Performing at a high level in barista competitions is difficult, a fact that Onyx Coffee Lab’s Andrea Allen knows all too well (despite how easy she always makes it look). The US Barista Champion spent years making it to the Finals stage of competition—twice as the runner-up—before making her ultimate breakthrough in 2020.
Then COVID happened. Everything but the most essential parts of life got put on hold, including global coffee competitions. After a series of postponements and cancellations, after nearly two years Allen would finally get her shot at the World Barista Championships at the end of 2021 in Milan, Italy.
It was a harrowing two-year ride from northwest Arkansas to Orange County, California to Milan, and it was all captured on film as part of a brand new docuseries, The Road to Milan.
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Presented by Pacific Foods Barista Series, the creative team at Wildly follow Allen “through her journey from the US Barista Championships to the world stage in Milan,” per the Onyx Instagram. “It’s a story of perseverance, of craft, of quality over quantity, of pushing boundaries, of family, and of community.” A two-minute trailer for the Curran Ferry-directed docuseries is live now on Wildly’s website.
Though not yet released to the public, The Road to Milan is having a bit of a time on the festival circuit. It has already chosen as official selections for both the Oregon Documentary Film Festival, where it took home the Best Series Award, as well as the upcoming New York City Independent Film Festival.
A public release date has yet to be announced and is listed as “coming soon” by Wildly. In the meantime, check out the two-minute trailer video for the award-winning docuseries The Road to Milan.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
