Golden Bean Roasting Competition 2017

The 2017 Golden Bean Roasting Championships took place throughout a week in late November, with roasters from all across Australia gathering in Port Macquarie to taste, judge and score hundreds of entries across multiple categories.

Each year, bronze, silver and gold medals are awarded to the highest scoring coffees in each of the categories; these include milk-based, filter, single origin espresso, decaf and more.

We spoke to Andrew of Patio Coffee Roasters in Adelaide, who picked up gold, silver and bronze medals for his submission of an Ethiopian Areka, sourced by Project Origin.

“It kind of hasn’t sunk in completely,” Andrew said. “It was completely unexpected.”

Having only been roasting coffee for a little over a year, Andrew saw Golden Bean as the perfect opportunity to share his work with colleagues and to see what others in the industry thought of his approach to roasting.

“… I wanted to enter [Golden Bean] to put my roasting out there and get some feedback. That’s all I hoped for – some positive and constructive feedback that would help me work out what I needed to tweak and change. Obviously, it was positive feedback!”

Despite his success at Golden Bean as a first time competitor, Andrew insists that there is a lot more work to be done and that he is dedicated to day-to-day excellence.

“Being able to consistently produce quality coffee, to me is the most important thing,” he said. “You might get one amazing roast and if you can’t reproduce it, then you aren’t very clever,” he laughed.

The Areka coffee used by Andrew for Patio Coffee Roasters’ submissions was sourced from the Sidamo D region of Yirgacheffe.

“I’m a big believer in using ‘every day coffee’ that people can afford and work too show its best qualities, so that most people can enjoy it,” said Andrew.

“The Areka was such an amazing coffee for such a good price, so we are then able to put that coffee into the hands of people in cafes.”

But what did the judges have to say about the coffee? Well, it would appear that actions speak louder than words.

“[Head Judge] Anne Cooper apparently promised that she would kiss the feet of whoever roasted the coffee,” Andrew said. “So when I went up to accept the medal, they turned a chair around and got me to put my feet up on a chair…I had no idea what was happening!

“Sure enough, the kiss happened…I told her that I should be kissing her feet instead!”

Project Origin is proud to have sourced several of the coffees that were awarded on the presentation night, which concluded the week-long event. These coffees included the following:

 

Patio Coffee Roasters 

Gold (milk-based) – Ethiopia Areka
Silver (filter) – Ethiopia Areka
Bronze (espresso) – Ethiopia Areka

ONA Coffee (overall champions)

Gold (espresso) – Finca Deborah, Panama
Silver (espresso) –
Bronze (espresso) – Ethiopia Sunset
Bronze (milk-based) – The Founder
Silver (filter) – Finca Deborah Carbonic Maceration, Panama

Darkstar Coffee

Bronze (milk-based) – Charli Blend

ONA Coffee for Espresso Room (Small Franchise Champions)

Bronze (espresso) – Ethiopia Sunrise
Bronze (espresso) – Fruit Bomb
Silver (espresso) – Ethiopia Crimson
Silver (espresso) – Ethiopia Midnight
Bronze (milk-based) – House Blend
Bronze (milk-based) – Humble Blend
Bronze (milk-based – Forest Cake
Silver (milk-based) – Fruit Bomb
Bronze (filter) – Ethiopia Midnight
Silver (filter) – Ethiopia Sunset

Normcore

Silver (espresso) – Ethiopia Guji Red
Silver (filter) – Ethiopia Guji Red

Tim Adams Specialty Coffee

Bronze (espresso) – Ethiopia Areka

Pedro and Grizz

Bronze (espresso) – Ethiopia Areka
Silver (filter) – Ethiopia Areka

Nats Coffee

Bronze (filter) – Sudan Rume

Reverence

Silver (filter) – Ethiopia Areka

Congratulations to all the medal recipients and entrants – we’ll see you next year at Golden Bean 2018!