Coffee heaven in Vienna!

A big thank you to everyone who came to see us at our stand at the SCAE World of Coffee in Vienna last week. We really enjoyed the show – and the nail-biting WBC, World Brewers Cup and World Cup Tasters finals of course!

It was fantastic to see another WBC winner from an origin country – and the runner up as well. Well done to Raul Rodas from Guatemala for his winning performance, and to Fabrizio Ramirez from Mexico for taking second place.

You can read an excellent description of Raul’s ingenious signature drink from Sprudge. It was very interesting to see Cascara used in such an inventive way by Raul and some of the other finalists. There seems to be a real push from WBC competitors to explore and experiment with every product of the coffee plant – and to get as close to the tree as possible. Traceability – always an important element in the competition – is coming to be as much about flavour traceability (tracking the flavour of the coffee back to the tree that produced it) as it is about the story of who grew the coffee and where. These are exciting developments, and the bar has been set very high for next year’s competition!

We’d also like to say well done to Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, from the UK, who came sixth using Bolivia Valentin Choquehuanca, sourced by Mercanta and roasted by Origin Coffee Roasters in Cornwall. And also to Croatia’s Matija Hrkac, who only just missed out on the final – taking seventh place using Kenya Ngutu, roasted by Café Lomi in Paris and sourced by Mercanta! And finally to South Africa’s Wayne Oberholzer from Origin Coffee Roasting in Cape Town, who took 40th place using the Rwanda Cup of Excellence Lot #7 Kayumbu (imported by us!).

Congratulations also to Australia’s Matt Perger for winning the Brewer’s Cup competition, and to everyone who took part. From what we heard the standard was extremely high this year. And, last but not least, well done to Cory Andreen of Germany for taking home the Cup Tasters Competition.

Overall it was an excellent three days and a very interesting show. We really enjoyed being in Vienna, not least because it gave us the chance both to see several of our customers from Central and Eastern Europe – and to meet lots of specialty roasters from this part of the world that were previously unknown to us. As ever we were running regular cuppings on our stand throughout the three days and we really enjoyed cupping with coffee friends old and new. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to visit us.

And next year, Melbourne.. A slightly longer flight for us but it will no doubt be worth every second! Bring on MICE 2013!!!!