Imagine 1,206 delicious coffees to taste in 3 days. In its 6th year, the Golden Bean Roasting competition has become a popular national event with entries from all over the country now. As well as the competition, it’s a series of workshops and an opportunity to network and socialise with colleagues.
Paul was confident to judge this year and enjoyed the eye-opening experience of tasting coffee with coffee professionals. After 3 days he’d learnt a lot from those around the judging table – and had consumed a lot of coffee. Meanwhile, I attended some of the workshops and presentations and especially enjoyed Mark Dundon’s presentation on the Cup of Excellence and Mark Beattie’s on roasting.
The social events
Baristas, roasters, judges, runners, tasters and everyone else involved are all rewarded for their hard work at the fabulous social events in the evenings. With the Golden Bean being in Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast this year, local roastery Pioneer Coffee in Yandina put on a latte art smackdown.
A first for us, this was clearly a less serious competition than the Golden Bean. In a night of fun and friendship, the competition is organised in heats with 2 participants in each heat. One is eliminated and the other goes onto the next round of heats – until there are only 2 participants in the final round. 3 judges place a disc against what they believe is the winner out of 3 designs.
For something entirely different, after the first day of coffee drinking was a night of go-karting with a BBQ afterwards. I was to learn there are some serious go-karters in the coffee industry, with David Makin in the lead fearlessly whizzing past everyone on the track. In the rain! I was the one behind everyone else with the engine threatening to cut out as I was going so slowly! ! On the second evening there was a more refined affair – with chocolate and coffee cocktails accompanied by tasty finger food.
2011 Golden Bean Awards
When all the judging and presentations finished, the awards night is always a night to remember – for the networking and enthusiasm for all things coffee to the announcement of Gold, Silver and Bronze Golden Bean winners. A new category, ‘syphon-made coffee’ was introduced in 2011, bringing the number of categories to 10.
Out of 1,206 coffee entries, the gold medal winners were …
- Espresso – The Roaster
- Milk-based – Dimattina Coffee
- Australian-grown (milk) – MacKellar Range Coffee
- Filter – Wolff Roast Haus
- Organic espresso – Gridlock Coffee
- Single origin – Veneziano Coffee
- Decaffeinated – Fish River Roasters
- Chain/franchise (milk) – Foodco Group
- Chain/franchise (espresso) – Little Italy Roasters
- Syphon – Gloria Jeans Coffee
Dimattina Coffee was the overall winner and Cibo Espresso the overall winner of the separate category for chains and franchises. Our friend Richard Silipo was delighted to be a runner-up in the overall result in his first year of competition – sharing the position with Philip Di Bella. It was a night for the Italians, and there was no prouder Italian than Richard Silipo!
Legends Hall of Fame
Another innovation at the 2011 Golden Bean was the Cafetto-sponsored Coffee Legends Hall of Fame, the inaugural winner being Ian Bersten. Considerably eccentric with a wicked sense of humour but hugely innovative and knowledgable when it comes to coffee, in 1968 Ian established Belaroma in Sydney – one of the early pioneering coffee companies in Australia. Now into his 80’s, Ian and his wife attended the event where Ian was acknowledged for the part he has played in Australian coffee history.
As well as starting Belaroma Coffee, Ian is the author of a number of books on coffee, including ‘Coffee Floats, Tea Sinks’ a comprehensive publication on the history of coffee equipment throughout the centuries. Another of Ian’s books has the intriguing title, ‘Coffee, Sex and Health’. Ian has also amassed an enormous collection of coffee grinders, roasters and coffee making devices, which he has collected from all over the world.
Ian Bersten is an extraordinary man and I’ve had several conversations with him over the years. He’s the kind of person who plants seeds of ideas and leaves you with something intriguing to think about for a long time afterwards. Thank you Ian Bersten, for the contribution you’ve made to the history of coffee in Australia and for challenging me on occasion to ‘think outside the box’.