Competitions
Seven championships, each with its own rulebook. Below is what each one involves, in plain words — and further down, a Romanian working version of every rulebook, with the official document linked beside it.
World Barista Championship · WBC
Barista Championship
Held in RomaniaThe flagship competition. In fifteen minutes a barista must serve four espressos, four milk beverages and four signature drinks — while presenting the story of the coffee they chose.
How it runs
Twelve drinks, fifteen minutes, one machine. The clock does not stop: everything from grinding to the last word of the presentation happens inside that window.
What is judged
Taste of the beverages, station cleanliness, extraction and steaming technique, creativity of the signature drink, and the coherence of the whole presentation.
World Brewers Cup · WBrC
Brewers Cup
Held in RomaniaManual filter coffee, no espresso machine. Two services: one where every competitor gets the same coffee, one where each brings their own.
How it runs
In the compulsory service, three beverages are brewed from the same organiser-supplied coffee and scored blind. In the open service, the competitor chooses their coffee and presents it for ten minutes. The beverage must stay under 2% total dissolved solids.
What is judged
Compulsory: aroma, flavour, body, balance and acidity on a standardised numeric scale. Open service adds the presentation and how well the method serves the coffee.
World Latte Art Championship · WLAC
Latte Art Championship
Held in RomaniaLatte art judged as a craft: not just how beautiful the pattern is, but how precisely you can repeat it a second time.
How it runs
Preliminaries: four beverages in eight minutes — two matching free-pour lattes and two matching designer patterns. Semi-finals and final run six beverages; the final ends with two free-pour macchiatos. The Art Bar is part of the preliminaries: the pour is free, with the winner chosen by audience vote, separately from the championship.
What is judged
Visual attributes, creativity, how identical the patterns in a pair are, contrast in the patterns, and overall performance.
World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · WCIGS
Coffee in Good Spirits
Held in RomaniaWhere the barista meets the bartender: coffee and spirits, from a classic Irish Coffee to designer cocktails.
How it runs
Preliminaries: four drinks on stage — two matching hot cocktails and two matching cold ones — plus two drinks at the Spirit Bar from a randomly drawn spirit. The top six reach the final with two Irish Coffees and two designer drinks.
What is judged
The balance between coffee and spirit, technique, consistency across matching drinks, creativity, and how the drink is presented.
World Cup Tasters Championship · WCTC
Cup Tasters
Held in RomaniaThe only competition where you prepare nothing. You face triangles of cups: two hold the same coffee, one is different. Find the odd one out — fast.
How it runs
Eight triangles per round. Two things count at once: how many you got right and how long you took. The top eight go to semi-finals, the top four to the final.
What is judged
The number of correct answers, with time as the tiebreaker. No presentation, no story: pure sensory discrimination.
Cezve/Ibrik Championship · CIC
Cezve / Ibrik
Coffee in a cezve — the oldest method still drunk today, judged at world-championship standard. Competitors are encouraged to bring their own cultural element into the performance.
How it runs
Four drinks in fifteen minutes — two plain cezve coffees and two signature ones — for two sensory judges. Two rounds. In the final, one of the two categories must be brewed on the provided sand heater or hovoli.
What is judged
Cup quality, command of the method, and how the competitor carries the tradition they come from.
World Coffee Roasting Championship · WCRC
Coffee Roasting Championship
Held in RomaniaThe only competition that does not end with a cup served on stage but with coffee roasted from scratch: you grade the green, build the profile, roast, and the judges cup the result.
How it runs
Three scored components: the roast plan written before the machine is fired up, the production roast that follows it, and a double-blind cup evaluation. National championships add a scored green coffee evaluation.
What is judged
Dozens of criteria covering pre-roast preparation, the roast itself, and finally the cup quality of the coffee produced.
The rules, in Romanian
The official rulebooks are written in English and change every year. We leave them where they belong — on wcc.coffee — and retell them in Romanian here, so competitors can prepare in their own language: who may compete, how the performance runs minute by minute, what is and is not allowed, the penalties, and how the points are awarded.
WBC · Edition 2026
Barista Championship
The flagship competition. In fifteen minutes a barista must serve four espressos, four milk beverages and four signature drinks — while presenting the story of the coffee they chose.
WBrC · Edition 2026
Brewers Cup
Manual filter coffee, no espresso machine. Two services: one where every competitor gets the same coffee, one where each brings their own.
WLAC · Edition 2026
Latte Art Championship
Latte art judged as a craft: not just how beautiful the pattern is, but how precisely you can repeat it a second time.
WCIGS · Edition 2026
Coffee in Good Spirits
Where the barista meets the bartender: coffee and spirits, from a classic Irish Coffee to designer cocktails.
WCTC · Edition 2026
Cup Tasters
The only competition where you prepare nothing. You face triangles of cups: two hold the same coffee, one is different. Find the odd one out — fast.
CIC · Edition 2026
Cezve / Ibrik
Coffee in a cezve — the oldest method still drunk today, judged at world-championship standard. Competitors are encouraged to bring their own cultural element into the performance.
WCRC · Edition 2026
Coffee Roasting Championship
The only competition that does not end with a cup served on stage but with coffee roasted from scratch: you grade the green, build the profile, roast, and the judges cup the result.
The chapter publishes a Romanian working version of the 2026 rules, written in our own words, for competitors who would rather prepare in their own language. It does not replace the original: the English text published by World Coffee Championships governs the competition and settles any dispute.
The road to the world stage
The national competition
Run by the chapter, to the current year's world rules, with certified judges.
The Competition Body licence
World Coffee Championships grants, each year, the right to run championships whose winner goes to the worlds. Without the licence, a competition stays local.
The world championship
The national champion represents Romania. The rulebook is the same one they followed at home — which is why how the national competition is run matters.
How to enter
Entries open for each edition separately. For the Iași edition the window is 31 August – 10 November 2026, the fee is €50 per competition and valid SCA membership is required. The number of places is published on the event page.
The fee and the membership requirement are the chapter's decision of 26 August 2026, not yet the official announcement — they will be confirmed when entries open. Write to us and we will let you know when they do.
Champions