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( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( OFF the WIRE ) ) ) ) ))) ) CHRIS RYAN NEWS BR IE FS AMERICAN REIGN: Pete Licata (left) took the World Barista Championship while Erin McCarthy won the World Brewers Cup. LICATA/MCCARTHY 2013: U.S. SHINES WITH WORLD BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP, BREWERS CUP WINS brewing competition. The events took place at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, May 23-25. The WBC victory was a long time in the making for Licata, who MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—At the tensest moment of the works as quality assurance manager at Kansas City, Mo.-based 2013 World Barista Championship, emcee Stephen Leighton did roaster Parisi Artisan Coffee. He first competed in 2005; since then something lighthearted. With the six finalists gathered on stage he has earned five regional victories, two USBC wins and now, finally, awaiting their fate, Leighton—wearing a shiny red suit and black the title of World Barista Champion. He was able to grab the top bowtie—lifted his red bowler hat to reveal the envelopes contain- spot with a routine centered around a Cup of Excellence-winning ing the competition's final results. coffee from Colombian producer Arnulfo While the comical move eased some of Leguizamo, a member of the Asociacion Los the tension, what Leighton had under his Naranjos co-op in San Agustin in the Huila MORE WITH hat was no joke: Pete Licata, the veteran department. "That coffee was so sweet, so THE CHAMP barista competitor from the United States, vibrant and really just different," Licata says. Check out "Nine Bars" (p. 48) was the 2013 World Barista Champion. Unlike Licata's last time on the WBC stage— for an extended interview with The sweaty, shocked barista gathered his his second-place 2011 routine in which he newly crowned WBC winner first-place tamper trophy and was promptly picked, processed and roasted the coffee doused with champagne by 2012 WBC himself—this time he wanted to showcase Pete Licata. winner Raul Rodas of Guatemala. But the many hands that touch a coffee from Licata's win was not the only good news seed to cup, focusing on his role at the end for the United States in Melbourne: The World Brewers Cup of the chain. "I haven't been to this farm, but the way that I see it title went to Erin McCarthy of New York City's Counter Culture is that you shouldn't have to work with a farmer first-hand in order Coffee—the first American to win the three-year-old by-the-cup to be able to represent what they're doing," he says. MORE NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE WORLDS OF COFFEE AND TEA: BURST OF THIRST: Research firm Packaged Facts recently released a report that found overall tea sales in the United States last year hit $15.7 billion. That's an increase of 32 percent since 2007, and analysts say the market could hit $18 billion by 2015. | 18 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com