World Brewers Cup

The World Brewers Cup is the world championship for filter coffee brewed by hand — pour-over, not espresso. Competitors brew for a panel of judges who score the drink on a standardised numerical scale covering aroma, flavour, body, balance and acidity.¹²

It is one of seven annual World Coffee Championships run by the Specialty Coffee Association, and the first edition was held in 2011 in Maastricht, the Netherlands.³ The competition moves to a different host city each year and rides along with a major industry trade show.

Not to be confused with the World Beer Cup, a brewing competition of an entirely different kind — the names collide constantly in search results.

How it works

Two services, in this order:

• Compulsory service. Everyone gets the same whole beans, supplied by the organisers, and prepares three cups. Nobody can hide behind a rare coffee; this round is pure technique — grind, water, pouring, timing.
• Open service. Competitors bring a coffee of their own choosing, prepare three cups, and talk the judges through it for ten minutes — where it came from, how it was grown and processed, how they are brewing it, what the judges should taste.

The six highest combined scorers from the first round go through to a final, which is open service only. The highest-scoring finalist is the champion.

One technical rule matters more than it looks: the brew must measure 2% total dissolved solids or less (20,000 ppm). Total dissolved solids is simply how much coffee is dissolved in the water — the strength. The 2% ceiling is what keeps this a filter competition and stops anyone from serving something espresso-strength (both sources above).

Entry is bottom-up: you win your national Brewers Cup, run by an affiliated national body, and that national title is your ticket to the world stage.

Why it matters

The open service turns the Brewers Cup into a shop window for coffees, not just for baristas. A ten-minute pitch to the judges — broadcast, written up, and dissected afterwards — is one of the most concentrated pieces of marketing a farm or a variety can get, and the winner’s coffee choice routinely becomes the story.

The other thing a win can launch is a method. Tetsu Kasuya, the 2016 champion in Dublin and the first Asian winner, published the routine he used as the 4:6 method — split the brew water 40/60, the first part setting sweetness against acidity, the second setting strength — and it became the most widely copied pour-over recipe in specialty coffee. Most champions are remembered for a coffee; he is remembered for a technique.

The clearest example on this wiki: Emi Fukahori won in 2018 in Belo Horizonte with a Laurina lot called “Frevo” from Daterra in Brazil⁴ — a win widely read as proof that Brazil, long filed under volume rather than finesse, could compete at the very top. See those notes for what is and isn’t documented about that lot.

That’s the same mechanism Best of Panama and Cup of Excellence run on the green-coffee side: a public verdict on a specific lot, which then reprices it. The Brewers Cup does it with a person and a brew method attached. It’s a working part of coffee’s premiumisation story.

Champions

	Year	Champion	Country	Host city
1	2011	Keith O’Sullivan	Ireland	Maastricht
2	2012	Matt Perger	Australia	Vienna
3	2013	James McCarthy	USA	Melbourne
4	2014	Stefanos Domatiotis	Greece	Rimini
5	2015	Odd-Steinar Tøllefsen	Norway	Gothenburg
6	2016	Tetsu Kasuya	Japan	Dublin
7	2017	Chad Wang	Taiwan	Budapest
8	2018	Emi Fukahori	Switzerland	Belo Horizonte
9	2019	Du Jianing	China	Boston
10	2021	Matt Winton	Switzerland	Milan
11	2022	Shih Yuan Hsu	Taiwan	Melbourne
12	2023	Carlos Medina	Chile	Athens
13	2024	Martin Wölfl	Austria	Chicago
14	2025	Peng Jinyang	China	Jakarta
15	2026	Nas Jaafar	Malaysia	Brussels

The 2011–2025 rows come from Wikipedia; the 2026 row from the organisers’ own announcement.⁵ The official site publishes rankings as year-by-year PDFs and points older results to a UC Davis digital archive rather than a browsable table.⁶

2026, Brussels. Nas Jaafar of Malaysia won the most recent edition, held in Brussels in June 2026 with Brewista as title sponsor. The organisers list the rest of the final six as Simon Gautherin (Australia), Bavis Kwong (Hong Kong SAR), Jackie Tran (Czech Republic), Ethan Junseong Park (South Korea) and Angie Molina (France) — the same five nationalities Malay Mail lists behind the champion, which corroborates the countries if not the placings. The champion’s coffee is now documented: a Geisha from Finca Nuguo in Panama, grown at 1,700 m and processed natural anaerobic — see Nas Jaafar. No source consulted says what the other five brewed.

To verify

The 2025 champion’s name. Wikipedia’s champions table gives Peng Jinyang (China), Jakarta. The research report behind this note instead reads the champion’s name off the official announcement video as “George Ginyan Pran” of China.⁷ The country agrees and the two are plausibly the same person under different romanisations, but no official written result was located to settle the spelling. Do not quote a 2025 name without checking the official rankings PDF.

To verify

The 2026 runners-up’ placings and the exact final date. The countries of the final six are now corroborated by a second source (Malay Mail’s report on the champion, via Nas Jaafar), but the order still rests on the organisers’ single news post as read — the second-place attribution in particular could not be cross-checked. The same site gives the event dates as 25–27 June 2026 on the event page but says the champion was crowned on 28 June 2026 in the announcement; two further sources side with 25–27 June (see Nas Jaafar). Check the official rankings PDF before quoting either.

To verify

No 2020 edition. The champions list jumps from 2019 to 2021 with no 2020 row. The obvious explanation is the COVID-19 pandemic, but no source consulted states that — the gap is inference, not a documented cancellation.

Who runs it

Older sources credit World Coffee Events and newer ones credit the Specialty Coffee Association. Both are right, at different times. The championships were created jointly by the American and European specialty associations, WCE was the body that operated them, and when those two associations unified in 2017 the SCA absorbed WCE. The WCE brand has since been retired: worldcoffeeevents.org now returns a permanent redirect to wcc.coffee, the SCA’s championship site, which mentions World Coffee Events nowhere at all.⁸⁹ See World Coffee Events for the full trail and what remains unconfirmed.

Champion history

	Year	Champion	Country	Company	Score	Host city
1	2025	George Jinyang Peng	China	Captain George Coffee Roaster	519	Geneva, Switzerland
2	2024	Martin Wölfl	Austria	Wildkaffee Austria	481	Copenhagen, Denmark
3	2023	Carlos Medina	Chile	Independent	448	Athens, Greece
4	2022	Shih Yuan Hsu (Sherry)	Taiwan	UCC Coffee Taiwan Co., Ltd	155.93	Milan, Italy
5	2021	Matt Winton	Switzerland	Independent	160.39	Milan, Italy
6	2019	Jia Ning Du	China	M2M Coffee	156.5	Berlin, Germany
7	2018	Emi Fukahori	Switzerland	Mame	160.16	Belo Horizonte, Brazil
8	2017	Chad Wang	Taiwan	Jascaffe China	149.06	Budapest, Hungary
9	2016	Tetsu Kasuya	Japan	Coffee Factory	155.59	Dublin, Ireland
10	2015	Odd-Steinar Tollefsen	Norway	—	239.08	Gothenburg, Sweden
11	2014	Stefanos Domatiotis	Greece	Taf Coffee	91.25	Rimini, Italy
12	2013	Erin McCarthy	United States	—	83.04	Melbourne, Australia
13	2012	Matt Perger	Australia	—	83.75	Vienna, Austria
14	2011	Keith O’Sullivan	Ireland	Independent	—	Maastricht, Netherlands

Results archive (every edition)

Final-round placings for every World Brewers Cup edition on record — 14 editions, 2011–2025. Earlier rounds (the full field, 554 rows in total) are kept as data in data/competitions/wcc/wbrc.json.

2025 — Geneva, Switzerland

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	George Jinyang Peng	China	Captain George Coffee Roaster	519
2	2	Bayu Prawiro	Indonesia	Common Grounds	510
3	3	Carlos Escobar	Colombia	DIFFERENTE Coffee	505
4	4	Elysia Tan	Singapore	Independent	495
5	5	Andrea Batacchi	Italy	Independent	483
6	6	Justin Bull	United States	Helm Coffee Roaster	464
7	7	Lakis Psomas	Sweden	Beans in cup	457
8	8	Alireza	Turkey	Baristica	447
9	9	Raul Rodas	Guatemala	Paradigma Coffee	440

Earlier rounds: Round One (50).

2024 — Copenhagen, Denmark

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Martin Wölfl	Austria	Wildkaffee Austria	481
2	2	Wataru Iiadaka	Japan	Saza Coffee	474
3	3	Ryan Wibawa	Indonesia	Common Grounds Coffee	463
4	4	Tom Hutchins	Australia	Codeblack Coffee	452
5	5	Charity Cheung	France	Moklair	445
6	6	Jackie Tran	Czech Republic	Mazelab coffee	436

Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (12), Round One (41).

2023 — Athens, Greece

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Carlos Medina	Chile	Independent	448
2	2	Savina Giachgia	Greece	Nestle Professional	440
3	3	Garam Victor Um	Brazil	Um Coffee Co.	429
4	4	Luca Croce	United Kingdom	Gold Box Roastery	426
5	5	George Peng	China	Captain George Coffee	404
6	6	Giacomo Vannelli	Italy	Vannelli Coffee	391

Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (12), Round One (35).

2022 — Milan, Italy

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Shih Yuan Hsu (Sherry)	Taiwan	UCC Coffee Taiwan Co., Ltd	155.93
2	2	Elika Liftee	United States	Onyx Coffee Lab	150.55
3	3	Elysia Tan	Singapore	Homeground Coffee Roasters	149.99
4	4	Tomas Taussig	Czech Republic	Coffee Culture	147.59
5	5	Jhon Christhoper	Indonesia	Fugol Coffee Roasters	147.22
6	6	Simen Andersen	Norway	Neongrut	142.43

Earlier rounds: Round One (32).

2021 — Milan, Italy

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Matt Winton	Switzerland	Independent	160.39
2	2	Daiki Hatakeyama	Japan	Independent	159.8
3	3	Elika Liftee	United States	Onyx Coffee Lab	159.4
4	4	Carlos Escobar	Australia	Toby Estate	158.31
5	5	Ply Pasarj	Canada	Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters	153.97
6	6	Tomas Taussig	Czech Republic	Coffee Culture Roasting	103.61

Earlier rounds: Round One (31).

2019 — Berlin, Germany

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Jia Ning Du	China	M2M Coffee	156.5
2	2	Patrik Rolf	Sweden	April	155.6
3	3	Alessandro Galtieri	Italy	Aroma	153.8
4	4	Chikako Nakai	Japan	UCC Holdings CO	152.9
5	5	Hsu Shih Yuan	Taiwan	UCC Coffee Taiwan	152.4
6	6	Daniel Hofstetter	Switzerland	Independent	146.7

Earlier rounds: Round One (39).

2018 — Belo Horizonte, Brazil

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Emi Fukahori	Switzerland	Mame	160.16
2	2	Regine Wai Yee Beng	Malaysia	Page 2 Cafe	159.2
3	3	Stathis Koremtas	Greece	Taf	158.36
4	4	Pang-Yu Liu	Taiwan	Independent	155.14
5	5	Kaoru Kamiyama	Japan	Maruyama Coffee Co. Ltd	151.67
6	6	Yeo Qing He	Singapore	Apartment Coffee	150.98

Earlier rounds: Round One (41).

2017 — Budapest, Hungary

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Chad Wang	Taiwan	Jascaffe China	149.06
2	2	Sam Corra	Australia	Ona Coffee	146.92
3	3	Stathis Koremtas	Greece	Taf Coffee	146.84
4	4	Michael Manhart	Austria	Independent	145.47
5	5	Constantin Hoppenz	Germany	Bonanza Coffee	140.69
6	6	Petra Strelecka	Czech Republic	Industra Coffee	138.52

Earlier rounds: Round One (41).

2016 — Dublin, Ireland

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Tetsu Kasuya	Japan	Coffee Factory	155.59
2	2	Mikaela Wallgren	Finland	The Coffee Collective	155.51
3	3	Chad Wang	Taiwan	Jascaffee China	149.33
4	4	Benny Wong	Hong Kong	The Cupping Room	147.77
5	5	Todd Goldsworthy	United States	Klatch Coffee	147.13
6	6	Odd-Steinar Tøllefsen	Norway	Supreme Roastworks AS	146.11

Earlier rounds: Round One (36).

2015 — Gothenburg, Sweden

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Odd-Steinar Tollefsen	Norway	—	239.08
2	2	Konstantinos latridis	Greece	—	237.39
3	3	Benjamin Prager	Switzerland	—	234.74
4	4	Sarah Jean Anderson	United States	—	232.57
5	5	Rob Kerkhoff	—	—	223.86
6	6	Ruslan Shulga	Russia	—	217.64

Earlier rounds: Round One (28).

2014 — Rimini, Italy

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Stefanos Domatiotis	Greece	Taf Coffee	91.25
2	2	Rubens Gardelli	Italy	Gardelli Specialty Coffees	87.62
3	3	Asli Yaman	Turkey	Soyuz Coffee Roasting	86.19
4	4	Odd-Steinar Tollefson	Norway	Supreme Roastworks	83.04
5	5	Ju-Ying (Lulu) Wei	Taiwan	Café Lulu Co., Ltd.	77.86
6	6	Petra Strelecka	Czech Republic	Industra Coffee	75.54

Earlier rounds: Round One (27).

2013 — Melbourne, Australia

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Erin McCarthy	United States	—	83.04
2	2	Jung InSung	South Korea	—	80.89
3	3	Josh Tarlo	Canada	—	77.62
4	4	Sang Ho Park	United Kingdom	—	74.4
5	5	Carolina Franco de Souza	Brazil	—	73.57
6	6	Tibor Varady	Hungary	—	72.68

Earlier rounds: Round One (19).

2012 — Vienna, Austria

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Matt Perger	Australia	—	83.75
2	2	Andy Sprenger	United States	—	83.21
3	3	Christos Loukakis	Greece	—	81.96
4	4	Anthony Benda	Canada	—	78.63
5	5	James Bailey	United Kingdom	—	78.45
6	6	Robert Gruber	Austria	—	78.21

Earlier rounds: Round One (23).

2011 — Maastricht, Netherlands

	Place	Competitor	Country	Company	Score
1	1	Keith O’Sullivan	Ireland	Independent	—
2	2	James Hoffmann	United Kingdom	Square Mile Coffee Roasters	—
3	3	Luca Costanzo	Australia	Independent	—
4	4	Stefanos Domatiotis	Greece	taf	—
5	5	Miklós Gál	Hungary	Semiramis Ltd.	—
6	6	Tomasz Dziedzic	Poland	Relaks	—

Source conflicts

To verify

The hand-written table on this page and the imported archive disagree on 8 field(s). Neither is assumed correct — check them against the official World Coffee Events record and fix whichever is wrong at its source.

	Year	Field	This page says	The archive says
1	2013	name	James McCarthy	Erin McCarthy
2	2019	host city	Boston	Berlin, Germany
3	2019	name	Du Jianing	Jia Ning Du
4	2022	host city	Melbourne	Milan, Italy
5	2022	name	Shih Yuan Hsu	Shih Yuan Hsu (Sherry)
6	2024	host city	Chicago	Copenhagen, Denmark
7	2025	host city	Jakarta	Geneva, Switzerland
8	2025	name	Peng Jinyang	George Jinyang Peng

Related

• World Coffee Championships — the seven-title circuit this one belongs to
• Nas Jaafar — 2026 champion, and Malaysia’s first world coffee title
• Emi Fukahori — 2018 champion, and the best-documented Brewers Cup story on this wiki
• Tetsu Kasuya — 2016 champion, first Asian winner, creator of the 4:6 method
• Matt Perger — 2012 champion, and a two-time World Barista Championship finalist in the same stretch
• Laurina · Daterra — the variety and the farm behind her winning cup
• Pour-over brewing — the brewing method the whole competition is built on
• Cupping · Coffee scoring — how the judges’ scale works
• Total dissolved solids — the strength measurement behind the competition’s 2% ceiling
• Specialty Coffee Association — runs the World Coffee Championships
• World Coffee Events — the body that originally operated them, now absorbed into the SCA
• Best of Panama · Cup of Excellence — the green-coffee equivalents, judged on lots rather than baristas
• Premiumisation · China coffee market — why a competition result moves money

Official links

• Official site — World Brewers Cup (World Coffee Championships)
• Official — World Brewers Cup past rankings
• Official — World Coffee Championships rules & regulations

Footnotes

1. World Coffee Championships — World Brewers Cup (official) ↩

2. Wikipedia — World Brewers Cup ↩

3. Specialty Coffee Association ↩

4. ANBA News Agency — Brazilian coffee wins 2018 World Brewers Cup ↩

5. World Coffee Championships — Brewers Cup winners announcement (official) ↩

6. World Coffee Championships — Past rankings (official) ↩

7. 2025 World Brewers Cup winner announcement (video) ↩

8. World Coffee Championships — homepage (official) ↩

9. Wikipedia — World Barista Championship ↩