Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Key takeaways
- Champion baristas now tour internationally, hosting events and bar takeovers.
- Tours combine with brand ambassador roles to build income streams.
- Events rarely turn a profit; most revenue covers basic costs.
- In-person connection matters more in specialty coffee as automation and AI expand.
Winning the World Barista Championship (WBC) or the World Brewers Cup (WBrC) ranks among the highest achievements a barista can reach. Making the final is rare enough. For the small number who go on to win, a different question follows: what happens after the trophy is handed over?
Coffee competitions have grown steadily more popular, and the specialty industry around them has matured too. This has created new options for some of the world’s strongest baristas, well beyond the competition stage itself.
A number are choosing to tour, hosting events and bar takeovers in different cities and countries from where they work. These appearances give baristas a direct route to the people who drink their coffee, not just the judges who score it. On tour, a champion can walk an audience through their competition routine, pour the same coffees they used on stage, and meet the community that follows them.
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Baristas go global
Barista champions are increasingly bringing their competition coffees, routines, and expertise to a global audience.
The 2025 World Barista Champion Jack Simpson partnered with FAEMA on a tour through the Asia-Pacific region, appearing at key industry events as the brand’s ambassador to promote its products. On 14 September, Jack will attend the FAEMA I’m a Barista Journey event in Barcelona, where he will join a live Q&A and lead coffee tasting sessions.
Jack’s approach follows a path set a few years earlier by Boram Um, who, after winning the 2023 World Barista Championship, took an extensive tour across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Events like these, including bar takeovers and one-off tastings, give champions such as Jack and Boram a platform to show their creativity and technique in preparing specialty coffee to people who would never otherwise see a competition routine performed live.
They also have a commercial upside. Combined with brand ambassador roles, a tour builds visibility for the barista and, in turn, for the brand attached to a World Barista Champion. Most of these tours and partnerships launch soon after a WBC win, while the title’s momentum is still fresh.
Boram took the idea further, extending parts of his world tour into special omakase services, including a sitting at the renowned Koffee Mameya in Tokyo and another at Deuces in the Philippines. For these omakase sittings, Boram worked through a small, curated selection of drinks built to show his skill and give guests a considered experience around a handful of special coffees. He built a team for the tour that included Forward Coffee’s Cole Torode and David Crosby, and used the international attention to spotlight his family’s own farm, Fazenda Um.
Keeping it local
Not every champion wants a tour on an international scale, however. Mikolaj Pociecha, Account Manager at The Coffee Quest and the 2026 Dutch Brewers Cup Champion, has kept things smaller and closer to home. “I’m not on a tour, nor do I have any plans to go on one,” he says. “What I do occasionally is host events or bar takeovers to share and promote the ideas and values that are central to the projects I’m working on.”
For Mikolaj, these events continue what he started on the competition stage. “I had the chance to step onto the world stage and present a coffee, a set of ideas, and a method. While only three judges experienced that performance directly, it was never really for them. It was for everyone in my community. The least I can do is invite people to share in the outcome and experience the work that went into it.”
The pull of in-person connection
There is a growing global audience for specialty coffee content, and social media and video platforms built around it have become popular. These platforms give professionals and enthusiasts a place to share what they know and connect with others. Podcasts have followed the same path into the specialty coffee scene, giving people in the community a format for talking about coffee at more length and with more depth than a short video allows.
These digital platforms have opened new opportunities for baristas, but human connection matters more, not less, as automation and AI reshape daily life. Mikolaj sees a clear benefit in bringing people together in the same room. “Organising a meaningful event, bringing people together, and creating something worth showing up for helps build relationships, trust, and a reputation within the community,” he says.
People notice real effort, and conversation stands out in a world increasingly mediated by screens. “I hope it comes from a genuine desire to connect rather than from vanity or self-promotion,” Mikolaj says of what should motivate a barista to tour or host an event.
These tours and pop-ups amount to specialty coffee returning to its community roots, shaped now by new business realities, new opportunities, and each barista’s own goals. Baristas can network, build a personal profile beyond their competition results, and open new revenue streams outside the café.
The trade-offs
The financial upside is smaller than it looks from the outside, though.
“The time, effort, and money that go into creating an experience like that can never be recovered by serving 30 pour-overs during a pop-up,” Mikolaj explains. “Most of the revenue simply goes toward covering the cost of the coffee and helping cover the café’s operating costs.”
For the people who attend, the appeal is straightforward: a chance to watch a competition routine performed live, taste the coffees used on stage, and talk to a barista whose work they follow.
“Sponsors are important, of course, but at gatherings like these, the brands should never take centre stage,” Mikolaj says. Sponsors can help make an event possible, but the real value sits with the barista staying connected to the community.
Preparing to go on tour
Interest in barista tours and pop-up events keeps growing, and the trend looks set to continue, but the planning, logistics, and money behind each one are considerable. This is usually where sponsors, brands, and host cafés step in.
Mikolaj asks the host café to handle logistics and organisation so he can focus on the coffee. “On average, it takes me three preparation sessions to get everything where I want it,” he says. “The process starts with profiling the coffee. After that comes meticulous hand-sorting. I look at bean shape, structural damage, minor roasting inconsistencies, and every kind of physical defect. It’s an incredibly excessive and wasteful process, removing roughly 50% of the roasted coffee by weight.
“The coffee has to be perfect, but so do the water and the recipe. That’s why I dedicate multiple sessions to preparation; by the time people taste the coffee, every detail has been considered,” he adds.
This level of preparation shows how much work goes into each event, both on the logistics side and in the barista’s own routine.
Choosing the location for the event comes down to relationships rather than any wider strategy. “The only reason I would host an event somewhere is that I have a good relationship with the people there and our values are a match,” Mikolaj says.
World titles open doors beyond the competition stage, but barista champions are increasingly choosing different paths afterwards. Some tour globally with brand partners; others, like Mikolaj Pociecha, favour smaller, values-led events closer to home.
Either way, the financial reward stays modest. What champions gain instead is a direct line to their community, built on coffee, careful preparation, and conversation.
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Barista champion FAQS
Why do barista champions go on tour?
Touring lets champions share their competition routine and coffees directly with the people who drink them, not just judges. It builds a personal profile, supports brand ambassador roles, and makes the most of momentum right after a win.
Do barista tours and pop-up events actually make money?
Not much directly. 2026 Dutch Brewers Cup Champion Mikolaj Pociecha says ticket and drink sales rarely cover an event’s true cost; most revenue goes toward the coffee itself and the host café’s running costs, so champions lean on sponsorships and ambassador deals for real income.
How much preparation goes into a barista pop-up event?
A lot. Mikolaj Pociecha profiles each coffee, then hand-sorts beans for shape, damage, and defects, removing roughly half the roasted batch by weight, while refining the water and brewing recipe across three preparation sessions before every event.
Photo credits: Specialty Coffee Association, Mazzer
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