Michael Phillips

WBC judges certification Ancona

Just this last week I had an opportunity to take part in what is a rather unique scenario.  Actually, it was the second time I had gotten to do it in the past couple months to be clear.  The event was a judges certification for the WBC.  This is a rather intense process that folks from all through specialty coffee will put themselves through in the hopes of being allowed to participate in judging for the WBC (this year taking place in Bogota).

This certification session was at the Nuova Simonelli factory in Ancona Italy, the previous one was at just quantify coffee academy in Seoul South Korea.  A constant curiosity for me with judging is motivation, why do people do this?  To become a WBC certified judge one must invest the time to learn the rules and judge in at least 2 years worth of national competitions, no small feat…  They then have to find a way to take several days off of work to get a chance to go through multiple days of written and practical testing knowing that the pass rate is often well below 50%.  Did I mention that they pay for this opportunity as well?  Depending on your perspective it can be a real head scratcher.  There are tangible benefits to it though.  For one thing, it lends credibility.  While it is not the same a passing your Q grader test, getting WBC certified is one of the rare distinctions a coffee professional can achieve that holds international significance.  There is also the network you come into contact with.  The people involved in these things are arguably some movers and shakers, being in the mix creates contacts that otherwise wouldn’t exist.  On par with both of these however is the simple fact that these folks just believe in the event and want to help.  The way that it celebrates the craft, gives talent a chance to develop itself and brings the community together all create a scenario worth supporting to them even at it’s significant personal cost.

The testing itself has improved leaps and bounds in the last few years it seems.  I often get an earful from Stephen Morrissey (currently on the judges certification committee) about the structure and tools they have put into place to help cull the field leaving only the sharpest, most consistent and unbiased judges.  I have actually gotten to help generate some of the materials they are tested on (mainly cappuccino photos scoring in the 1-4 range, Charles B was left to the 5s n 6s…)  These past two trips however were much more hands on.  For both I was a faux barista, doing routines that the “judges to be” practiced on and then were eventually tested with.  In both sessions I had a fellow barista to share the load.  Korea was the oh so talented Bronwen and Ancona had me enjoying the company of the incomparable Tim Williams “Styles”.  Together we would knock out 3 to 6 full run throughs a day.

These run throughs however are certainly very different beasts.  To prepare for London I practiced in the lab, scribbled thoughts on trains and planes and scoured my friends for advice to be ready for that big moment for months.  Both of these judges certifications only came onto my radar less than two weeks before happening.  This left me scrambling to get something ready and I have fallen back a rehash of the routine I did for Atlanta but modified to work with random equipment and different coffees.  I also am asked to do strange things in some of these run throughs, adding mistakes to throw the attendees curve balls.  That part can be shockingly cathartic…  intentionally tamping crooked, using inconsistent doses, serving 1/4oz shots!  It felt so wrong but I couldn’t help but enjoy it a little.

In the end the WBC came out with a few more judges, some folks learned good lessons as to what they need to work on for next time and I got an even closer look at all of the work that happens on the other side of the table.  Who knows, I am starting to think I might be tempted to do it myself some day.

Side notes:

1. Nuova Simonelli really does a stellar job supporting the competitions and cant be spoken of highly enough for these efforts.
2. Fooseball tournaments really need to replace throw downs at Barista events.  Just take my word on this one…

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.