Results from first Hacea Roasting Championship!

Over the last 6 weeks, roasters from across the world worked to evaluate and strategize an approach to roasting and blending three mystery coffees.  The results were, across the board, incredibly impressive.  On Saturday August 24, the winners were announced at a special awards party at Regent Coffee in Los Angeles.  Here are some additional details about the competition and judging.  Individual judging evaluations will be sent out via email to roasters on Friday August 30.  

The Coffees

The mystery coffees were Brazil Luzia (Coffee A), Colombia Nariño Aponte Village Honey (Coffee B), and Ethiopia West Arsi Nensebo G1 Washed (Coffee C).  We chose these coffees because they offered both a challenge and opportunity for roasters to be creative. 

When thinking about which coffees to include, we felt it was important to include a Brazilian coffee.  Brazilian coffees are the backbone to many roasts because they provide body and sweetness, while also bringing the price point down for a blend.  It is also a coffee that is fairly difficult to roast.  From evaluating the coffees, we found that the Brazil Luzia provided a challenge to many roasters.  When underdeveloped, it had notes of peanut skin and a sharp citric acidity.  When overdeveloped, it had notes of carbon, astringency, and a drying finish.  But, when hit just the right way, the Brazil added a creamy body, loads of honey sweetness, nougat and hints of cinnamon spice.

The Colombia Nariño Aponte Village Honey was a coffee that provided a lot of opportunity for a creativity in the blend.  It has notes of cocoa nib, tropical yellow fruits, and a honey sweetness.  We found it represented most frequently with the cocoa nib and tropical fruit notes.  In a few instances, we found that it contributed a strong honeycomb cereal quality that had us all thoroughly impressed.  

The last coffee, Ethiopia West Arsi Nensebo G1 Washed, presented an opportunity for roasters to add complex florals and acidity into their blends.  It also presented a challenge in roast balance, to pull the complexity of the florals and acids while not going too far and losing the attributes (especially body) from the other coffee components.  Some of the really impressive representations of this coffee had a complex orange blossom character, which seemed to come from a harmonious combination of the florals in the Ethiopia and the citrus acidity of the Colombia.  When paired with the creamy body of the Brazil, it tasted like an orange creamsicle.  

The Judging

All entries were judge blind by a panel of judges that included multiple Q-Graders, experienced coffee roasters, and a coffee consumer.  Coffees were all brewed as pourovers using the Hario Hiroia Hikaru v60 Brewer.  This provided consistency in water temperature, pour rate, and dosing for each entry evaluation.  The rubric for evaluating the coffees was designed to reflect the key points in blend development.  Judges looked for a coffee where each of the blend components was contributing to the cup.  At the beginning of each judging session, the judges calibrated by cupping through the individual blend components and a blend that was comprised of equal parts of each component.  

Judges also evaluated the acidity, body, aftertaste and sweetness of the coffee, similar to the methodology of an SCA score card.  Lastly, the judges looked for how the components were combined and flavors balanced together.  Points were awarded for the complexity of the blend and how harmoniously the flavors worked together.  

By The Numbers

The average score was 73.55 points, with the highest score being 86.67 and the lowest score being 51.00.  The judges scored a total of 69 entries.  There were some entries which did not arrive or did not arrive in time.  Late entries (which arrived after the completion of judging) were still evaluated to provide feedback for the roaster, but were not included in these numbers.  

The blend composition had a lot of variation, but overall, the average amount of each component used was 27.39% coffee A (Brazil), 38.27% coffee B (Colombia) and 34.34% coffee C (Ethiopia).  It should be noted that the top 5 blends represented wide variation of blend composition.  The blends were all judged blind without judges having any information about how much of each component was used in the blend.

A full breakdown of each individual result and blend ratios can be found here.

The Awards

A recording of the awards announcement from the Los Angeles party is available for viewing on Instagram.  Winning roasters have all been contacted and the Hacea team will be reaching out to them to follow up with interviews and roaster spotlights that will be featured on our website in the near future.  It was exciting to see that the winning roasts came from roasters with 10+ years roasting experience as well as brand new nano-roasters.

We have also heard that many of the winning roasters will be recreating their winning blends in limited edition runs.  Hacea is honored to help cross-promote these coffees so that others can experience these amazing coffees.  As these coffees become available, Hacea will be sharing the information through Instagram.