We have a new Coffee Masters champion, and her name is Erika Vonie. Since initial stepping on to a coffee foe theatre in 2014, this is Vonie’s initial championship win, and it was hard-fought, requiring five-plus hours of sum theatre time via a weekend and a nail-biting conduct to conduct culmination opposite Agnieska Rojewska of Poland, another seasoned (and utterly decorated) competitor.
Vonie and Rojewska had never met before a New York Coffee Masters competition, that Rojewska describes as being “a quarrel though [a] accessible one.” That rival intercourse was embodied in a impulse we celebrated from a audience, heading into a final round. Rojewska had already advanced; Vonie was watchful to hear a outcome of her opening opposite Christos Andrews (of Seattle’s Ghost Note Coffee) in a semifinal round. The destiny finalists stood together as announcements neared, chatting about their mutual adore for Darth Vader (whom Rojewska likes to emanate in lattes and Vonie infrequently embodies), ostensible honestly vehement during a awaiting of competing opposite one another.
“[I became] immediately feeling with Aga,” Vonie tells me. “Even if we got knocked out in a initial round, that tie would still have spin a prominence of a weekend. She kicks so most ass, and done it to easy to bond by her extraordinary clarity of amusement and her beyond-obvious spin of talent.” This feeling of tie and support between competitors during a Coffee Masters was palpable, and conspicuous to me. I’m typically a witness during barista competitions, where a finalists tend to be mostly male, and a feeling in a room is a bit some-more self-serious.
The dual NYCM finalists have also competed during a inhabitant spin of barista competitions in their particular home countries, with Rojewska carrying twice achieved a inhabitant pretension in Poland. In both Europe and a United States, a change of insincere masculine and womanlike inhabitant competitors (there is no other central choice for those who brand outward of a viewed gender binary) is lopsided toward a men, a trend that extends to a World Barista Championship (WBC) as well. A heading voice on this theme is Cerianne Bury, who has created extensively on a trend of women not competing, and those who do contest not advancing, in strictly authorised barista foe tournaments. One intensity aspect Bury identifies as an component of foe that could change a competitor’s opening is gender; privately either we are competing opposite someone of your same gender or someone who identifies differently.
I asked Erika Vonie: did competing in a finals opposite someone who also identifies as womanlike make a difference? She responded by articulate to me about an progressing foe knowledge regulating cranky nation in high school, that she described as being same to regulating by a woods with a container of girls. “[W]e were all pulling ourselves harder, feeding off any other’s energies when we felt low. We were all racing opposite AND with any other simultaneously. So my clarity of foe with women is a camaraderie. Surround yourself with a absolute women who keep pulling we as tough and as quick as we can go, since ultimately, we all advantage a improved we are.”
In deliberating her feelings on competing opposite men, a difference “must destroy” and “dominate” came up. “I mostly have felt like a sole lady when it comes to these competitions, since we have been,” says Vonie. “From a burst my group has always been men, as they are my employers, coaches, and associate competitors.” Being a “lone woman” in a sea of male-identified competitors seems like a less-than-ideal scenario. But a Coffee Masters final felt different; maybe it had to do with a gender of her foe in a final, though it could also be a outcome of a foe format itself.
Rojewska and Vonie backstage during Coffee Masters.
The knowledge of competing in a Coffee Masters is vastly opposite than competing in a barista competition, something both NYC finalists voiced to me during length. “I roughly never speak to my associate competitors during USBC this much,” Vonie told me, adding, “it’s so vicious and there’s so most heartbreak. It’s really tough being a normal chairman during [barista] competitions.” Rojewska echoed those same sentiments. “In Polish championship we know any other for years,” she said. “We contest together many times so we are friends, though there is always a lot of highlight in a behind room.”
Which is not to contend it’s a stress-free sourroundings during a Masters. There’s a $5,000 income esteem during stake, for starters—Vonie is regulating her loot to start adult her possess coffee roasting project. But a format of Coffee Masters seems to work as a matter for creation connectors with your associate competitors. This in spin allows those competitors to feel a bit some-more during palliate on theatre as a result.
Elsewhere in her vicious work on a subject, Cerianne Bury identifies one of a biggest issues confronting a barista foe circuit: there is little-to-no improvement for cognitive bias in judging. She discusses that a things we like or design to see from competitors differ between masculine and womanlike competitors, and that these expectations competence eventually tone a scoresheets, generally in a points allotted for deceptive concepts like “professionalism” and “appropriate apparel.” Vonie has been noted down in a past for issues relating to her wardrobe on stage—a flattering apparent throttle indicate for implicit disposition and in-group favoritism to climb in. “If a length of my dress creates we consider I’m reduction veteran than my panted competitors,” Vonie tells me, “then maybe we shouldn’t judge, since you’re apparently judging a wrong things.”
There are no such indicate scores allotted during a Coffee Masters, where instead a accessible reward points for categories like “overall impression” and “charisma” are judged on a competitor’s ability to speak during length with their judges about a intricacies of their routine, or offer coffee to a examination assembly during down time. It competence be a fluke that competitors like Erika Vonie and Aga Rojewska—technically means baristas during a tip of their field—would strech finals in an eventuality like Coffee Masters, instead of bogging down on sexist nonsense like dress length in a US Barista Championship.
Vonie with Ezra Baker of Share Coffee, Vonie’s coffee partner for a signature splash round.
But whatever a reason behind Vonie and Rojewska’s particular successes, and Vonie’s contingent win, a fact that female-identifying (and queer, and non-binary) competitors are excelling during a Coffee Masters is a win-win for everyone. It’s both critical and fun, as anyone who witnessed a stirring dual hour final conflict between Vonie and Rojewska in New York can attest.
Either aspirant would have done a good champion, and yet, there’s still miles to go. It is 2017 and there’s never been a female-identified World Barista Champion. Meanwhile on a Coffee Masters stage, your new champion is a lady set to start adult her possess roasting association with a esteem money, and a eventuality can still do improved by empowering, mentoring, and coaching some-more competitors from backgrounds underrepresented on a stage. we consider a 2017 Coffee Masters finals during a New York Coffee festival was an critical impulse for a wider coffee culture, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Bailey Arnold is a coffee veteran formed in New York City. This is Bailey Arnold’s initial underline for Sprudge Media Network.
