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With the growing demand and requirements of the Malaysian Barista’s taking on the World Stage
industry, there is now several providers of SCAE (Specialty With the formation of the national association, the
Coffee Association of Europe) & SCAA (Specialty Coffee As- country saw the need to expose local baristas into the world
sociation of America) education modules here in Malaysia. To championships. In 2015, World Coffee Events recognized the
search for these education platforms, one may refer back to the Malaysia Specialty Coffee Association as the national body of
SCAE Website for country trainers. Malaysia. This paved the way forward for local baristas to finally
be able to compete in the World Championships.
Formation of Malaysia Specialty Coffee Association Within the first year of sanctioning, Malaysia had sent
4 representatives to the World Championships, including the
World Aeropress Circuit. Malaysia was represented by Jason
Loo for the World Barista Championships, Lucas Eng for the
World Latte Art Championship and Regine Wai Yee Beng for
the World Brewer’s Cup Championships. Isaac Loh from the
Brew Orchestra also brought a lot of attention to the nation as
he managed to qualify the semi-finals of the World Aeropress
Championships in his first year as a competitor.
With exposure to the World Championships, Malaysian
baristas have stepped up their game even more in the last two
years, understanding the different standards and requirements
needed, in order to perform better at different levels.

Jason Loo, the first barista to represent Malaysia at the World
Barista Championship

The formation of the Malaysia Specialty Coffee As-
sociation in 2014 had made vast improvements and exposure
to the coffee industry in Malaysia. A compilation of coffee
professionals across the nation, the iniatitive began when the
association saw the need to expose our country to bigger and
better events, as well as form a body to unite and encourage
local professionals to be more involved in the industry.
With the sanctioning from World Coffee Events, the
association finally made improvements to the local competition Isaac Loh, 2015 Malaysia Aeropress Champion to represent the
scene by introducing 3 championships in a year which was the nation at the WAC Circuit.
Malaysia Barista Championship, Malaysia Latte Art Champion-
ship and The Malaysia Brewers Cup. More local baristas have taken iniatitive to compete
The association has also actively participated in Inter- in international competitions, such as the World Syphonist
national iniatitives by endorsing trade shows such as Café Asia, Championships, Coffee Fest World Latte Art Championship,
as well as join the ASEAN Coffee Federation in 2015. With a The Food & Hotel Asia Barista Championship (Singapore),
progressive front leading the association, the association has Yunnan Barista Championship (China) and even the Coffee-
recently elected a new board of committee for 2016/2017. Power Championships held in Hong Kong.
With these exposure, we can be sure that the standards
of Malaysian baristas can only get better throughout the next
couple of years.

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