Baristas froth at the challenge

Marco R. della Cava USA TODAY

SEATTLE -- In a warehouse choked with enough eau de caffeine to make a slumbering panda leap up and tap dance, two dozen of this region's finest baristas -- aka those hip folks manning your local coffee bar -- are grinding, frothing and plotting their way toward nothing less than global supremacy.

"We Americans tend to play to the audience and have fun, but that's not going to win points with the judges," says Dismas Smith, who should know. He is our nation's best barista and ranks sixth in the world. ''We've got to get serious, people."

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