Cup Tasting Top 10

After round one of the cup tasting competition, the results are as follows with the top 8 progressing through to the semi-finals:

Place	Competitor	Country	Cups Correct	Time
1st	Georg Branny	Austria	8	6:47
2nd	Tassos Moschopoulos	Greece	7	3:06
3rd	Luis Gerardo	Guatemala	7	3:50
4th	Donovan McLagan	South Africa	7	5:00
5th	Kim Ossenblok	Spain	7	5:28
6th	Christophe Rubino	France	7	5:43
7th	Cory Andreen	Germany	7	5:45
8th	Jose Francisco Castro Tenorio	Costa Rica	7	6:47
9th	Kalle Freese	Finland	7	6:51
10th	Cinzia Linardi	Italy	7	7:22

              

The WorldCup Tasters Championship is probably less promoted than it should be. The competition is set out so that it awards the professional coffee cupper who demonstrates speed, skill, and accuracy in distinguishing the taste differences in specialty coffees.

Coffees of the world have many distinct taste characteristics, and in this competition format the objective is for the cupper to discriminate between the different coffees.  Three cups are placed in a triangle, with 2 cups being identical coffees and one cup being a different coffee – There are 8 triangles in total.  Using skills of smell, taste, attention and experience, the cupper will identify the odd cup in the triangle as quickly as they can.  While it sounds easy, some coffees may be different in the sense that it is the same bean just roasted by different roasters, or even just from different altitudes at the same plantation. What makes this more difficult is the flavour saturation the coffee has on the palate, as such as the cupper tastes more coffee, the harder it is to distinguish.

While it’s probably not the most entertaining thing to watch, as people are racing against the clock, you can still live stream it from 12pm Vienna time on Thursday the 14th (8pm Australia time) – the revealing of the cups is always the most suspenseful! 

And the Winner is...

What a weekend it was. The Melbourne International Coffee Expo was host to the 2012 AASCA Australian Barista Championships. With each state’s representatives fighting it out for the top spot, the nervous and anxious tension stayed in the air well into the time the results were being announced. With hearts racing, dreams on the line and the chance of glory imminent, the following results were announced:

Barista Championship:

1^st Craig Simon (VIC)

2^nd Will Priestly (TAS)

3^rd Janelle Kingsley (QLD)

4^th Jonny Pisanelli (SA)

5^th Matt Troughton (QLD)

6^th John Paul Sutton (QLD)

Latte Art:

1^st Scott Luengen (QLD)

2^nd Angus Mackie

3^rd Jen Marks

4^th Daniel Freer

5^th David Smith

6^th Adrian Zwicker (QLD)

7^th Ben Morrow

8^th Kaya Mc Carthy

Brewers Cup:

1^st Matt Perger

2^nd Dan Ye

3^rd Josh Tarlo

4^th Kelsey Carr (QLD)

5^th Andy Easthope

6^th Eileen Kenny

Cup Taster

1^st Fred Lullfitz (QLD)

2^nd Jonny Pissanelli

3^rd Craig Simons

So what’s next? The champions of the Barista, Brewer’s Cup and Cup Taster will be heading to Vienna, Austria in 36 days (June 12^th-15^th), and the Latte Art Champion representing in Seoul, South Korea on the 1^st-4^th of November.

I would just like to take this opportunity to say, not only a massive congratulations to all competitors and champions, but also a huge well done to our Queenslanders. Scott and Fred are the first latte art and cup taster champions, respectively, that Queensland has ever had. It also marks the first time that three Queenslanders have been in the final six of the barista category. Just goes to prove how the coffee scene has progressed and improved over the past few years!

Can’t wait for the World Barista Competition, only 36 days and counting – surely our champions, after the hype of winning has worn off, will be training like crazy do Australia proud. Best of luck boys!