Jun 14, 2010

The 7th World Cup Tasters Championship 2010

by
Copyright © SCAE / WCTC 2009 Copyright © SCAE / WCTC 2009

This year, Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), invites the coffee world to meet at the 7th World Cup tasting Championship from June 23 to 25th at Olympia in London, UK.

Cup tasting is the art of testing and determining different characteristics in a coffee. You can easily compare it to wine tasting. Cup tasters, or cuppers as they are called, oftentimes work at coffee importers and help determine which coffees to buy. Thus, the skill of choosing a good coffee is very important to the coffee business as a whole.

I'm just about done creating a 36-page booklet for the championship. The booklet describes the rules, the history of the event and a detailed description of all 20 coffees that will be used during the competition.

There are coffees from a large variety of coffee producing countries being used at this event. The championship is an opportunity for coffee growing countries and local farms to highlight their products on international arena.

The 7th World Cup Tasters Championship will coincide with the World Barista Championship 2010, which is also being held in London at the time.

Why a World Cup Tasters Championship?

The objectives of this competition are several: To educate and motivate the cup tasters of the world. To give them the same status and credibility as the wine tasters, and to promote the concept of quality coffee as such.

How does it work?

To make the event fair to all the coffee cultures of the world the organisers do not ask the cup tasters to identify or judge coffees. The judges simply test their skills to discriminate between tastes in triangular tests. 8 triangles are set on the table. In each two cups are identical, one is different. With ability to smell, taste, memorise and concentrate the competitor will identify the odd cup in the triangles.

The one with the most correct identifications wins the championship. With equal numbers the one with the shortest time win. The organisers set up the triangles with selected coffees from all over world, and the spectators will be able to taste the coffees after the competition.

The competitions

The Championship starts with qualifying heats with four participants in each. Scores and times are kept and published immediately. The eight best cuppers goes on to the semi-final, where triangles are changed and discriminations made more difficult.

The four best cuppers goes on to the final. Qualifying competitions are now being held in several countries. Where qualifying competitions cannot be held, SCAE chapters or similar speciality coffee associations can name the competitor they find the best to represent their nation.

A global event

SCAE expects up to 40 cup tasters from both consuming and producing countries to compete in the championship. The event is educational, exciting and fun to watch.

For further information visit The World Cup Tasters Championship website.

Kristoffer Sandven

Kristoffer Sandven is the founder and author of The People Mag, Shuttertips.net, JoomlaBlogger.net and more. His daily work involved web development, SEO, Photography and selling coffee online.

plus.google.com/103527006934108343287/posts