Malaysia makes history as Tan Shing Win claims first-ever podium finish at 2026 World Barista Championship

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Malaysia has achieved its best-ever result at the World Barista Championship, with Tan Shing Win finishing second at the 2026 competition in Panama City, delivering a historic breakthrough for the country’s specialty coffee scene.

The reigning 2025 Malaysia Barista Champion secured his place on the podium after progressing through the preliminary rounds and semi-finals to reach the elite final six at the Panama Convention Center, where the competition ran from October 22 to 25.

Shing Win’s remarkable performance follows Malaysia’s previous best result at the prestigious global contest, when fellow Malaysian Jason Loo placed fourth at the 2025 World Barista Championship .

The achievement marks a defining moment for Malaysia’s coffee industry, demonstrating that the country’s baristas can compete with the world’s best on a stage traditionally dominated by established specialty coffee nations.

For Shing Win, who made his World Coffee Championships debut in Panama, the result is the culmination of nearly six years spent developing an understanding of coffee that extends well beyond the espresso machine.

Associated with One Half Roastery and Tri-Up Coffee, Shing Win has built his career across the specialty coffee supply chain, from sourcing green beans and working with producers to developing businesses and serving customers.

His journey into coffee began with a departure from conventional career expectations. Originally trained in finance and economics, he left office life after a short internship to pursue coffee full-time.

This was a decision that has now taken him to the podium of the world’s most prestigious barista competition.

At One Half Roastery in Petaling Jaya, he oversees business development and events, while his work with Tri-Up Coffee SEA involves green bean sourcing and market expansion. He has also served as store manager at artisanal bakery Dou Dou Bake.

That experience across the bean-to-cup journey informed a competition routine built around one of coffee’s most consequential variables: moisture.

During his 15-minute stage presentation, Shing Win explored how moisture levels influence coffee throughout its journey, from processing at origin and drying to the barista’s final extraction.

His central argument was that managing moisture is not simply a technical exercise, but a responsibility that helps preserve, develop and ultimately reveal a coffee’s flavour potential.

For the competition he selected a traditional washed Geisha from El Pergamino, a specialty coffee producer in Panama.

The selection reflected Shing Win’s wider approach to specialty coffee: understanding that what happens at origin is inseparable from what eventually reaches the consumer’s cup.

By connecting processing decisions with extraction and flavour, he presented the barista not merely as the final person in the chain, but as someone responsible for bringing the entire journey to its intended conclusion.

That philosophy has now carried him further than any Malaysian competitor before him at the World Barista Championship.

In a final featuring representatives from Australia, China, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, Shing Win demonstrated that Malaysia’s coffee talent can hold its own among the international elite.

His podium finish also builds on the momentum generated by Loo’s fourth-place result last year, turning what was already a landmark performance into a new benchmark for Malaysian baristas.

For an industry that has spent years strengthening its roasting, sourcing, café and competition culture, Shing Win’s achievement is more than an individual accolade.

This shows how far Malaysia’s specialty coffee community has progressed and is a promising sign of what its next generation of competitors might achieve.

From leaving a conventional career to pursue coffee full-time to standing among the world’s top baristas, Shing Win’s journey has reached a historic high point in Panama.

Malaysia now has a new milestone to celebrate, and a new standard against which future World Barista Championship campaigns will be measured.

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吉隆坡，10 月 26 日——马来西亚在世界咖啡师锦标赛上取得了有史以来最好的成绩，陈胜温在 2026 年巴拿马城举行的比赛中获得第二名，为该国的精品咖啡界带来了历史性的突破。

2025 年马来西亚咖啡师冠军在经过预赛和半决赛的角逐后，成功晋级巴拿马会议中心举行的精英决赛六强，并最终站上了领奖台。比赛于 10 月 22 日至 25 日举行。

Shing Win 的出色表现延续了马来西亚此前在该项享有盛誉的全球赛事中的最佳成绩，当时马来西亚选手 Jason Loo 在 2025 年世界咖啡师锦标赛中获得第四名。

这一成就标志着马来西亚咖啡产业的一个决定性时刻，表明该国的咖啡师能够在传统上由老牌精品咖啡国家主导的舞台上与世界上最好的咖啡师竞争。

对于在巴拿马首次参加世界咖啡锦标赛的 Shing Win 来说，这个结果是他近六年来对咖啡的理解的结晶，这种理解远远超出了意式咖啡机的范畴。

Shing Win 与 One Half Roastery 和 Tri-Up Coffee 都有过合作，他的职业生涯遍及精品咖啡供应链的各个环节，从采购生咖啡豆、与生产商合作到发展业务、服务客户。

他对咖啡的热爱始于对传统职业规划的突破。他最初接受的是金融和经济学方面的培训，在短暂的实习之后便离开了办公室生活，全身心投入到咖啡事业中。

正是这个决定，让他登上了世界上最负盛名的咖啡师大赛的领奖台。

在位于八打灵再也的 One Half Roastery，他负责业务拓展和活动策划；同时，他在 Tri-Up Coffee SEA 的工作涉及生豆采购和市场拓展。此外，他还曾担任手工面包店 Dou Dou Bake 的店长。

从咖啡豆到咖啡杯的整个制作过程的经验，促成了围绕咖啡最重要的变量之一——水分——而制定的比赛流程。

在 15 分钟的舞台演讲中，Shing Win 探讨了水分含量如何影响咖啡从原产地加工、干燥到咖啡师最终萃取的整个过程。

他的核心论点是，控制水分不仅仅是一项技术操作，更是一项责任，它有助于保存、发展并最终展现咖啡的风味潜力。

为了参加比赛，他选择了一款来自巴拿马精品咖啡生产商 El Pergamino 的传统水洗瑰夏咖啡。

这一选择体现了 Shing Win 对精品咖啡的更广泛理念：理解产地发生的事情与最终到达消费者杯中的咖啡是密不可分的。

他将加工决策与萃取和风味联系起来，把咖啡师描绘成不仅是产业链中的最后一个人，而且是负责将整个过程带向预期结果的人。

这种理念如今已让他超越了以往任何一位马来西亚选手，在世界咖啡师锦标赛上取得了更大的成就。

在与来自澳大利亚、中国、加拿大、阿联酋和泰国的代表进行的决赛中，Shing Win 证明了马来西亚的咖啡人才能够与国际精英并肩作战。

他的领奖台成绩也延续了 Loo 去年获得第四名的势头，将原本具有里程碑意义的成绩变成了马来西亚咖啡师的新标杆。

对于一个多年来致力于加强烘焙、采购、咖啡馆和比赛文化的行业来说，Shing Win 的成就不仅仅是一项个人荣誉。

这表明马来西亚的精品咖啡行业已经取得了多大的发展，也预示着下一代竞争者可能会取得怎样的成就。

从放弃传统职业全职从事咖啡行业，到跻身世界顶级咖啡师之列，Shing Win 的旅程在巴拿马达到了历史性的高度。

马来西亚现在迎来了一个新的里程碑，值得庆祝，同时也树立了衡量未来世界咖啡师锦标赛水平的新标准。

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