I hate waxing metaphoric… and yet I do it

Well, friends, it's wedding season. People are tying the knot left and right (including my pals Julie and Kate, at whose ceremony I'll be this weekend in Detroit), and June is abuzz with excitement, everlasting love, new outfits and fancy dishware.

But there is another kind of marriage we will be celebrating this weekend (and for which some people will be waking up very early).

It's like this: Skill and Passion passion meet, flirt, go out a few times, get to know each other and then amaze the world with how perfect they are together. The union of that skill and that passion is unstoppable, inspiring, incredible, totally bitchin' and maybe just a skosh bonkers, and is fêted at long last under one giant roof: the World Barista Championship!

Our very best baristas are the products of that skill and passion, just like a masterful cappuccino is the marriage of espresso and milk.



So while you're enjoying the WBC (more live-streaming action!) and reading the insightful, up-to-the-minute commentary on Barista Magazine's blog, I'll be toasting my friends Julie and Kate, probably doing the Chicken Dance, and hoping for the best for my two favorite champs: America's Kyle Glanville and Ireland's Stephen Morrissey. And, of course, for everybody else building drinks and pulling shots under the watchful eyes of that crack team of judges.

Good luck to all the competitors, and safe travels to everyone headed to Copenhagen!


Kyle concentrates very, very hard. That's why he's so good!