Inside the Hyatt Regency, an international barista competition was held last Saturday to help promote a coffee culture and give local baristas a chance to showcase their talent in the international arena.
Erna Tosberg, the two-time German barista champion visited the capital from Münster, to be part of the jury and has awarded a local barista; the chance to travel to Italy, be trained by illy Coffee, visit its production facility and be given a chance to compete in the next World Barista Championships in Melbourne, at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) in May of 2020.
Six Ethiopian baristas competed using the products of Moyee, Tarara and Mamokacha.
“My dream is to bring the Barista World Championships to Ethiopia one day,” Heddo Siebs, the General Manager of Hyatt Regency Addis told The Reporter. “Cascara” is the name of the so-called cherry around the coffee bean. When we were looking for inspiration for the bar, we watched the movie ‘Barista’ and my colleague and I noticed that Ethiopia was not mentioned anywhere in the movie.”
“Ethiopia is where coffee originated from and it’s something that needs to be showcased and promoted around the world and we are happy to do our part,” he added.
The finalist, Samson Gedawas, who had previously worked at Starbucks in Dubai, is set to fly to Trieste, Italy and visit the Illy Academy. The runner-up was Muhidin Temam, who will also visit the Illy Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. The third winner was Khaleb Ayeleand. He will be visiting the local Ethiopian coffee farms and will get a one year supply of free coffee.
Ethiopia continues to take pride in its coffee exports that continues to be an important source of foreign currency to the nation.
The competition is to be broadcasted on EBS tomorrow.
