What does Coffee Wars say about the coffee enthusiast and plant milk

Coffee Wars follows Jo, a skilled vegan barista whose shop serves only plant-based milk and vegan food. Customers leave when they learn there is no dairy, business declines, and debt piles up. Jo enters the World Barista Championship with a vegan team, reaching the finals to show that plant milk can produce excellent coffee.

The film released on iTunes, Prime Video and Google Play on March 7, after shooting began in early 2022. In reality, the Specialty Coffee Association revised WBC rules at the end of 2022 to let plant-based milk compete, a change that aligns with the film's theme. For the coffee enthusiast, the pairing shows how competition rules and consumer habits shift together.

In recent years, film and television works about coffee have gradually increased, but "Coffee Wars" takes a unique perspective—focusing on the situation of vegetarians and plant-based milk in coffee competitions. The film tells the story of a highly skilled vegan barista, Jo, whose shop is struggling because it only offers plant-based milk, yet she resolutely leads her team into the finals of the World Coffee Championship, trying to prove that plant-based milk can also create excellent coffee. At the same time, in reality, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) also revised the WBC rules at the end of 2022 to allow plant-based milk to compete, a change that coincides with the film's theme. This article will introduce the film's highlights, the evolution of the WBC rules, and Front Street Coffee's continued attention to specialty coffee culture.

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It is reported that the latest film "Coffee Wars" will be released on iTunes, Prime Video, and Google Play on March 7.

Unlike previous coffee-themed films, this film aims to give viewers a deeper understanding of the vegan market while expressing dissatisfaction with the World Barista Championship (WBC) rule banning plant-based milk. For this reason, the film officially began shooting in early 2022.

The story revolves around a group of vegan enthusiasts: the protagonist Jo runs a coffee shop that only serves plant-based milk and vegan food. Although Jo's coffee skills are quite outstanding, many customers leave after discovering that only plant-based milk is available, causing the shop's business to languish, its operations to fall into difficulty, and even to accumulate heavy debt.

Seeing many baristas ignored because of vegan principles, Jo makes up her mind to help more people understand veganism by participating in the WBC competition, and also hopes that people will not miss out on excellent baristas because of plant-based milk.

So Jo leads her vegan team through one challenge after another and successfully reaches the WBC finals. Many people believe that compared with dairy milk, plant-based milk cannot win the judges' favor.

However, Jo does not give up, because she finally has a chance to prove on a stage dominated by animal milk that using plant-based milk can also deliver extraordinary performance, and that vegan baristas deserve attention and respect as well...

This film hopes to raise public awareness of the vegan market and protest the unfairness of the World Barista Championship (WBC) having refused plant-based milk for many years.

Perhaps the creative team also did not expect that in December 2022, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) released the latest rules for the 2023 World Barista Championship (WBC), allowing plant-based milk and animal milk to compete on the same stage.

The reason SCA made this decision is that in recent years many industry insiders and competitors have criticized the competition for lacking inclusivity, accessibility, and fairness—and this competition has extremely high credibility in the specialty coffee field and should have led the industry's development. Ultimately, under increasing pressure, SCA agreed to allow plant-based milk in subsequent competitions.

Before SCA announced that plant-based milk would be allowed to compete, barista competitors from multiple countries had already insisted on using plant-based milk in regional qualifying competitions and were therefore disqualified.

Many coffee professionals pointed out that this kind of competition should be fair and just and is a benchmark for the specialty coffee industry. If a barista is stripped of eligibility just because they do not drink milk, many talented competitors with even greater potential will be overlooked.

For a long time, SCA did not allow plant-based milk or other animal milks in the WBC because this posed a huge challenge to the judges' sensory evaluation. The new rules mean that competitors can use any type of commercially available plant-based milk, including oat, soy, almond, coconut, and even blended plant-based milk.

Each type of plant-based milk has a unique impact on the flavor and texture of drinks, so evaluating and scoring milk beverages may become more complicated, and the scoring standards will also need to be updated.

However, establishing a set of rules that can compete fairly with dairy milk is by no means easy and requires a great deal of time and manpower, which is also why SCA has been slow for many years to take a stance on the use of plant-based milk.

But in recent years, the milk used by competitors is no longer simply milk. For example, 2022 WBC champion Anthony Douglas used frozen distilled milk to enhance the coffee's sweetness.

Through the freeze vacuum dehydration technique for milk, milk powder with a purity as high as 900% is extracted, then mixed with milk at a ratio of 1:10, doubling the sugar, fat, and protein in the milk. Heating the milk to 55 degrees Celsius can stimulate its high sweetness.

For coffee made with this kind of milk, judges can also evaluate it according to the scoring standards for milk coffee. This further led supporters of allowing plant-based milk to compete to question SCA's concerns and strongly demand that SCA allow plant-based milk in competitions.

As for Jo's performance in the film and the 2023 WBC competition, the writer is full of anticipation!

Image source: Internet

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