Caffè Ritazza World Barista Championship: the triumph of Louise Olsson from Sweden

Great Britain and Ireland at second and third place

During the competition, Louise Olsson has shown her talent serving the judges four espressos, four cappuccinos and a personalized coffee based drink for which she was inspired by her grandmother’s raspberry lemonade recipe. As prize for Caffè Ritazza World Barista Championship, Louise has received 1,000 pounds.
Matteo Pavoni from Caffè Ritazza of Euston Station in London and Kate Crozier of the store at International Airport of Belfast positioned themselves ,respectively, at second and third place
A special recognition for the best signature drink goes to Miko Au from Hong Kong whose prize was a trip to visit the headquarters of the syrups producer Monin in Bourges, France.
This year SSP group decided also to conclude the performance with a competition dedicated exclusively to Latte Art: Christodoulous Christodoulou was selected as the winner taking back home in Cyprus a coffee making equipment set.
The winner of Caffè Ritazza World Barista Championship, Louise Olsson, is working at Stockholm Central Station and started to take part to the competition as well as to the national barista championships in Sweden three years ago. All her passion and dedication have now been rewarded with her victory.
Stuart Coombes, International operations director for Caffè Ritazza, going back to the five years’ life of the championship, has stressed the constant growth of the skills of baristas taking part every year: “Every year there is improvement in terms of the preparation of the drinks, in the coffee knowledge and in the creativity that goes into producing the signature drinks. This is the proof of the dedication and of the enthusiasm of our team and of the commitment of Caffè Ritazza to quality training for its baristas at all stages of their careers.
A positive and satisfactory feedback comes also from Paul Meikle-Janney, head judge of the competition and director of Coffee Community, one of longest established independent companies specializing in barista training and coffee consulting . “Within the world of barista competitions , the emphasis has changed over the years – states Meikle-Janney – Few years ago the focus was more on the improvement of Latte Art techniques whereas, more recently, , we are seeing greater appreciation of coffee itself, including the knowledge of its origins, of the different varieties and processing techniques and – at the same time the more sophisticated research of original coffee based specialty drinks ”.
Maurizio Maccagnani of La Spaziale, who has hosted the Caffè Ritazza World Barista Championship and supplied the S5 TA professional espresso coffee machines , does agree with the panel of judges recognizing the importance of CAFFE RITAZZA activity meant to bring coffee market to the highest standards.
“Every year the CAFFE RITAZZA world barista championship is always a rewarding opportunity for all of us at La Spaziale , as it keeps reinforcing the close relationship with Caffè Ritazza and with SSP Group with the common goal to develop the philosophy we both share”, states Mr Maccagnani, stressing that events like this always bring quality coffee art to very high level standards.