This is a competition to encourage restaurants to serve better coffee at the end of a meal and also to encourage coffee making generally. Gaggia's Caffe Academie has been involved in training and encouraging baristi for a number of years. The quality of coffee served is continually improving but there is a lot more to be done. The UK and the World competitions have given a high profile for coffee making and I have had the priviledge to be associated with two UK champions -Simon Robertson and James Hoffman. James started his coffee career in our Academie and has gone on to become the world champion and is probably one of the most knowledgeable coffee experts in the world today.

James Hoffman has kindly agreed to judge this year's competition along with Paul Meikle-Janney who is another world renowned coffee expert and trainer.