Jack Allisey, head of Green Bean Buying at Veneziano Coffee Roasters, has placed runner up in the World Coffee Roasting Championship (WCRC) held at Hotelex Guangzhou in China from 12 to 14 December.
Twenty-one professional coffee roasters representing their individual countries including Australia, went head to head for the title.
Taking home gold was Ruben Gardelli from Italy and in third place wasBenjamin Pozsgai from Germany. Our very own Jack Allisey took home second place.
Jack won the inaugural Australian Coffee Roasting Championship in March at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, and was the first Australian champion to compete in the world event.
“It was such an honour to represent Australia on the world stage amongst such a talented pool of competitors. I was oddly calm. I came in with two seconds to spare for the single origin roast and had to repeat my first blend, but with plenty of time to spare.” said Jack.
The World Coffee Roasting Championship, first run in Nice in 2013, is a three-stage event where competitors are assessed on their ability to evaluate the quality of green coffee, also called coffee grading, develop a roasting profile that best accentuates the desirable characteristics of a chosen coffee, and on the ultimate cup quality of coffees they roast.
All submitted coffees are cupped double blind by judges which means they cup all coffees twice without knowing what they are. Total scores are based on the production roast evaluation results, single origin green evaluation, and roasting plan scores of single origin and blend coffee category.
On the first day of the competition, competitors began sample roasting and green grading. They then progressed to practice roasting which gave the roasters a chance to become familiar with the roasting equipment – in this case all competitors roasted on a 6kg Giesen. After completing these three stages, competitors tasted all the coffees (as set out by World Coffee Events, the competition organisers) and then prepared a blend and tasting notes for their final roast plan. The final roasted coffee was roasted on the second day according to the roast plan developed from the sample and production roasting.
All competitors then submitted one single origin and one blend consisting of three coffees, while predicting the colour and weight of the final roast produced.
The final scores from the judges were announced on Thursday 14th with Jack scoring a total of 472.6.
“We are tremendously proud of Jack for his efforts, and for placing second in the World Coffee Roasting Championship,” says Veneziano Coffee’s Managing Director Craig Dickson. “As a first-time competitor, it is a true testament to his skill and passion for coffee.”
The World Coffee Roasting Championship is part of a series of coffee competitions, run by World Coffee Events. A total of six different competitions, all focusing on a different coffee or barista related discipline, are run annually with the finals held in a different host country each year. For more about the World Coffee Roasting Championship visit, www.worldcoffeeroasting.org, or other events run by World Coffee Events, visit, www.worldcoffeeevents.org.
