WONDERFUL COFFEE COPENHAGEN.

As well as the hundreds of volunteers and participants in Wonderful Copenhagen, over 5,000 passed through the ticket pavilion - it would have been many more if the Scandinavians had not insisted on celebrating Mid Summer at home!

Our five UK representatives did extremely well in their competitions, Hugo coming in at a very creditable 10th out of 51 baristi in the WBC. There were some very impressive performances and the standards keep getting higher. We were delighted that Stephen Morrissey became Ireland's first ever World Barista Champion, with Australia in second place and The Netherlands third. Very well done to all at Square Mile Coffee Roasters for a fantastic team performance.

Phil, Emma and James all put in very competent performances in Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits and Cup Tasting. Well done to Emma and James for achieving fifth places. Aysin was stunning in her traditional Turkish costume and put the UK in fourth place in the first Cesve / Ibrik Competition!

Plans are now moving forward to create some new, interesting venues for the UK Barista Championship and we shall need to have our champion in place early next year in preparation for WBC 2009 in Atlanta, USA, 15th/19th April.

The Caffe Culture Show in May 2009 will be the venue for the four other competitions with those champions representing the UK at the world finals at the SCAE Conference taking place in Cologne, Germany, provisionally 26th/28th June 2009. The SCAE Conference and Competitions will take place in cooperation with the organisers of the Cologne Fair, an event focusing specifically on the coffee industry.

All the SCAE UK committee members look forward to seeing many of you at our events around the UK over the coming months - your support is always very much appreciated.

Best wishes,
Steve Penk
SCAE UK National Coordinator