This weekend, I was invited to judge the first sanctioned Indonesian Aeropress Competition by ABCD School of Coffee as the organiser. It was a humbling experience to say the least. Even though Aeropress competition is designed to be a relaxed and fun event, some Indonesian baristas and competitors takes the competition quite seriously. They prepare weeks in advance and hope to be sent to Dublin for the World Aeropress Competition in June.
The judging process is quite simple, you cup the coffees prepared by the competitors for the round and choose which cup is the “winner” for that round. For each round, 3 judges are grouped together and 1 of them is selected as the Head Judge.
Considering there are 81 competitors on the day, it was set up as 3 competitors in a round against each other. Considering there are only 3 judges in a round, it is quite possible that the judges pick all the 3 cups available at the same time. This way the “Head Judge” selection will win the round.
I was selected as the Head Judge for my group and on the first round of the day, it happened. Each of us selected all the cups available on the table. But the winner was the one I chose. There, it hit me how big of a deal this is. It’s not that the other 2 were bad cups of coffee, but the baristas were immediately out of the game.
It was a tight round and all the cups were great. I would be happy to drink all 3 cups if it was served in a cafe. But as a judge I would need to go back to the rules of the competition. What we’re after is clarity of flavours via good extraction and a distinct representation of the coffee being used. This means we need to be able to distinguish the extraction by assessing the aroma, body, sweetness, acidity, aftertaste and overall balance of the cup.
Big congratulations for Prawira “Edo” Adhiguna from Hungry Bird Coffee, Bali in becoming the first Indonesian Aeropress Champion. He will represent Indonesia in the World stage.
-Arief
