Why the Coffee Association Milk Rule Sparked a Fight

Oatly published an open letter attacking the Specialty Coffee Association over a World Barista Championship rule that allows contestants to use only milk. The oat milk brand argued the rule is outdated, pointing to oat milk's lower environmental impact and its popularity in cafés. The SCA had not revised the rule at the time of the dispute.

The company launched the hashtag #OutdatedCoffeeRules on Twitter to rally baristas. The appeal did not land as intended; many commenters pushed back and defended dairy milk in competition. The episode raises a real question for the coffee association and for the wbc coffee championship: whether sustainability goals and competition rules should align.

Oatly, the oat milk brand, has once again taken aim at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), publicly questioning that the World Barista Championship (WBC) rule allowing only milk is outdated. Oatly published an open letter on its official website, emphasizing that oat milk is more environmentally friendly and more favored by consumers, and demanding that the SCA immediately revise the rules. However, this move did not win support from netizens, but instead triggered a large number of rebuttals. This article will walk you through the entire incident and include Front Street Coffee's professional perspective. Whether you are a coffee professional or enthusiast, this debate about plant-based milk versus dairy milk is worth paying attention to.

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Oatly, the oat milk company, couldn't hold back again!

On the second day of this year's competition, Oatly published an open letter on its official website, stating outright that the WBC rule allowing contestants to use only milk is already outdated.

According to what Oatly said in the letter, the summary is this: oat milk coffee drinks are deeply loved by consumers in today's coffee shops, and the number of people choosing oat milk is growing. As the globally recognized Specialty Coffee Association, the SCA's mission, purpose, and core values all include the concept of "sustainability." However, research shows that oat milk is more environmentally friendly than milk and more aligned with the direction of sustainable development. Yet the SCA stipulates that WBC contestants may only use milk, which is clearly self-contradictory. Therefore, Oatly demands that the SCA immediately revise the WBC competition rules to allow contestants to use oat milk.

In addition to openly challenging the SCA, Oatly also set out to rally supporters. On Twitter, it launched the hashtag #OutdatedCoffeeRules and wrote: If you're a barista, you may know that the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has a rule requiring that only milk be used in the world's top barista competition. If you're not a barista, then now you have a fun fact that will definitely make your barista friends find you interesting. The rule of using only milk in competitions seems outdated, especially for an organization representing coffee professionals, when thousands of people prefer plant-based milk over dairy. This makes us wonder, if the SCA continues to insist on milk, what other outdated rules should remain in their barista competition?

Oatly may have wanted to pressure the SCA by encouraging social media users to force it to allow plant-based milk in the WBC.

But!

The responses from netizens can be said to have put Oatly in an awkward position for a while, making people cringe on its behalf...

(The screenshots below are all webpage translations)

That's right, there were very few voices in the comments agreeing with Oatly's statement! Although Oatly also tried hard in the comments to argue how excellent and environmentally friendly oat milk is, most netizens still believed that milk is king! Whether in coffee competitions or daily coffee shop offerings!

Some netizens pointed out that oat milk foam is unstable! And it easily overpowers the coffee's flavor, and the price is not cheap either. The quality of products made with the two materials lacks referentiality and comparability. If oat milk were allowed in the competition, it would be unfair to any contestant.

In fact, this is not the first time Oatly has asked the SCA to revise the WBC rule allowing only milk, but it has never challenged it so publicly before. The SCA has also held public discussions on this topic, and most practitioners still support the rule of using only milk in competition.

Some contestants who have participated in the WBC said that if oat milk were allowed in the competition, it might trigger more rule changes. But revising the existing scoring rules would require a great deal of time and manpower, and the competition would also become more complicated.

A small number of contestants also believed that allowing oat milk in the competition is only a matter of time, since it is so popular among coffee shops and coffee consumers.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.