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'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.
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.
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