What an amazing week it has been! The competition has been fierce and we are already full of ideas and updates for the 2024 Season!
But for now we take a moment to appreciate the Winners for 2023 who triumphed in a field of 27 Roasters!
1. Ajeyudu Pathuri – Brewing Gadgets
2. Adeola Peter Akingbade – Laura Coffee & Bakery
3. Emmanuel Verola – Gold Box Coffee Roastery
The beauty of this competition is that the anonymity means the results are always a wonderful surprise. To do well in this competition, you also have to be skilled at blending and creating espresso recipes with your team, an often overlooked part of roastery life.
Ajey Pathuri, our 2023 Champion, is not a roaster in the traditional sense, as he is part of the vibrant Brewing Gadgets team. In fact, his role is to train people to use the piece of equipment that he used to roast his coffee submission, the Roest Sample Roaster. He entered the competition to challenge himself and make sure that he is at the top of his game as he guides other roasters through the learning process. He completed over 120 roasts before choosing the profile and screen sizes he wanted to submit. To say that he is details orientated would be a vast understatement. Huge congratulations!
Adeola Peter Akingbade of Laura Coffee & Bakery is obviously built for competition life, as he has had a busy time the last few months winning accolades, and now he can add A Shot in the Dark Runner Up to his list! Please go visit Laura Coffee in Abu Dhabi on Yas Island and if they have tiramisu on the bakery menu, just trust us and order one alongside your coffee roasted by Peter!
The Gold Box team does nothing in half measures and they proved that they maintain a consistently high quality of performance by placing 3rd this year! Well done to Emmanuel, this is an incredible achievement!
To all our competitors, thank you for participating and being part of this community, the feedback you will receive from Head Judge, Mike Mac Donald will be invaluable to your journey through coffee! It will be with you soon!
Thank you so much to all our incredible sponsors, this is a huge community effort and we look forward to growing it alongside amazing partners.
Thank you to Cafe Rider Roastery for accommodating the judging and workshop day, we felt so at home and welcomed and an educational and delicious time was had by all.
It was an amazing opportunity to engage with the producers, judges and most importantly, each other!
WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT: Hosted by La Marzocco at Akiba Dori
You can watch the Winners Announcement and see all the amazing photos from this fun and colourful night here.
SUCAFINA CUPPING at WORLD OF COFFEE: THE TOP 10!
For something a little different for the visitors to World of Coffee Dubai, we presented the Top 10 Cupping Coffees to the public to taste one coffee roasted 10 different ways. The feedback was wonderful and there was a lot of surprise around the fact that they were cupping the same coffee roasted with 10 different profiles and how much difference it makes to the final cup.
