NEWS

AUSTRALIA’S CHARLIE CHU WINS WORLD CUP TASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Image credit: Specialty Coffee Association, Luca Rinaldi and Michele Illuzzi. Australia’s Charlie Chu is the 2021 World Cup Tasters Champion.

Australia’s Kyoungha “Charlie” Chu has won the World Cup Tasters Championship at Host Milan.

The Australian Cup Tasters Champion of Ona Coffee scored a perfect 8/8 in the final round to secure his win in a time of three minutes and 20 seconds.

Charlie was ranked in fourth position leading into the Semi Finals round, taking a cautious seven minutes and 44 seconds to accurately guess all 8/8 coffees correctly.

But it was Charlie’s accuracy that saw him enter the Final round, thanking team Ona and the Australian and Korean coffee community for their support before taking to the cupping table for the last time.

“I am honoured to be here today, I couldn’t be happier,” Charlie said.

With Charlie’s perfect 8/8 cups correctly identified in the final round, the Australian Champion became emotional as the moment of realisation kicked in, that he was now a world champion.

Germany’s Dénes Rajmond won second place, South Korea’s Sang Min Ju placed fourth, and Costa Rica’s José Maria Gómez Mora placed fourth.

MATT WINTON OF SWITZERLAND WINS WORLD BREWERS CUP

Switzerland’s Matt Winton has won the World Brewers Cup. Daiki Hatakeyama of Japan was runner up and Elika Liftee of the United States won third place.

Australia’s Carlos Escobar of Toby’s Estate Coffee placed fourth in his first attempt at the world title, with Ply Pasarj of Canada placing fifth and Tomas Taussig of the Czech Republic placing sixth in the final round.

“This is not a one person [win], it’s never about one person,” Matt told the crowd post-win. “It’s about everyone that has helped along the way, from the moment I first started drinking coffee through to my first coffee competition. Thank you to the producers, exporters and importers – everybody, thank you.”

Australia’s Carlos Escobar expressed the same sentiment, sharing his fourth placing with Toby’s Estate’s coffee trainer Simon Gautherin back in Sydney.

The son of a Colombian coffee farmer, Carlos continued the tradition of storytelling in his routine, sharing the story of his father who was forced to abandon coffee growing and switch to alternate crops.

His second chapter talked about agronomist and Founder of Finca El Paraiso Diego Samuel, who is inspiring a whole new generation of coffee farmers with innovative fermentation techniques. Carlos said he had cultivated his own micro organisms and shared them with other farmers to help gain better coffee prices.

Chapter three highlighted Carlos’ competition coffee, a washed Geisha that had undergone anaerobic washed processing left in the tank twice for 360 hours, once in full cherry then with the mucilage, to highlight the coffee’s tropical fruit notes.

Chapter four celebrated Carlos’ brewing technique of two equal pours of 100 grams of water at 88°C to 14 grams of coffee and bloomed for one minute and 30 seconds for a higher extraction yield.

Carlos invited the judges to write the last chapter of his story together, noting flavour notes of strawberry, red candied apple and hints of hibiscus flower before tasting.

“I believe we all play an important part in the industry. My role as a storyteller is to bridge the gap between the producer and end consumer, only raising awareness of real coffee heroes together,” Carlos said in conclusion.

Matt Winton of Switzerland (third from left) is the 2021 World Brewers Cup Champion. Australia’s Carlos Escobar (far left) placed fourth.

Image credit: Specialty Coffee Association, Luca Rinaldi & Michele Illuzzi.