Whole Latte Love and Our Friends at the World Barista Championship
This year, the World Barista Championship is being held in Panama City, during World of Coffee Panama 2026. This particular WOC is special, as it's the first time it's coming to Latin America.
What makes this event even more exciting for us is that we were honored to host two of this year’s competitors for training at our facility in Rochester, NY, this fall. We partnered with Danilo Lodi, who many of you should recognize from his guest appearances in our videos and livestreams, and with Raúl Rodas to guide two highly skilled competitors as they prepared for the event
Team members from nearly all of our departments at Whole Latte Love got to watch, and sometimes even participate in, the training sessions as tasters and extra judges!
Meet the Competitors
So who came all the way to Rochester, NY, to train for the world stage? In order of their first presentation at the show, we have Jak Michael Ryan and Janer Pérez!
Jak Michael Ryan
Jak Michael Ryan
Jak is the 2026 U.S. Barista Champion from Proud Mary Coffee in Austin, Texas. Before coffee, Jak was a professional dancer, and he still teaches dance. If you've seen him compete, that probably makes a lot of sense.
His routine this year actually came from an idea he was talking through while teaching a dance class. The theme was timing, and how speeding up, slowing down, or stopping a process can change what you taste in the cup.
This was only his second year at the USBC. His table broke a few days before Nationals, so he rebuilt it with shelving from Home Depot and still took the title. It was great getting to know him this fall, and we're excited to see him in Panama!
Janer Pérez
Janer Pérez
Janer is from Santa Marta, Colombia, and is the current Colombian Barista Champion, representing Juan Valdez. Believe it or not, when Janer started at Juan Valdez over ten years ago, he didn't know anything about coffee and didn't even drink it. The first time he used an espresso machine, though, he was hooked.
He went from working the bar in Santa Marta to a training role in Bogotá. Along the way, he also won the Colombian Brewers Cup and competed at the World Brewers Cup in Chicago.
Outside of coffee, he's big on science, movies, history, and soccer. With World of Coffee in Latin America for the first time, it's really cool to have Janer competing for Colombia so close to home.
Meet the Trainers
Danilo Lodi
Danilo Lodi
Danilo is a coffee trainer and longtime World Barista Championship judge from Brazil. By his own account, he's been drinking coffee he snuck from relatives since he was three years old.
He started working as a barista in 2004 at catering events, and within about a year he was already helping teach barista classes. In 2011, he became the first Brazilian certified as a judge for the World Barista Championship. Since then, he's led the judging at national championships in places like Brazil and Guatemala, and he's spent years training baristas and roasting coffee around Latin America.
He's also been a good friend to us here in Rochester. Back in 2024, he was the guest judge for our very first Latte Art Throwdown at HQ. Having him back to help with training this fall was a real treat.
Raúl Rodas
Raúl Rodas
Raúl is the 2012 World Barista Champion from Guatemala. Like many of us, he got into coffee working at a café to help pay for college and got hooked on competing after placing fourth in an internal barista competition. He went on to win Guatemala's national championship four times and took second at the World Barista Championship in 2010 before winning it all in 2012, at just 25 years old.
He also founded Paradigma Coffee Roasters in Guatemala City and later earned his own WBC judge certification. Fun bit of trivia: he studied communication and design, wanted to be a musician, and used to put coffee in his cereal as a kid. With Worlds in Latin America this year, it felt pretty fitting to have him in the room helping these two get ready.
Cheer Them On!
Both of these competitors will be using coffee from Untold Coffee Lab, and while their competition beans aren't for sale, Untold's coffee is a step above and worth checking out.
We wish these two the best of luck, and we hope they trust in their skills and training to deliver strong performances at this year's World Barista Championship. We hope all of our readers will join us in cheering them on!
To do so, keep an eye on this article, as the Video Updates section below will be updated with cool video content throughout the event. We also have the agenda and important links you can click on below, as well as a photo gallery to see these guys in action early. You can also follow all five of us on social media to get a glimpse of the action, learn more about these professionals, and, for some of you, get introduced to the next layer of everything coffee.
Follow the Story
Agenda & Important Links
Tune in to watch their performances live on the World Coffee Championships Twitch channel and show your support!
United States
Jak Michael Ryan
Thursday, October 22 · 10:07 AM ET
Colombia
Janer Pérez
Thursday, October 22 · 12:47 PM ET
WBC 2026 Schedule
All times are Eastern (ET). Panama is one hour behind.
Thursday, October 22
Round 1, Day 1
Friday, October 23
Round 1, Day 2
Saturday, October 24
Semi-Finals
Sunday, October 25
Finals
Photo Gallery
Photography by Quinton Marchand · Tap or click any photo to see it full size
