Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/146883
RAUL RODAS THE 2012 WORLD BARISTA CHAMPION REFLECTS ON HIS YEAR AS THE GLOBAL COFFEE AMBASSADOR BY SARAH ALLEN MOST OF THE PEOPLE who win the World Barista Championship (WBC) have traveled for the sake of coffee to maybe a few countries before having won, and then, upon winning, they are dumbfounded by the amount of travel they will engage in for the next 12 months. Everyone, it seems, wants a visit from the reigning WBC champ. (Wouldn't you?) But when Raul Rodas won the 2012 World Barista Championship (WBC) in Vienna, Austria, he was already a seasoned traveler, having flown all over the world training baristas on behalf of Coffee Corps. Still, that was nothing compared to the number of airline miles he racked up over the past year. Since winning last June, Raul has been to Peru three times, Korea twice, Russia three times, Brazil twice, 72 barista magazine Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Australia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Japan, and all over the United States. That's a lot of time for Raul to be away from his dogs. (Luckily his mom takes care of them when he's away.) He's had the chance to visit some of the best cafés in the world. His favorites? Among them are Coffeemania and Double B Coffee and Tea at Mandarin, both in Russia; Café LEC in South Korea; iCafe in Taiwan; and Open Eye Café in North Carolina, owned by WBC head judge Scott Conary. I spoke to Raul in the last weeks of his reign as World Barista Champion to ask how the year had been and what he had learned, and also what insights he had from the broad swath of the international specialty coffee landscape he recently experienced.