Edmonton barista ranks 1st in Canada, 5th in the world

EDMONTON -

A small coffee shop in Edmonton is home to not only the best barista in Canada, but one of the best in the world.

Ply Pasarj has worked for about six years to hone the art of brewing the perfect cup of coffee.

"Coffee is so complex. There's so many flavour notes within coffee that we can look for or we can brew and take it out of coffee," he said.

Pasarj is also co-owner of Rogue Wave Coffee Co., a local coffee shop in the Prince Rupert neighbourhood.

"I started off obviously as a home brewer. Brewing coffee at home, doing pour overs, manual brewing coffee."

At the end of 2019 he decided to compete at the National Brewers Cup.

He won -- earning him a spot to take on the world's best in Milan last week.

"I was very, very nervous inside and it was my first time at the world stage and my heart was beating really, really fast."

He had 10 minutes to woo the judges with his technical and customer service skills, a presentation that earned him fifth place.

"I'm very proud of myself of being in the fifth place, obviously doing better would be better but I'm just happy to be able to represent Canada and being able to place in the final."

"Been rooting him on as he's competed across the world," said longtime customer Matthew Semaka. "He did a fantastic job."

It's a win Pasarj says he couldn't have done without the staff at Rogue.

"Listening to my practice presentation, drinking a lot of coffee and giving me feedback," said Pasarj.

He says at least 400 cups of coffee were brewed to get ready for the competition.

"By the end we had a hard time sleeping," laughed Pasarj.

Even more sleepless nights could be on the horizon, as Pasarj has his sights set on other barista competitions, including a win at the next World Brewers Cup.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson