ICTF: Coffee, tea and competitions

ATTENDEES to this year’s International Coffee & Tea Festival (ICTF) will witness the first-ever “All Stars” showdown featuring the best baristas, brewers and latte artists.  Recent winners Hidenori Izaki, Stefanos Domatiotis, Christos Loukakis, and Gwilym Davies will demonstrate their skills and compete in pop quiz contents, together with fans in the audience. 

Hidenori Izaki, 2014 World-Barista Champion

Award-winning baristas

Mr Izaki is the 2014 World Barista Champion (WBC); Mr Davies is the 2009 World Barista Champion. Mr Domatiotis is the 2014 World Brewers Cup Champion, and is also a 2012 WBC finalist, a seven-time WBC competitor, a two-time World Latte Art Champion (WLAC) finalist, and a 2014 WBC champion. Mr Loukakis was a 2014 WBC finalist, a 2013 WBrC finalist, and a 2011 WLAC winner.

Ryan Godinho, UAE’s National Body Liaison for World Coffee Events and Special Events Coordinator (Training & Championships), ICTF, said,  “We are extremely happy and privileged to host “All Stars” in association with World Coffee Events at the sixth edition of ICTF this year, where these world-famous baristas can truly represent the wonders of coffee-preparation through on-stage demonstrations and engage with UAE’s local coffee community by way of the various interactive activities planned at the show. This will give our visitors a chance to watch them in action as they prepare the best tasting coffee beverages and will also serve as an inspirational professional development initiative for HORECA professionals, from wait staff and baristas to training and F&B managers alike. Furthermore, the ‘All Stars’ and our attendees will have the opportunity to interact with each other and share their experiences and a common passion for coffee. This is the first time in the history of the show that we are introducing the ‘All Stars’ activity as part of our move to further engage the local coffee community and build a lasting relationship with our target market. This is just the start of us holding similar entertaining, high-profile activities in the future, in our bid to stimulate more interest in the regional coffee industry.”