Barista and Farmer competition connects all levels of the industry

Ten top baristas will travel to Brazil to compete in the third edition of Barista & Farmer, a competition dedicated to the promotion and the culture of specialty coffee. For ten days, the finalists will experience the life of a coffee producer in a country of origin, in this case in the famous plantations of the O'Coffee company, the biggest coffee producer of Brazil, located in the state of Minas Gerais. The ten baristas will be selected from 200 applications drawn from all over the world among more than 200 applications. The competition, which was created by three time Italian barista champion, Francesco Sanapo in collaboration with Rimini Fiera and Sigep – the international fair of ice cream-making, pastry-making and handmade bread-making – will be held from 3 – 13 May. The theme of this year’s competition is environmental sustainability and the promotion of the coffee supply chain. The participants will be involved in a course that includes the picking phase in the plantation, going through all the steps of the production process, experiencing all the different technologies and, finally, the tasting experience. The ten finalists will wake up at sunrise, spending their morning in the plantations, picking the coffee cherries and, in the afternoon, will attend the classes at the Barista and Farmer Academy, a multidisciplinary school where some of the most acclaimed people in the field work as teachers. The contenders will be followed by cameras and the videos will later be broadcast on the Barista and Farmer website. A documentary of the competition will also be made to show a different way of perceiving the coffee world, with the goal of promoting this ever-growing culture. The baristas chosen for this year’s competition are: Guido Garavello (Italy) 32 years old; Miguel Angel Vera Fernandez (Venezuela) 36 years old; Jesslyn Evani (Indonesia) 25 years old; Nikolaos Kanakaris (Greece) 31 years old; Olga Kaplina (Russia) 29 years old; Amy Nake Manukyan (Armenia) 26 years old; Evgeni Pinchukov (Belarus) 24 years old; Daniel Rivera (Usa) 30 years old,  Agniesza Rojewska (Poland) 27 years old and Rosey Hill (Australia), 45 years old.  The competition is taking place under the patronage of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, as a valid initiative for the International Development Committee. Lavazza, La Cimbali and Faema are the main sponsors.