Want a chance to cup coffees that you don’t get to taste every day? Do you like the idea of meeting and mingling with coffee aficionados, roasters, cuppers, retailers, and baristas from all over the world? Have you ever dreamt of competing for your country on the World stage?
If you answered yes any of those three questions, then you should consider registering to compete in the 2011 Canadian Cup Tasters Championship.
In 2011 I, with shaking spoon in hand, competed in my first Cup Tasters Championship. At its simplest this competition is really about finding the odd cup. “One of these things is not like the other,” becomes the mantra as cuppers use their eyes, nose, and taste buds to examine each cup and attempt to break each triangle in the quickest time possible. The crowd at the Canadian Cup Tasters Championship was engaged and rowdy, the competitors were strong cuppers and many were notable Canadian coffee personalities… and I was nervous. My coffee literally danced in my spoon as I tried to slurp each and every cup. At the end of the day, I was fortunate, and I broke enough triangles in the fastest time in qualifying and in the finals, to earn the right to represent Canada at the World Cup Tasters Championship in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
The World Championship was a crazy event. In June 2011, 34 countries were represented in head-to-head cup tasting. The qualifying round paired four competitors off against each other, and against the scores and times of those competitors who had gone before. Every round of the event was live streamed over the internet, and there were generally 50 to 100 people cheering on the competitors. In the qualifying round no cupper was able to score 8/8 triangles broken, and all 8 semi-finalists scored 7/8 to pass into the second round. The triangles became progressively harder, as coffees with very similar flavour characteristics were paired in triangle.
The skill of the 34 cuppers was amazing, some of these competitors had competed against more than 50 others in their National Championship events to earn the right to compete in Maastricht. For me, the real value in the event was being able to learn more about how specialty coffee is acquired, produced and consumed in Europe. The market is entirely different, and the networking and opportunity to share knowledge and information was invaluable. The fact that I was able to wear the maple leaf, and compete for Canada while doing this was just icing on the cake.
The 2012 SCAE Event and World Cup Tasters Championship takes place in Vienna, Austria, and will run alongside the 2012 World Barista Championship, the World Brewers Cup and the World Cezve/Ibrik World Cup. This will be the specialty coffee event of the year in 2012. If you’re a Canadian coffee enthusiast — professional or amateur — and would like to get more connected to the national and international specialty coffee community, I would encourage you to register for the Canadian Cup Tasters Championship.
Pat Russell is the 2010 Canadian Cup Tasters Champion, Licensed Q Grader and Coffee Expert for The Second Cup Ltd.
