Oatly wants to know why it’s barred from being part of the World Barista Championship (WBC). No plant-based milk is allowed.
Each year, more than 50 champion competitors take part in the WBC. Each prepares four espressos, four milk drinks and four original signature drinks to exacting standards in a 15-minute performance set to music.
The milk drinks and signature beverages produced by the competitors are restricted to using cow’s milk only.
Oatly feels this is outdated. In fact, it says that it’s ridiculous in this day and age. Oat drink helps to support the planet and baristas around the world are seeing significant shifts in customer demand from cow’s milk to plant-based alternatives, it adds. And the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA), which organises the Championship, claims to value sustainability within its own mission and purpose but the exclusion of non-dairy alternatives in its competition is akin to claiming you hate bad drivers but you never indicate at intersections.
So Oatly, together with baristas and coffee enthusiasts around the world, is now launching an initiative for change to protest the outdated competition rules of the World Barista Championship, based on a simple idea: “If the WBC rules are so out of touch with the preferences of baristas and coffee drinkers alike, circa 2022, what other outdated rules could we suggest they introduce?”
The humorous campaign suggests that all competitors must arrive by horseless carriage perhaps? Or what if any challenge to judging decisions had to be submitted in Latin and in the event of a tie, participating baristas should duel at dusk within one fortnight?
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The initiative includes memes and a resolution calling for change “lest the SCA be mocked for their outdatedness until the cows come home”.
How do you fight an outdated rule that requires cow’s milk to be used in barista competitions? With outdated language of your own, of course. @SpecialtyCoffee #OutdatedCoffeeRules pic.twitter.com/hSYna6E0nV
— Oatly (@oatly) September 22, 2022
The SCA is meant to represent us as coffee professionals, yet we are seeing an increasing number of disenfranchised baristas who no longer want to compete because they don’t consume animal products. There has been an amazing rise in plant-based coffee consumption across the planet. For example, most cafés we speak to in London are serving more coffee with oat drink than cow’s milk, and some Sydney cafes are reporting that over
80% of orders are for plant-based alternatives. It’s time for the SCA to catch up with the current landscape in coffee shops,” stated Toby Weedon, head of Oatly’s barista development team in EMEA.
What’s more, there is precedent for oat drink being used in international barista competitions. This year’s China Latte Art Championship (which is part of SCA’s World Coffee Events) will be using oat milk as the default “competition milk” for the first time.
Martin Hudak, acclaimed coffee mixologist, and co-founder of Sydney venues, Maybe Sammy and Sammy Junior, stated, “I honestly think it’s time for change. We have far more innovative technology, better coffees, more experienced farmers and baristas, but when we talk about milk it’s always the same. Give competitors the chance to offer on the world stage what they do on a daily basis in their cafes. It’s time for more diversity and more plant-based options.”
