Ten contenders from around the world will compete in the final of this year’s Starbucks EMEA Barista Championship in Milan later this month.
Thirty-six countries are competing to be crowned the 2022 EMEA Barista Champion. After months of preparation, coffee tastings, sharing their personal storytelling, and latte art showdowns from their talented partners across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa it’s now down to just ten contestants.
Making it to the top ten is South African barista Phuti Mmotla. The 32-year-old from Ga-Matlala in Limpopo works for Rand Capital Coffee, the Starbucks licensee for sub-Saharan Africa. Mmotla, now based in Cape Town is a District Beverage and Coffee Coach, supporting the business and its partners at the store to drive excellence through training and coaching of baristas and store-level barista trainers, coffee education, and driving quality standards.
Talking about his love for coffee, Mmotla said he fell in love with coffee in 2014, when he first started as a barista in the South African coffee industry – the passion and spark ignited when he poured his first latte art patterns- a difficult skill to master.
“My love and passion exploded further when I joined as a barista for Starbucks South Africa five years ago, and I set a goal to be a coffee master,” said Mmotla.
About being a finalist and preparing for the competition, he said: “It is a dream come true to be a ‘National Barista Champion’, as it’s taken me five years of perseverance to get to this level and proudly represent all our Rand Capital partners at a global level.
“ I love sharing my passion and skill for coffee and developing others, and I am obsessed with quality. My favourite part of my daily routine is connecting with people over a shared passion. My job helps me to meet and connect with a diversity of people from this beautiful land and from across the globe
:We have been preparing with practice sessions for latte art, a personal coffee tasting, and an iced coffee beverage – these are the three categories that I will have to showcase in Milan, and I am using this time to do practice runs of them with my support partners and customers,” said Mmotla.
“I will be using our Kenya core coffee as it is one of my favourite coffees and represents both us as Africans, and my story – the coffee is bold and complex, similar to the African elephant, which is depicted on the bag. The story behind the coffee is very similar to my journey in coffee.
“The Kenyan coffee history relates to my challenges in life. I read about how the Kenyan coffee farmers fought for their independence at a time when they were being controlled and not allowed to farm coffee - the hero of the story who helped the farmers break free from the controls and restrictions was an introvert like myself,” he added.