Check out Starbucks’ first Barista Championship winners
Starbucks held its first Global Barista Championship in Las Vegas, featuring baristas from around the world.
Nobukismode, the Japanese Starbucks store manager, said his favorite coffee cup had been poured on his mother.
It was the morning before an important school test. Simoux’s mother entered the room with fresh coffee and prepared him that day.
“She smiled and said, ‘You’ve done well so far. I’m very proud of you,'” he said. “The coffee wasn’t perfect, but it was the best cup I’ve ever had. Why? Because it made me feel warm. Something stayed with me even after I drank it.”
That experience influenced Simodo’s performance at Starbucks’ first global barista championship, a three-day competition in Las Vegas. There, 12 employees from around the world showed off their skills in latte art, storytelling and more. Simodo said he wanted to make coffee that gives customers the same warmth he found in his mother’s coffee.
Selected as Global Champion on June 11th, Simodo topped art in just eight minutes in the final race, poured four cups of coffee from the French press, and made his signature drink for the judges. Meanwhile, a crowd of about 14,000 people cheered him on. These include more than dozens of friends, family and colleagues waving banners and customized signs.
Shimode’s is his signature drink, Blooming Yuzu Espresso – a “very refreshing drink” with a citrus note and a long, sweet aftertaste, perfect for coffee lovers and coffee-hating customers.
“(It’s) a drink that makes people say, ‘I want to have it again,'” he said.
As a global champion, Shimode will have the opportunity to co-create drinks for sale at Starbucks stores in North America in the “near future” according to the company’s website.
Simodo and the other 11 baristas are narrowed down from the 84,000 employees who competed in the regional tournament, and are among the company’s six regions (North America, China, Japan, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Caribbean, Caribbean, Middle East and Africa) (Seattle, Chicago, New York, Shangay and Milia).
The barista faced many challenges throughout the event, including creating the perfect latte art tulips and guessing the right coffee roast based solely on taste and smell.
Many competitors told USA Today that blind tasting, including Chico GU, a Shanghai reserve roaster, is the most challenging test. Gu said it took a while to mail six microblends in a competition with China, and it only took two weeks to memorize each flavor.
“I spent a lot of time preparing for this competition,” Gu said through the translator. “This is a milestone and I think it’s the highlight of my life that I’ve been talking about from the moment I was born.”
Ivan Diana, who represents Starbucks Reserve Roastre in Milan, said she trained at least three times a week in the months leading up to the competition, and practiced her latte art and store rush tasks.
Karihegeman, from the Chicago Reserve Roaster, trained at least four hours each week, dyeing her hair dark red and dyeing her signature drinks, espresso and layered drinks and cold milk called undertoe. Inspired by the cherry pie flavor, Hegeman’s creation was called the “fun deltau.”
Shimodo, who married in April, gave him time to push back his honeymoon and prepare for the competition. He also spent three months avoiding his favorite food, spicy curry, to cleanse his palate for a blind taste test.
“That was my biggest challenge,” Simodo told USA Today through a translator, along with writing his script in English.
Currently, as the winner of the first Global Barista Championship, Simodo has plenty of opportunities to catch up on his trip. His grand prize as a winner includes trips to all six Starbucks Throw Star Reserves.
Simad said he is most looking forward to visiting Milan. But first, he plans to return to the Japanese store.
“I want to go back to my store and work with my store colleagues as soon as possible,” he said. “I should have given them more support and helped them a lot more after three months. But it was me who was supported by them.”
(This story has been updated to include a video.)