Coffee, Creativity, Community – Caffè Vergnano Barista Championship 2025

In the competition, five talents from the cream of the brand’s Hungarian baristas proved their knowledge and dedication. They prepared for six weeks, with a lot of practice, under the mentorship of Iván Gávris, the coffee expert of Coca-Cola HBC Hungary, to stand out in the domestic final. The competition included classic coffee specialties and exciting coffee-based cocktails, and the participants had to show their precision and creativity at the same time.

Caffè Vergnano is a traditional Italian family business. The Santena-based company is one of the oldest coffee roasters in Italy, with a history dating back to 1882. Its product range of premium quality, excellent coffees is the perfect symbol of Italian tradition and authenticity. The Coca-Cola HBC Group purchased a 30% stake in the company in October 2021 and was among the first to start the exclusive distribution of Caffè Vergnano premium Italian coffee products in Hungary in January 2022. Since then, the company has worked to introduce the excellent Italian espresso coffee culture to the Hungarian public and to teach its hospitality partners who choose the brand how to prepare high-quality coffee drinks, so that consumers can always encounter the finest coffees in their cafes.

In the spirit of this endeavor, the Caffè Vergnano Barista Championship was held for the second time, where the competitors – after 10 minutes of preparation time – had to prepare and serve their drinks on the same machine, from the same coffee, using the same water. In the morning, they demonstrated their skills by making espressos and milk-based drinks, and in the afternoon, there was a blind test, where they had to identify the quality of the extracts (this is the process of extracting the substance from the coffee beans) blindfolded: which ones were correctly extracted, which ones were under-extracted, and which ones were over-extracted, i.e. already burnt. The last competition was the self-developed coffee-based alcoholic cocktails – this gave the competitors the opportunity to show their creativity and individuality. This is how the jury and even the audience were able to enjoy a rosemary coffee cocktail made with apple whiskey, or a coffee specialty made with wild raspberry and rose-flavored vodka and lime juice.