Long Beach, CA. U.S.A. (July 22 2008) — The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) announces the appointment of Emily Oak as the newest member to represent the association’s interest on the World Barista Championship (WBC) Board of Directors.
Oak is Director of Training and Development for Australian Independent Roasters, an SCAA member and wholesale roaster located near Sydney, Australia. She is slated to serve a two-year term on the internationally-recognized barista competition’s board.
In addition to four representatives from the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), with whom the SCAA jointly owns the WBC, Oak joins current SCAA representatives Cindy Chang, of Counter Culture Coffee, Nicholas Cho of murky coffee, and Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers, LLC on the WBC board of directors. These volunteers are tasked with continuing the interest and growth of the WBC on a global scale while building a stronger educational and social platform for the worldwide barista community.
Oak represented Australia as a competitor at the 2001 World Barista Championship in Miami. Since then she has served as a WBC judge, WBC regional coordinator for the Asia Pacific region, and chair of the WBC regional coordinator committee, in addition to other professional and volunteer accomplishments in the global specialty coffee industry.
“SCAA is pleased to select Emily to represent our association on the WBC Board of Directors,” said SCAA Executive Director Ric Rhinehart. “We are confident she will provide SCAA with a strong presence within the internationally-recognized specialty coffee organization while also contributing to the WBC’s continuing growth and success.”
“I’m very excited about representing the SCAA on the WBC board,” said Oak. “I have believed in the goals of the WBC since its inceptions and look forward to helping the organization continue to grow.”
when are you fakes going to stop taking the piss?when are you going to stop over-rating and glorifyng yourselves as well as glorifying these 15 min coffee makers portraying them to be some sort of god like champion barista’s?
when in reality with random orders they are lost and don’t have the experience to cope on a very high volume of coffee as well as being very slow and inconsistent and not knowing how to cope/adjust grind (in one shot) in relation to weather, due to lack of experience. a bit different when your adjusting the grind backstage or preparing youself (training for months) the same thing over and over. i could train anyone, infact any amatuer can win a competition when they’ve been practising the routine over and over. how is that a way of predicting how experienced this barista is? how hard can that be? how can you call this a barista?example, how hard would it be to pass an exam when i know what the questions are going to be?
get my emphasis? i would only study the questions that are going to be asked, wouldn’t be too hard to get the answers correct , would it?!
your competitons are a joke and have nothing to do with what a real experienced barista is or what he/she must deal with on a daily basis – but of course it’s very easy to brainwash the ignorant, those that have just realized and just woken up to the taste of coffee. i would love to get all you so called experts and put you to the real test, and watch you crawl back under the rocks you came from. I’m so sick of the hype. give it a break guys, get real…… i’d love to hear what you’ve got to say but please if so just spare me the verbal diarrhoea cos i’ve heard enough of it….. [email protected]
oh, and for the record, experience and passion are not gained by reading a coffee book. the only thing you have gained is a bit of coffee knowledge, this doesn’t mean your passionate and experienced and have got what it takes to be a barista just cos you swallowed a coffee encyclopedia….. so those of you that think you’re experts just cos you know what you’re talking about, it doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing!!!so many fakes you can tell when they talk that’s it’s coming from a book they read. they sound good but then when they put the hands on the machine you can soon tell their hands on skills don’t match their mouth skills…..