Dale Harris of the United Kingdom is the 2017 World Barista Champion having won the championship competition in Seoul, South Korea. A tremendous accomplishment as there were competitors from 58 countries taking to the stage at the WBC. Dale is currently the Director of Wholesale at the Has Bean Coffee in Staffordshire, UK.

Kyle Ramage is the 2017 United States Barista Champion and was a finalist and finished sixth in the World Barista Championships held in Seoul, South Korea. Kyle worked in Durham at Mahlkönig USA, a subsidiary of a German maker of high-end commercial coffee grinders that is based in an office park next to Bennett Place State Historic Site. Last year’s winner was Lem Butler, a Durham-based coffee roaster at Counter Culture Coffee. Butler coached Ramage throughout the process. Ramage is the first winner to come from outside a coffeeshop or roastery, but he spent years behind the coffee bar.

Originally from Mississippi, the 29-year-old moved to the area to study theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and began working at Jubala Coffee, a shop in Raleigh, while he was in school. Butler, the former U.S. champion, first met Ramage at Jubala, when he was the Counter Culture customer support representative for the cafe. Kyle and Lem recently purchased Back Alley Coffee Roasters in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Lem Butler, the 2106 U.S. Barista Champion. Former head of wholesale customer support at Counter Culture Coffee. Lem along with Kyle Ramage, the 2017 US Barista Champion, are the owners of Black and White Roasters, Black & White Roasters in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Peter Giuliano currently the Senior Director of Symposium for the Speciality Coffee Association of the U.S. and Europe and the co-owner of Counter Culture Coffee, a wholesale roasting and coffee education company based in Durham, North Carolina. Peter has dedicated himself to coffee education and advocacy, and the recognition of extraordinary coffee and coffee professionals worldwide.

Andrea Allen spoke about naturally processed coffees in the 2016 USBC which resulted in her winning second place in the competition. Andrea Allen is also the owner of ONYX Coffee Lab in Springdale, Arkansas. There mission there is to create the Perfect cup by mixing Science and Artisan methods of roasting, brewing, and sourcing coffee. They are a cafe and Roastery Specializing in coffee profiling and brew methods.

In this second interview Dennis Raimondi delves more into the Barista league which was founded by Steven Moloney. Steven Started at Love Coffee Roasters in Lund, Sweden and he has since moved on to head up Da Matteo’s barista training program in Gothenburg, Sweden. Steven is a two-time winner of the Swedish National Barista Championship (2016, 2017) and was part of the winning team in the World Barista Cup 2016. He has developed the Barista League from an impromptu gathering of 10 baristas in a countryside roastery (2015) to an event attracting hundreds of the best coffee professionals from all over Northern Europe (2017).

Tim Wendelboe is a legend in the coffee industry. Tim is a Norwegian barista. He became Norway’s champion of barist art in 2004. He has previously been Norway’s champion twice and won gold in the 2004 World Cup and silver in 2001 and 2002.