World Barista Championship debuts in Panama
Panama City hosts the Specialty Coffee Association's flagship contest for the first time, with more than 50 national champions competing at World of Coffee.
The World Barista Championship opened in Panama City on 22 October, the first time the Specialty Coffee Association's flagship competition has come to Central America.
The event runs through 25 October at the Panama Convention Center, alongside World of Coffee Panama, the SCA's trade show. More than 50 national champions, one from each competing country's qualifying body, take the stage over four days to prepare and serve four drinks, a signature, an espresso and a milk drink, against the clock and under judges' scrutiny.
World Barista Championship meets Panama's own geisha
A four-minute routine only means something if the coffee behind it can survive a blind cup.
The country staging its first World Barista Championship is also the source of one of specialty coffee's most sought-after varieties. Panamanian geisha, grown on volcanic slopes around Boquete, routinely sets auction records and has shaped how judges and competitors talk about clarity and floral intensity in a cup. South Korean competitor Dongwhwan Ku arrives with a direct tie to that reputation: he won his national title at the Korea Café Show using a Panamanian geisha, a choice that doubles as a nod to the host country.
Jack Simpson of Australia, last year's champion in Milan, became the fourth Australian to hold the WBC title when he won in 2025. Whether he returns to defend it in Panama had not been confirmed by organisers as the event opened.
A 26th edition under revised rules
This is the competition's 26th edition, and the SCA released updated rules and regulations ahead of the event without detailing specific changes. The championship has grown alongside the national qualifying circuits that feed it, with this year's edition held in Panama for the first time rather than the United States or Europe. Panama has hosted international competitions before, including a Latin America culinary final, but the barista championship marks its biggest specialty-coffee event to date.
Results are expected by 25 October, when a new champion takes over from Simpson for the coming year. Holding the event in a producing country rather than a consuming market is itself being read in the trade as a shift in how specialty coffee chooses to stage its biggest night of the year.
