culture,

or their place they live,

or things that inspire them.

It's really one of the only places

where we get to control everything.

[soft music]

So I want to figure out how I could

augment and

amplify both my own personality,

as well as the personality of where I live.

I chose to use a hops,

because North Carolina is known for having

a vibrant beer community.

I also choose to use a local honey,

just showed a little bit of the character

of the place where it comes from.

Please don't sting me in the face.

- It won't.

If you look on this side,

check it out.

You see all the pollen on their hips.

You see those bees with the yellow pollen pockets?

- Oh Yeah.

- That's how they carry pollen.

- Little bags.

- Yeah, it's like,

they're like cargo shorts.

They're like a bunch of mini-dads,

but they're all girls.

- I'm using a really like floral hop

for brewing beer,

and then a floral honey,

and floral coffee to make,

to like come together to make another floral substance.

- [Beekeeper] It tastes really good actually.

- It's like really caramely and like,

like a really caramelized sugar,

like caramel or

almost a vanilla.

- Ah, I got stung.

I got stung.

- Hey, first sting.

I actually don't remember what it feels like to get stung.

Oh, there we go.

- [Woman] Did you get one too?

We lied to them.

- Ah, there's another one.

Yep.

- [Woman] You alright, it's on your hand?

- Yep.

- [Woman] You doing okay?

- Yeah, I'm fine.

- [Woman] Do you want your gloves?

- Yeah- Nah.fine.

- [Woman] You sure?

- Yeah.

- Heck yeah, it hurts.

- Smoke them.

- You got one on your beard.

They're trying to climb in your beard actually.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry buddy.

I'm sorry buddy.

- [Woman] Just like

- I freaked out.

- [Woman] Step back, I know.

- I freaked out, I'm sorry.

- The first time

I saw him compete,

I think

it goes back to that thing where

he competed alone,

he kind of,

he could have asked a lot of people for help,

and maybe always on your first time,

you don't know who to ask for help.

So I think he,

if he had to come to us or anybody

and be like I'm gonna need a champaign flute,

honey and chocolate on stage,

we would have been like no.

Never do that,

ever do that.

- I went to put a little bit of honey

on the rim of my glasses

and it just went everywhere.

It like poured down the side of the glasses.

I was like cleaning off my fingers.

The only thing I didn't do

was like lick honey off my fingers that year.

- You did--

- Yeah.

- You put that honey on that glass,

and it just ran down that glass.

- Never again.

And then with my like

disgusting looking glasses

that were like covered in honey,

I decided it would be great to add chocolate powder to this.

But instead of like using cocoa,

I decided to try and grind

some nice chocolate on stage under hot lights.

Chocolate gravel

[laughter]

stuck to runny honey

on the side of a champaign glass.

- I was just like oh my god.

What's he doing?

- So the resulting signature drink had

a delicious raspberry puree,

some nice natural Ethiopian,

and it was just this big fucking mess

pouring down a glass.

- I was just like, oh god,

just like this is a

train wreck.

It's the thing I come to coffee competitions for.

- The funny thing about a barista competition

is you still smile at the judges

and say enjoy.

[laughter]

- So that's maybe,

that's maybe a thing I remind Niall most

that you need to lower that ego a little.

Like do you remember the champaign flutes?

- Scotty.

- Yes.

- You get the hot water for the cascara?

- [Scott] Of course.

- There's a big chip in this glass.

[laughter]

- That's good that we got loads of spares.

[laughter]

- So no to that.

Okay.

It smells like cascara.

- That's weird.

Oh fuck.

- You fucked it.

- [Scott] Should we put something on top of it?

- How long do you think we should brew it for?

- Six minutes.

- You think so?

I'll get a microbrew so you can taste it.

- So it's nice just to have somebody

to be able to ramp to,

and ventilate your ideas.

Usually it just involves us getting drunk

and coming up with super weird ideas

for signature drinks,

like the amount of signature drink ideas

we've come up with

like over about four more beers,

every extra beer you have,

you just like,

no now,

like what we need to do is like melt

sugar and then do this.

Let's use like a salad spinner

to make some coffee sugar.

And then everyone wakes up in the morning,

you're like what the hell were we talking about last night.

No one even writes it down, as well,

so you can never even remember what the idea was.

I think a lot of like our best ideas

have come

when we're drunk

and then we've completely forgotten them.

We could have a completely like world winning presentation

between the two of us,

and we have absolutely no idea.

- It's just like the ripest peach apricot.

- Smell this one.

Wow.

- I think we could even go for like the higher dose,

less water.

- [Scott] And bring the fruit out more.

- Where do I find that balance

of like sweet, salty,

or bitter,

and acidic and all these flavor compounds coming together.

How can I find that?

Tanith explores flavors unabashedly.

She explores flavors that maybe I wouldn't

think to explore.

I really want to kind of lean on her

and see if she can find something that

kind of brought a little bit of taste of place

kind of concept,

to like bring something with me

from North Carolina that was special.

- Here, chew that up, spit it out.

You don't have to spit it out,

strictly speaking.

It's good to eat.

- It's very.

- Sour, right.

- It's real sour.

Pull just a little bit of juice out.

It's like super sweet, and really, really floral.

- [Lem] It's pretty good.

- [Kyle] It's really good, actually.

- [Lem] Yeah, it's like

nature's candy.

- It's like a raspberry almost, kinda sorta.

- Yeah.

The thing with extracting flavor

from honeysuckle,

- yeah, it's a little bit bitter.

- It's super bitter.

Here, let me try this thing out.

Oh, it's super goopey.

I'm a texture person, this could be bad.

- It could be bad for you.

- Yep.

- That's great for me.

These are good.

- Careful.

The results of anything we've ever foraged

have always been better than

anything we could have bought.

Like you can buy fig leaves,

you can buy lavender,

but like something that's had to like weather a storm

is flavorsome.

- That's pretty epic.

It shouldn't be as easy

as going to a supermarket, I don't think.

- [Kevin] No.

- [Niall] Especially when you're using coffees that are like

the best of the best, you know.

- Yeah, well if you think of like the effort

it takes to find a great coffee,

why not put the effort into every little element.

That's for you.

- Thank you.

- You get that, like slow sweetness from it as well.

- It's super, super bitter.

- A tannin

that you need to wash your mouth out.

- They're not good yet.

[laughter]

- This just tastes better.

And as well as going to the shops

and getting something doesn't have a story to it.

It doesn't have anything about it.

It doesn't have adventure.

- We're able to incorporate

like half of the flavors

that are available here

into a signature drink.

- Kind of that terroir style--

- That would be awesome.

Yeah.

- That's cool.

- These are so good.

Can we go find more?

- [Kevin] These have been picked by hungry men.

- [Niall] A couple of scandalous men.

- [Kevin] It was the horses,

the horses ate them.

[laughter]

- Oh my god.

I think I just,

I pressed the wrong

setting and it

started too fast.

I don't want this to happen in Seoul.

The seal on this isn't perfect.

Oh, have you ever seen anything more frightening

in your life?

This is why

I shouldn't do it when it's hot

It Expands.

fuck.

- Judges.

- Judges.

- Your signature drink

is inside here. - You must crack it open.

- It's got that sherbet thing again though.

- It looks fucking horrible in that glass.

I'm not sure if that was too much citrus in it.

Alright, scrap that.

- Well?

- Don't know

I just kind of want to eat one.

- Something far too erotic about figs.

We were even like joking about it today

that the amount of times I've nearly snapped at her.

I don't think I've ever like properly shouted at Chloe.

But I'm just like slowly writing down everything on a list.

Like for now, I don't want to say anything to her

just cause I know that's she's a little bit on edge,

which is normal.

- I don't think they're ripe enough

to make them taste like anything.

And I'm not gonna be able to get figs

in Korea anyway.

It's just a dream.

- You could ship them.

- What?

I'm not shipping fucking figs to Korea.

That's like the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

- As soon as this competition's over,

I'm gonna just reel all of it off

and just be like that one time you said this,

fuck you.

This time, yeah,

that wasn't good.

But I think it's nice just to have someone

just to bite their tongue sometimes

and just take it.

It's like having a punching bag, I think sometimes.

You just need to be like,

oh, everything's going wrong.

And you just throw something at someone.

- Yeah, fuck signature drinks.

[soft music]

[applause]

- She puts enormous pressure on herself

and she,

the goal is to win, obviously.

The goal is not just to do her best,

and to go from,

to try again next year.

The goal is to win.

Not only me, but there's a kind of a core group around her

that's supporting her,

but how,

what we can do to make sure that

we do our part to help her

win.

[funky music]

♪ Dark nights

♪ broken on your champagne

♪ When we were young

♪ So beautiful in our way

♪ Headlights chase me to the freeway ♪

♪ Until the night

♪ will drown our sorrows

♪ into the rain

♪ So wake me up slowly

♪ Shadows form against the stars ♪

♪ Sunrise on the boulevard

♪ We're standing room only

♪ Keep forgetting who we are

♪ Sunrise on the boulevard

♪ Heavenless, they sent me to the doorway ♪

♪ They told me, "You will find yourself, ♪

♪ you go your own way"

♪ And the night was young

♪ And I was thinking to myself

♪ oh no

♪ What do you want from me,

♪ from all I seem to give

♪ Don't leave me here alone

♪ So wake me up slowly

♪ Shadows form against the stars ♪

♪ Sunrise on the boulevard

[soft music]

[applause]

- [Announcer] Ready, let's kick this off.

One more round of applause please.

- [Man] Give him a hand please.

- [Announcer] Our first competitor.

- I just wanted to make you a delicious tasting beverage.

I have

16 mils

of an orange marmalade sugar syrup.

Now my grandmother makes delicious orange marmalade.

It's very simple to make.

You take oranges.

You peal the skins.

You put it in salt water for two days.

Remove it.

Put it in fresh water for one more day.

On the third day,

you poke a hole in it with forks

to release the flavor,

and cook it in a simple sugar syrup

at 90 degrees for four hours.

- Karo was roasted

with a

higher temperature at the start.

190 celsius degrees

because of the higher density of the beans.

- Now, lets make a happy ending

for the whole story.

Let's blend all together

until the foam disappear.

Let's take a second sip, very nice.

In addition to the flavor we taste before,

we got a new flavor, cherry,

even though we didn't add any cherry flavors.

We also got a bergamot

that reflect characteristics,

and also the chocolate.

So that whole idea of blending

bring everything together

to create more possibility.

I really wish you guys enjoyed.

And this is my time.

[upbeat music]

♪ Count the seconds

♪ I'm afraid

♪ To know

- Everything we do here

is striving

for enoyment of coffee

that's meant to be shared.

♪ Count the miles

♪ As we're taking

♪ Off

♪ I don't want to die

♪ But I don't want to feel

♪ The plunge

♪ In the final moments

♪ You should know it's you I'm thinking of ♪

♪ And the world below

♪ Too late to see

♪ What went wrong

♪ But it's

♪ All wrong with me

♪ Caught up in the moment now

♪ Get out

♪ Of serene

♪ Once upon an empty sky

♪ Once upon a broken dream

- Time.

- Time.

- Time.

- That's my time.

- Time.

- Time.

- That's my time.

- Time.

- Time.

- Time.

- Time.

[cheers and applause]

- I was not ready.

I was freaking out.

I think I just gave myself an anxiety attack.

The speech was not finalized until the day before.

Just making sure I didn't forget anything.

That's the worst fear of mine.

So time.

Hello, welcome.

My name is Chloe,

and I'm very pleased to finally be here with you today.

The novelty in specialty coffee

that inspires me,

the new,

the original,

and the unusual.

We are every growing,

ever changing,

and ever learning,

I think is incredibly special.

I brought a coffee with me today

that encapsulates all of this for me.

It's La Punta,

sugar sweet processing

from Sumava de Lourdes Monte Llano Bonito

in the west valley of Costa Rica.

Sugar sweet is an anaerobic processing method,

as you can see on your,

your cards,

meaning there's no oxygen in the fermentation tank.

Please now sit back, relax,

have a read,

and I'll be back with you shortly.

Welcome.

[electronic music]

If I have a lot of excitement

and like adrenalin,

I will start to talk like really fast.

And then I start saying too many things at once,

and then I can get confused

like a small child.

So this is 21 grams of espresso.

If you'd please jot down some flavor notes

for your espresso.

Raisin,

brown sugar,

a low bitterness,

a high sweetness,

a medium body.

Do I even bother trying that hard

because I'm never gonna get,

I'm never gonna win.

And then you get through these points

where you're like no,

crap, I do have a good presentation.

I can totally win this.

I'll be back shortly with your signature beverages.

Thank you, enjoy.

[applause]

[electronic music]

I have 15 grams of this intense raisin liquid

that I've made by rehydrating organic raisins.

I have

10 grams of fresh grape juice,

of white skinned table grapes.

And I have seven grams of cold brew tea,

jasmine green tea.

And of course, my slightly cooled

espresso.

Now it will be a cold, refreshing beverage

with 40 grams of ice,

at 60 PPM to bring out that aroma

and create texture as the ice shards break

with the help of my little shaker friend here.

And I'm just gonna press play.

Don't be alarmed.

So he's here with me today for consistency

and workflow,

so I get to have a little bit more face to face time

and tell you how

these ingredients effect my coffee.

So cold brew tea

is an attribute of this amazing floral quality,

bringing freshness to our drink,

and also adding flavors of papaya,

and ripe plum.

So I'll just go get your beverage

and I will be back with you shortly.

Alrighty, so those flavor notes one more time

so they're a bit more clearer for you.

White sugar, coffee blossom,

papaya,

ripe plum,

and that lingering jasmine finish.

Alrighty.

Thank you for joining me today, guys.

I couldn't have had more fun.

And I hope you've enjoyed it too.

La Punta is one of the most exciting coffees

I've ever tasted.

And I hope you understand this novelty concept

is to bring us further into the future

with our customers

and ourselves.

Thank you.

Time.

[applause]

[slow suspenseful music]

- Yeah.

[slow suspenseful music]

Time.

[applause]

It was

a rough day for me.

This is a very bad

performance for me.

I didn't

well prepare.

So many things

happen the same time.

I didn't make

my good performance.

[soft music]

- The instant before my routine starts,

I always have this little thing of

ah, you know you can walk off now anytime.

Just tell them you're not feeling great.

you're in the world championships,

if you're not nervous,

your just like

you're really underestimating the challenge

that's ahead of you.

Like, you know,

you're representing

your industry in your own country.

If you're going to world championships kind of going

"I've got this,"

fuck off.

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentleman,

everyone round of applause

for the barista champion of Ireland,

Niall Wynn.

[applause]

[electronic music]

- Time

Hi guys.

As baristas and cafe owners,

we've taken inspiration from the competitions.

It has helped drive us forward as an industry

and lead us on to greater things.

Over the last number of years,

we see an increasing number of coffees brought

based on their ability to wow us.

And they do exactly that.

The coffees that I've brought here today

is a coffee that I hope

is going to wow us,

one of those exceptional coffees,

and in the next decade,

transition to be an everyday experience

that anybody can enjoy.

So the coffee that I'm using today

is from Colombia

from a farm called Finca Inmaculada.

This variety is known

for it's silky smooth texture,

juicy acidity,

and complexity.

And the coffee I'm serving today

abides by all those rules.

With the first sip,

you will expect that lemongrass flavor again,

and blackberry.

The second sip will get lemon and peach.

And on the finish,

we're going to experience dark chocolate.

But that flavor doesn't last too long.

Enjoy that lemongrass aroma, first of all.

And then I'd like you to stir it really, really well

and pop your spoons in the little glasses here

right in front of you.

You're almost like watching yourself from above.

You've got this like downward view on yourself.

It's like pure adrenalin when you're up on stage.

You're just hoping like,

you're hoping you remember what to say.

Then everything else goes according to plan.

But it never does.

In order for me to do something

that I'd never done before,

compete and do well at this stage

at the world championships,

I needed to form a collaboration of my own.

To do this,

I embrace the help of a chef in Dublin.

For my signature drink today,

is I've chilled my espresso.

So what that does is two things.

It intensifies the flavor,

but also it means that it's more open to receiving flavors.

I'll be adding

just two drops of a lemon verbena oil.

I've made this oil using

lemon verbena from my parent's garden,

believe it or not,

and I've infused it into rapeseed oil,

Irish rapeseed oil.

I'm going to add seven grams of Dublin one honey.

Finally, my whole signature drink

is going to be pressurized with nitrogen.

Thank you.

To give it that rich, velvety texture

that we wanted.

[electronic music]

I think that these baristas championships here

are a really,

sorry,

are an amazing opportunity for us as baristas

to bring something unique to the attention

of our whole industry.

With your first sip,

you should expect,

sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We're going to experience that lemongrass aroma.

With the first sip,

you're going to get lemongrass,

and blackberry again.

The second sip,

we're going to get lemon,

peach,

and honey.

And then with the final sip,

I'd ask you to finish your drink

and enjoy the aftertaste.

It's dark chocolate.

Thank you very much guys.

It's been a great pleasure serving you here today.

And that's my time.

[applause]

You weren't talking to anyone.

That was the issue.

And you have four people in front of you

that you should have been talking to,

but you were talking more with your machine

than with those people.

That's the main issue.

- Yeah.

- But at the same time,

just look at it positive

and say that it's easy to improve to the next round.

So your scores are gonna be way higher next time,

which technically is a good thing.

- What I'm telling Kyle now,

especially what I told him in nationals is

be yourself.

You're not competing against anyone

in the barista competition.

The only person that you're competing against is yourself.

[electronic music]

- [Announcer] Big round of applause

for the barista champion

of the United States of America,

Kyle Ramage.

[applause]

[electronic music]

- I'm not gonna puke, it's okay.

[soft music]

Let's get into it them.

Time.

Hey, I'm just calling to check and see

if you still had dry ice.

I know it's a little late in the day.

[soft music]

Time.

[cheers and applause]

- Our first competitor

to the final,

the barista champion of Australia.

[cheers and applause]

- Our second finalist who will go second tomorrow is

the barista champion of

Hong Kong.

[cheers and applause]

- Okay, I'll do the next one.

Can I have music again?

Please?

I can't do it.

Oh thank you.

[electronic music]

The barista champion of Japan,

Miki Suzuki.

[applause]

- Our fourth finalist

in the 2017 World Barista Championships is

the barista champion of

the United States.

[applause] [electronic music]

- The barista champion of Canada.

- And to complete our set for

the 2017 World Barista Championship finals,

the barista champion of the United Kingdom.

[applause]

[electronic music]

- I told you

we believe you.

[laughter]

- I knew I didn't get through

as soon as I came on stage.

As soon as I started, really,

looking at the judges' faces.

I was just relieved to have been finished,

to be honest.

[soft music]

I just don't know where I would be

without specialty coffee,

without coffee in general,

I think I would be lost.

I'm not sure what else I would have done.

Nothing else I really wanted to do

after I started making coffee.

[soft music]

- The best piece of advice

I think was given to me by my dad.

And he always said to me,

no matter what it is you do,

you should always do your best.

He then said sometimes your best is not enough to win,

but that's okay.

[drumming]

- [Announcer] Where are you, Hong Kong?

[applause]

Let me hear you.

[cheers and applause]

The barista champion of Hong Kong,

Kapo Chiu.

- I have this

non-alcoholic whiskey barrel aged honey.

And of course,

there's four shots of espresso,

which I have chilled down.

I'm adding on to dry ice

to create that French earl gray tea aroma

in which

I'm going to inject it into this whisky bottle

for three seconds.

- I kind of put on this like weird,

overly cocky kind of persona.

I think everyone's worst self

if the self that they are at competition,

cause we're usually like bugged out

and like not sleeping,

and not eating well,

and all those things.

So, I don't know I'm not that guy.

I'm not a super cocky,

know it all kind of dude.

Maybe I fail.

Maybe that's my own misconceptions coming through.

A friend of mine,

Nathaniel May, put this

on Facebook a couple years ago.

But it was like

when is everyone gonna find out

that I'm faking it.

[dramatic music]

- [Video Screen] Miki Suzuki!

[cheers and applause]

[dramatic music]

[applause]

Okay, are we ready to go?

World Barista Championship,

finalist number two,

the barista champion

of Japan,

Miki Suzuki.

[applause]

- Time.

Espresso extractions

are usually trade off.

But I get something positive,

I lose some espresso extraction.

However,

I have discovered a coffee

that made me want to bring

all the positive

into one cup.

I name it

double grind.

First of all,

I'm adding the 20 grams of liquid nitrogen

to 44 grams of coffee.

Next, I'm adding another 20 grams of liquid nitrogen

to coarse grind the beans.

And then,

I'll grind again for espresso.

The flavor in first sip,

mandarin orange,

bergamot.

And the second sip,

brown sugar,

and black tea finish.

I'm serving the espresso

in my custom made cup

that I designed for today.

For my signature drink,

let's discover the new flavors

in my super long extraction.

I added point one grams

of freeze dried lactic acid,

and five grams of freeze dried honey.

I didn't want to

add in any additional water

because I didn't make it

too watery.

That's why I make it freeze dried.

Adding just touch of lactic acid

enhances the grape and apple flavor.

Honey give it sweetness to balance it.

And I'm adding lavender aroma

by using aroma diffuser.

This creates a synergy with the liquid,

and bring out the peach flavor.

I use vacuum mixer

to remove the seal to remaining

in the espresso.

This creates a synergy with the liquid,

and the bring out the silky texture.

The flavor

you can find

grape,

red apple,

white peach,

and black tea finish.

Along with the perfect cup,

I also strive to provide

every customer for perfect coffee experience.

Time.

[cheers and applause]

- [Announcer] The Barista champion of Japan,

Miki Suzuki

[applause]

- I have a 50/50 blend

of raw sugar

and freeze dried manuka honey.

But to make this work,

I do need to

lightly caramelize the sugar

with a quick flash of heat.

And I found no better way

than to use

a fairy floss machine.

So right now,

we're caramelizing those sugars.

We're changing that structure of sweetness.

A little bit out of control today.

It's gonna give you this beautiful peach note

in the signature.

Would you please write down

peach.

- This is the sip

that I first fell in love with,

the first taste of geisha,

many years ago.

I cupped it like this,

and swirl it, and swirl it, and swirl it,

until it melts.

It could take a couple minutes,

but this is well worth it

because there are new geisha flavors

locked inside these cups.

Now, I really like working with liquid nitrogen

because it always reminds me of winter back home in Canada.

- Squeeze in a little bit.

We're all friends.

We use 88 grams of espresso,

per the recipe you just tasted,

with four grams of a pre-washed Japanese Oolong.

I've used 125 grams of hot water,

with 30 grams of lacto fermented cacao nips,

which I then strained over 60 grams of ice,

dilute and chill.

Now I fermented these for three days

in a solution of a sour dough culture

that I've been cultivating for six years.

And I'm gonna cool all the ingredients

with frozen rocks.

So your first sip,

creamy mouth feel.

80% dark chocolate,

thank you,

and then the finish

that oolong bitterness.

Then I want you to wait 30 seconds

before you take your second sip.

Then you'll find balanced orange cream soda.

Now you take your first sip

as soon as I serve this to you.

It has been my absolute pleasure to be here

in Seoul.

Thank you.

Time.

[cheers and applause]

- The barista champion of

the United States of America,

Kyle Ramage.

[speaking foreign language]

[cheers and applause]

- The finals, right.

Awesome.

Didn't realize my mic was on.

Deep breath.

You guys all feeling good?

- [Judge] Yes.

- Wonderful.

Let's get into it then.

Time.

Two years ago a computational chemist

named Christopher Hendon

had the idea

to take specialty coffee,

freeze it,

grind it,

and the prepare it as espresso.

And what he and his team

of specialty coffee professionals found

is pretty astonishing.

The graph in front of you represents those results.

In the cup,

this is truly everything we're all searching for,

cleaner, sweeter, and more balanced.

But, don't take my word for it,

let's try it together.

Be right back.

It is what it is,

and the time didn't work,

which is mostly just for pacing.

I just like to be able to look at it

and glance and be okay, I have

four and a half minutes left,

30 seconds left,

especially towards the end.

Like it's very helpful to

that I know how to pace

the closing thoughts.

In these six tubes,

I have six doses

of three different, truly stunning

geisha coffees

all frozen to negative 79 degrees Celsius.

Let's get these ground up,

and we'll talk a little bit more

about the coffees themselves

course by course.

Be back.

- [Lem] So I'll tell him over and over again,

slow down.

Work fast,

talk slow.

- 12 years ago,

the Gallardo family,

had the idea to plant this new,

experimental,

and somewhat untested,

but highly regarded coffee variety

on the highest elevations

of one of their farms.

What you will experience today

as white flowers, like jasmine,

fresh citrus, like lime,

stone fruit, like fresh cherry.

The body on this coffee will be light to medium

and silky.

And the finish will be long,

slightly herbal,

but pleasant,

like a tonic.

The sweetness with medium intensity,

and like a light wildflower, honey.

We're gonna break protocol today,

stirring this coffee 12 times

in order to bring the beverage temperature down

to where I feel like it shows these flavors most clearly.

Enjoy.

So to start,

120 milliliters of that colibri espresso.

To this we'll be adding three simple ingredients

and one process

to augment and uplift those amazing flavors.

The first of which is 35 milliliters

of a mosaic hop tea.

Mosaic hops are used by brewers

in their India pale ales to give them

their incredible floral complexity.

The second ingredient,

12 milliliters of a North Carolina

dark honey simple syrup.

The last ingredient

is 30 milliliters

of a tartaric acid solution,

a juxtapositional acid

which is not commonly associated with coffee,

but rather with grapes.

Today we'll be combining those stone fruit like flavors

to vest new ones

that are more tropical and exotic.

Charged with nitrous

to give us this amazing

texture and body.

It also helps to mitigate some of the more intense

flavors from the hops,

making a more balanced drink.

When you get the beverage,

you'll notice the flavors have been transformed

dramatically.

Intense bergamot aroma,

passion fruit, lime zest,

with a finish that is long,

and again

very much like a tonic.

It's my honor

and true pleasure

to be able to present to you

the culmination

of over 12 years of ideas

from a coffee producer family

in Panama

to a scientist in the United States.

It's ideas like these

that have spurred me on

and I hope will spur the next generation of thinkers

to create the next idea

that will change the face

of specialty coffee forever.

Time.

[cheers and applause]

To be in that elite group

that is the top six at the WBC finals,

it's amazing,

but the kind of people who compete in these competitions

are incredibly competitive.

So you want to win.

- [Niall] Anybody in that top six has potential to win.

I feel at that stage,

its about like who messes up less.

That's a game of tight margins.

It's just about who is that little bit better.

- Should we get some competitors out?

[applause]

Pardon?

Should we get some competitors out?

Should we get some competitors out?

Ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls,

welcome to the World Barista Championship's

award ceremony, 2017.

Over the last four days,

you've seen 58 national champions compete,

each representing their country

to compete for the title

of 2017 World Barista Champion.

So the time has come.

In sixth place,

the barista champion of the United States.

[applause]

- I thought I had done

really well,

the judges thought otherwise

that my drinks really didn't hit today

like they'd hit before.

It was pretty disappointing

cause you want to win,

and you're never happy when you don't win.

And in that moment,

it was hard.

There are things you want to take back

and redo, of course.

And that's just life though.

- Fifth place of 2017 World Barista Championship,

Hugh Kelly from Australia.

[applause]

- In fourth place,

the barista champion of

Canada.

[applause]

- The third place winner is

the barista champion of Hong Kong,

Kapo Chiu.

[applause]

- [Announcer] In second place,

the barista champion of Japan,

Miki Suzuki.

[electronic music]

- And the 2017

World Barista Champion,

Mr. Dale Harris.

[electronic music]

[applause]

[soft music]

- You take away

this passion or enthusiasm for

something small,

and you apply that in whatever your doing in life.

And this, this,

this sense of mastery

and this continuous

effort in doing something,

I suppose you look at that and you,

you go I'm very far away from mastering

what I'm trying to master in my life.

[soft music]