A Skills Competition in a Coffee Museum

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Hainan is one of China’s earliest provinces to grow coffee. In the 1950s, waves of returned overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia brought back coffee seeds and the unique skill of stir-frying beans in iron woks, producing an “overseas-Chinese-style” coffee with a one-of-a-kind taste. Today, this mellow, aromatic history is being carried forward in a barista skills competition at the Xinglong Jinnake Coffee Museum in Wanning, Hainan Province.

Hainan is one of China’s earliest provinces to grow coffee. In the 1950s, waves of returned overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia brought back coffee seeds and the unique skill of stir-frying beans in iron woks, producing an “overseas-Chinese-style” coffee with a one-of-a-kind taste. Today, this mellow, aromatic history is being carried forward in a barista skills competition at the Xinglong Jinnake Coffee Museum in Wanning, Hainan Province.

In 2026, the 4th Wanning “Trade Union Cup” Barista Industry Skills Competition was successfully held right here. More than 140 baristas from across Hainan competed on the same stage in three tracks: coffee livestream selling, green bean roasting, and coffee brewing.

Unlike previous editions, besides adding the livestream-selling track for the first time, this year’s competition also directly linked vocational skill-level certificates to competition results. Specifically, in the coffee brewing track, the three gold, silver, and bronze medalists were promoted directly to Level 3 barista, while merit-award winners could be promoted to Level 4 barista, and those already at Level 4 could be promoted to Level 3.

“The certificate directly opens up the career-advancement channel and greatly shortens the competitors’ time to promotion,” said competition judge Wu Muxu. Thanks to the consecutive holding of barista skills competitions, the overall level of this year’s contestants improved markedly.

Li Feng, the coffee brewing champion of this year’s competition, was competing for the first time. In his view, the greatest significance of the competition is making the barista profession visible.

Huang Wei, the green bean roasting champion, was competing for the second time and took the runner-up spot last year. She has run her own shop for eight years, focusing on Hainan’s local Robusta beans, and her family grows coffee. “Being able to exchange with peers and access the industry’s cutting-edge information is as valuable as winning a medal,” she said.

The coffee livestream-selling track, newly set up in this year’s competition, responds to the new demand in today’s coffee industry for professional skilled talent to transition into versatile, multi-skilled talent. Zhang Dongjun, the champion of this track, said: “Through scenario-based expression, consumers can feel the charm of coffee even through a screen.”

“Let more frontline coffee practitioners achieve skill advancement and career distinction through the competition platform. Let more consumers know that behind a good cup of coffee is a profession that is respected and protected,” said a person in charge of the Wanning Municipal Federation of Trade Unions. The next step will be to continue deepening the “trade union + human resources and social security + industry” coordination mechanism and to expand the coverage of the competition.

[Editor: Fu Ziqing]