The 2008 Grand Barista Championship was held on Saturday 21st June, 2008 at the Manly Yacht Club.  Congratulations to Habib Maarbani who took out first place and is the 2008 Grand Barista.  The second and third places went to Jessie Hyde and David Seng respectively.  Mark Bell and Angus Mackie who also scored very well.  Thank you to all those who competed.

Not held

In our fifth year of the GBC our winner was a woman for the first time. Congratulations to Cassy Anne Lawry from Victoria who was also the first interstate entrant to take the title away from Sydney in her second attempt. Second place also went to an interstate competitor, David Makin, from Victorian who came second last year.  Competitors from around Australia including Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia put in strong presentations. One of our own young aspiring baristas from Danes, Matthew Brown from Sydney placed third.

Danes Gourmet Coffee Institute 2004 Grand Barista Champion is Dom Majdandzic with 2nd place Scott Callaghan and 3rd David Maken.  It was standing room only as the baristas tamped and textured their way through the judging criteria.   On hand to assess their performances were some of Australia's finest judging talent including last year's World Barista Champion - Paul Bassett and the current National Champion Maico Lapenna.

Congratulations to Alex Klum who is the Grand Barista Champion 2003, seen here in action in another exciting, close fought grand final.

After 3 days of heats, 6 finalists including Maico Lapenna, the 2001 title holder, battled it out for the 2002 Grand Barista Championship. The winner was Jai Gabbard from Manly.

The grand finals for the grand final barista competition proved to be an exciting battle to the final moment. The competition was fierce and the standard of performance excellent! Finding a winner amongst the talent on show was a difficult task indeed however the TGCI would like to congratulate Maico LaPenna who is this year's Grand Barista.