The event taking place in Australia’s coffee capital is heating up.
Yesterday, in a bustling Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Italian barista champion Matteo Pavoni completed his 15-minute competition routine.
The 2022 Italian Barista Champion served up three kinds of coffees, using a specially designed roast created with the help of a University of Oregon chemist.
The taste of the beverage was only one piece of the competition round’s puzzle, with four judges marking him on everything from his explanation about how the coffees were formulated, to the minutiae of his chosen methods.
"It's incredibly competitive," Mr Pavoni said.
"I've never seen such a high level of coffee preparation before."
The first-time competitor hopes he will make it into the final round, but is just grateful to be considered one of the world’s top 16 baristas.
The competition rounds are being held at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, an exhibition expected to attract more than 10,000 industry heavyweights and coffee fanatics from all over the world.
Grandstands, capable of seating hundreds of people were set up in preparation for today’s finals, with organisers expecting them to fill up extremely quickly.
― With AAP.
