It’s that time of year again: worldwide, baristas are flexing their coffee-making muscles in a bid to become their nation’s champion.

As well as winning the title of best-in-their-country, this also helps to choose the contenders for the World Barista Championships.

This year, the global championships are to take place in Melbourne in May.

So what is happening in Romania to uncover the contender for this country?

As reported in the Global Coffee Reviews, the decision has been made and a winner has been crowned.

Who was is?

Laurentiu Stefan was determined to be the champion barista of Romania.

This means that Stefan has convinced the judges that his coffee preparations are the best in the country, including his signature coffee drink.

At the event which crowned Stefan, there were other significant winners too, including a Latte Art Champion (Marius Nica) and also the Coffee in Good Spirits (Cristian Coman), who will take part in the SCAE World of Coffee Event.

The countries of the world are certainly unified by the humble coffee bean.

It seems as if we’ve all got the coffee bug badly.

Let’s keep an eye out in May to see who is the best-of-the-best-barista at the World Championships.