The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

[coffeeboy83]

Congrats to Andy and CoffeeSnobs!

Hmmm, was wondering if Zed gets his prize money from dad in Beanbay credits or pocket money? Great work Zed. You are an inspiration.

[Andy]

'twas the morning after the night before and it's still surreal.

If it wasnt for the fact that I got up and found the trophy on the table in the hotel I would have put last nights events down as a weird dream.

The Golden Bean competition is a massive event that the whole team at Cafe Culture put together each year with blood, sweat and I'm sure a few tears. Their motivation has never been about making dollars, instead it's all about building a better, stronger and more colabrative coffee industry and the effort to put somehting like this together is huge. I was lucky enough this week to spend 4 days with a room full of my coffee industry peers and between us all we managed to judge 1100+ coffees from all over Australia. Pouring the coffee were some of Australia's best baristas (headed by previous Australian champion Tim Adams) and their skill showed in the consistant quality that hit the judging tables from start to finish.

CoffeeSnobs site sponsors bagged plenty of medals, I won't try and name them or the categories but I do look forward to the list coming out so we can let everyone know. The Cafe culture crew will be on the road all day today getting all the gear back from Caloundra so the list should be released in a day or two I guess.

The two new Coffeesnobs home roasting categories were won by:

Coffeesnobs Espresso : Habib Maarbani
Coffeesnobs Milk Based: Zed Freeman

Most people know Habib as a great barista and this new category motivated him to learn how to roast. Dozens of small batches were roasted, rested cupped and poured and the reward for his effort is he is the 1st ever winner of the Coffeesnobs Espresso category. Well done Habib!

The winner of the Coffesnobs Milk Based category was Zed Freeman, yep, my son. Initially embarrassed that the son of a coffee roaster just won the home roasted milk category I am also hugely proud because I know that Zed (and Sarah for her entry too) did this all by themselves. My 3 kids have spent most of their life around coffee and beans, from sweeping-up at work to weighing and stickering bags they know as much about beans and roasting as many in the industry. Zed selected his own coffee from the Snobbery (Mexico el Triunfo Arabigo) and did multiple roasts in the Behmor to create his winning entry. Well done Zed!

CoffeeSnobs did pretty well too

Australian Coffee - Bronze medal - Mountain Top Coffee Ray's Selection #789
Single Origin - Silver Medal - El Salvador La Guachoca
Espresso - Silver Medal - Fiefy's Barista Blend
Milk Based - Silver Medal - Fiefy's Organic at Origin

...and the high scores in Espresso and Milk Based coffees were enough to make us the
overall winner of the 2012/2013 Golden Bean.

WOW!

I'm thrilled that the judges liked it, all the finalists are also judged a second time by a different judge panel so it's great that those coffees stood-up twice.

I'm also excited that Fiefy's Specialty Cafe customers in Pirie St Adelaide have been drinking coffee at this level for 18 months. We knew it was nice coffee, now it's also Golden Bean winning coffee. So if you are in Adelaide swing by and try the two Espresso and Latte coffees on Fiefy's La Marzocco.

Of course the medal winning beans (Australian, El Salvador and the Mexican) are all available as green beans in BeanBay and the two Fiefy Blends are available in the roasted section of BeanBay.

I'm really looking forward to flying home tonight and seeing Paula and the kids, they put up with a lot to allow me to follow my coffee passions including looking after the Snobbery when I'm away along with all the late nights and long hours and weekends that they don't see me. Without their support I could never eat, drink and play with coffee like I do.

Thanks for all the well wishes CS'rs, this is another amazing chapter in the CoffeeSnobs journey and I'm glad you are all coming along for the trip.

[Coffee2Di4]

The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

Thanks, David, that's the one!

What ^ said x 3...

[David8]

Is that the one Di?

[Coffee2Di4]

Congratulations Mr Andy Freeman for winning The Golden Bean - Overall! And also to Fiefy for winning silver in Espresso and Milk Based Drinks! (Thanks to Fiefy for posting on her FB page)

I'm so proud of you guys and you deserve it.



cheers
Di
(missing the Text Toppie Smiley)

[timdimdom]

awesome stuff! congratulations! =)

[Fiefy]

BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our Master CoffeeSnobs (Andy Freeman) in winning - Golden Bean Awards - Overall Event!!!!!
and
Zed Freeman in winning 'coffeesnobs milk'!!!!

Fantastic jobs, guys!!!! @^_^@

[greenman]

Re: The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

just saw on Facebook--Andy has won Golden Bean--brilliant effort, huge congratulations from all CS'ERS!!!!

[C-man]

will the results be posted somewhere?

[Fresh_Coffee]

Well I arrived home from The Golden Bean Coffee Conference and Competition about 7 pm last evening. The trip was punctuated with a late arrival at Sydney from Maroochydore Airport, resulting in my missing the connection on the next flight home. The airline kindly, efficiently and without fuss put me on the next available flight resulting in a 1.5 hour wait in the terminal, that was put to good use!

That said and after having had 3 great days at Golden Bean, there was no stress!

They're having a "free day" today and finishing off with the presentation dinner tonight. My compliments to all that have worked hard enough to win something in the comp and even to everyone else that submitted their entries.

The standard of coffee making this year was excellent. I was never presented with a badly made coffee, making judging that bit easier. There were times on my table when particular entries were asked to be "re brewed", and that was to check that whetever the judges detected in the particular coffee was indeed the coffee and not the way it had been brewed.

I'm not going to say anything about the standard of entries at this point and particularly as the organisers will have a much better overview of the total.

The seminars were very very good and I suggest anyone (industry) that didnt attend missed out on some good speakers and topics. Both topics yesterday (Utz Certified - fair trade movement / sustainability, and Cafe Pulse - surveys, stats and their use to improve your business) were eye openers. Mark Beattie (Coffee Roasters Australia & a fellow CS sponsor) gave a very informative talk on Wednesday, and of course those I've left out (including keynote speaker Chuck Hahn) were also very well received ( and in the case of Chuck Hahn, very funny as well - what a great public speaker).

I'd also like to mention the Beer Matching Dinner (degustation) was well worth the attendance!

And of course, its always good to catch up with you Andy!

Lastly, my sincere compliments and best wishes to Sean and his Cafe Culture team, for putting on a very professional Conference and Comp.

Rgdz,
Attilio
very first CS site sponsor

[Andy]

Re: The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

Hi Craig, it's not open to the public to just wander in which is why entry wasn't mentioned I guess. The conference and competition is a 4 day ticketed event, Mark it in your calendar for next year if you want to join in the biggest roaster comp in the world.

[craig]

Im on the sunshine coast right now.
Just wondering if this is opened to the public to come and have a look, and try some of the coffees.
There is an article in todays Sunshine coast daily about the fact that the competition is on, but it doesn't mention anything about public being welcome, or opening times, admission prices, etc.
The article focusses on coffee tips for the home barista and a bit about why the golden bean was introduced.

[sidewayss]

I got in by the skin of my teeth as far as freight goes.

Monday was a public holiday so i posted on the Tuesday. Got told it would get there on Thursday 4th, one day after closing date.

Rang up to see if i was still eligible. Was kindly told if it arrives there a day late, there's no worries. Thankful and relieved.

Good luck to all who is entering. Am sure the winner is worthy and we look forward to finding out your roasting machinery, technique and beans used.

[Andy]

Did everyone get their entries in?

My kids entered a coffee in the CoffeeSnobs home roasting section. Zed and Sarah each used the Behmor to knock out a couple of roasts. They selected their own beans from the Snobbery, weighed them out and roasted them up in 2 batches each. I've never seen two home roasters more focused on watching the roast progress and waiting for the very fist pops of second crack. The roasts looked great too.

Zed (11yo) picked the Mexico el Triunfo Arabigo
Sarah (13yo) used the Brazil Yellow Bourbon

They were really proud of their effort (as was I if you can't tell!)

[Andy]

Please see the first post in this thread for the entry form.

It needs to be filled-in and sent back to them NOW