Preparing to Be a World Barista Champion with Ben Put, Co-Founder of Monogram
For those of you who may not already be familiar, Ben Put is a legend in the specialty coffee community for many reasons. He is now a seven-time Canadian Barista Champion, and has placed among the top five in the world five times! He is also the co-founder of Monogram Coffee. This October, Ben is headed to Milan to represent Canada in the World Barista Championship 2025. We sat down with him for an exclusive interview to learn more about his preparation.
Going from the national stage to the world stage, how does your preparation process differ?
We’re very lucky right now that the judging talent in Canada is incredibly high. When I first started competing, it was common to get strong scores here, but then serve the same or even better drinks at Worlds and receive much lower scores. It made things unpredictable because you never knew how international judges would evaluate your coffee. That’s changed. Today, we have so many experienced judges in Canada, some who haven’t judged at Worlds yet, but who are definitely world-caliber. Having access to feedback from people at that level is invaluable.
How do you deal with performance anxiety and stage fright?
I think the biggest thing is to try and recreate the stage. If we call barista competition a sport, then it’s useful to compare it to others. In most sports, you get to play a lot of games over a season. Sure, the finals or championships are higher pressure, but by then you’ve had dozens of reps. In barista competitions, it’s completely different. In some national bodies, there’s only one round. So you might compete once at Nationals, then go straight to Worlds, where—if you’re lucky—you get prelims, semis, and finals. That means you could become World Champion having only been on stage four times in a year.
Of course, people struggle with stage fright, and I think that’s because they just don’t get enough opportunities to actually experience it. So my advice is: when your routine is nearly ready, bring in people who make you nervous. Not your best friend or family, because if you mess up, they don’t care. And not just yourself, because practicing alone is easy. Instead, invite people who don’t know your routine, or who you aren’t super close with. That way, if you slip up, it feels awkward, and that’s good. It’s the closest thing to recreating the pressure of being on stage. Because honestly, I can’t think of another event where you get so few chances to experience the stress, the setup, the whole atmosphere. No wonder people struggle—it’s just so rare to get those reps in.
What motivated you to compete again this year?
There’s always a part of me that, if I come up with something new, I want to share it on stage. Some years after competitions, I feel like there’s no way I’ll be able to create something new again, since it’s hard to present something original every single year. But then, often at the 11th hour, something sneaks in and I end up with an idea I’m excited to present, and that’s what happened to me this year.
The other reason I feel drawn back to competing is unfinished business. The last time I went to Worlds, during the semi-final round, almost everything that could go wrong with my equipment went wrong. It wasn’t about me making mistakes but rather a string of technical failures. Part of me needs to get back there just to have one clean run. I’d be fine to lose if it came down to me making bad coffee or messing up on stage. But when it’s out of my control, it makes me want another chance.
Preparing to be the World Champion is certainly no small feat. What are some of the challenges you face, and how do you deal with them?
Most of the challenges I'm facing right now are logistical. It’s always a balance—trying not to abandon the team to go practice, but also knowing that sometimes you have to step away and put in that work. And I’ve realized just how hard it is to win Worlds. Only one person wins every year, and we’re about 25 years in, which means there have only ever been 25 barista champions. Still, in the back of your mind, you hope it could be you. But the biggest perspective shift is remembering that, at the end of the day, it’s still just coffee. Winning Nationals, doing well at Worlds—it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still just a barista. For me, that means making sure I stay approachable. I remember how much it meant to me early on when the people I looked up to were open and willing to share. I think all baristas competing should keep that in mind. If you do well, it should hopefully keep you grounded—and remind you to be the kind of person others can learn from.
What was the focus of your routine this year?
If you think about how people in coffee have traditionally learned about coffee, they usually learned from someone. The things I know about brewing coffee, roasting, and sourcing, I learned at the feet of someone that was willing to teach me. So, I think we not only carry pieces of that knowledge, but also pieces of those personalities that we spent lots of time with. So, my routine focused on sharing new things and knowledge, but also attributing it to where it came from and getting the judges to think about the people that played a role in building who they were.
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