Meet the finalists of the 2025 World Barista Championship – BeanScene

Jack Simpson has made it through to the final six competitors of the 2025 World Barista Championship (WBC), which is taking place at the Host Milano tradeshow in Milan.

Competing alongside Jack in the final, which kicks off at 11:50am GMT+1 on Monday 20 October are representatives from Japan, Malaysia, Denmark, Canada, and China.

The winner will be announced at 11am GMT+1 on Tuesday 21 October.

The strong field of competitors includes Canada’s Ben Put, who is competing at his seventh World Barista Championship. This year has marked a return to Italy for the Canadian, who competed in his first ever WBC in Rimini back in 2014.

Malaysia’s Jason Loo is a four-time Malaysian Barista Champion and is looking to become his nation’s first representative to ever win the competition. This year’s competition is the first time he has competed in the World Barista Championship since 2017.

Christopher Sayoun Hoff has continued with Denmark’s successful history at the WBC. Heading into the 2025 edition of the competition no country has produced more champions than the Scandinavian nation, however the last Danish competition win came all the way back in 2006 with Klaus Thomsen.

Founder of Marus Coffee Simon SunLei is competing at his second WBC. The two-time Chinese Barista Champion (2019 and 2023) is also a capable coach, having coached 2024 Chinese Barista Champion and fellow 2025 WBC competitor Enqi Pan.

Finally, three-time Japanese Latte Art Champion (2019, 2020, 2023) Hiroki Ito earned his place at this year’s World Barista Championship with a maiden Japan Barista Championship win in 2024. Should he win the entire competition, he will be the first Japanese victor since Hidenori Izaki in 2014.

Jack is the only finalist from 2024 – where he finished second to Indonesia’s Mikael Jasin – to be among the final six competitors in 2025.