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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Alastair McCready and Yu-chen Li in Taipei

Bitter aftertaste: Taiwan’s leading baristas forced to compete at global coffee championship as ‘Chinese Taipei’

Barista making a cup of coffee latte art
The Taiwan Coffee Association says it was told that Taiwanese entrants in the World Coffee Championships would now have to compete under the name Chinese Taipei as a ‘basic and unavoidable condition for participating’. Photograph: Rafeeq Hassan/Getty Images

Berg Wu remembers the pride he felt when he was crowned world barista champion. The stands that June day in Dublin were packed with cheering friends as he bested competitors from more than 50 countries to take first place at the 2016 World Coffee Championships (WCC).

The first Taiwanese person to win the competition, he draped the red, blue and white nationalist flag of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s official name – over his shoulders as he posed for pictures with his award.

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