MILAN – Twenty-eight years old, Colombian and world champion barista: he’s Diego Campos and we learned about him on the stage of the World Coffee Championships held in the latest edition of HostMilano. Before this important milestone, he had already distinguished himself both as national winner in 2014 and as champion of the fourth edition of Barista & Farmer – the talent show conceived by the visionary Francesco Sanapo which took place right in Diego’s homeland – and now, high on top of the world. We interviewed him, to understand the thrill of being the best bartender ever.
Diego Campos: how does it feel to be the best barista in the world
“I feel blessed and fortunate to be able to achieve this great title as a professional, but what makes me happiest is to be able to give my country the possibility to continue believing in coffee and to make the profession of Barista something much bigger.”
How have you trained for the world championship?
Diego Campos tells: “My career started in 2008, and since then I feel that I have been learning and making my career much more special. For this world competition, we trained for about 3 months, choosing and testing our coffees in every possible way. We also practiced the technical and presentation part, accompanied by a teacher of body expression and a psychologist with whom we worked on the part of the brain and its influence to be 100% connected. Until we reach the union of all these parts and conclude in a 15 minutes presentation.”
Which coffee do Diego Campos use for the competition and why did he choose it?
“For this competition we used a 100% Colombian coffee, of a species called Eugenioides, a very exotic coffee with a very well structured sensory part, which allowed us to have a very good score in the drinks presented to the judges.”
According to you, what have brought you to this winning?
Diego Campos has no doubts: “What has led us to be crowned world champions is the hard work, dedication, commitment and desire that I, as a professional and as a person, together with the company for which I work for Amor perfecto café in Colombia, have dedicated to make this dream come true.”
Colombia is known for being a coffee producer: why is it so important your first place as a barista?
“This is a very important achievement for us as a producing country and for the entire coffee industry, which will open many doors for the profession and we will be able to show the world that in Colombia we produce and serve the best coffee in the world. What has led us to be crowned world champions is the dedication, commitment, dedication and desire that I, as a professional and as a person, together with the company for which I work for the perfect coffee in Colombia, have dedicated to making this dream come true.
And now, what’s Diego Campos’ next projects as world barista?
“Now we want to dedicate ourselves to generate more specialty coffee culture in Colombia and the world, to achieve that we have more Baristas and consumers enjoying a very good cup of coffee around the world, we also want to work on our family project, Diamante coffee farm, is the name of the coffee farm, where the idea is to continue growing our own coffee to share it with the world.”
Would you send a message for the young competitors to come?
Diego Campos finished: “I would like us to have more and more Baristas and coffee lovers and to make speciality coffee something much more special and that coffee growers become more and more known for the quality of their coffee.”
