The 2017 Specialty Coffee Brewers K.O. Tournament organised by The Storyz ended successfully at 6pm yesterday in Lightbox, Sungai Buloh.
Jeffrey Ang, a 16 years old who came from Bukit Mertajam, Penang is the winner for the first prize in the 2017 Specialty Coffee Brewers K.O. Tournament with the excellent score of 50 marks out of 72, walked away with the cash prize of RM6000 and a unique 3D designed trophy. Jeffrey Ang is working at his family owned café; Coffee Story as the Chief Barista and he is fond of latte art. During the final round of the competition, he accidentally broke his glass V60 dripper, an equipment required in coffee brewing, causing some anxieties amongst the audiences for him. Fortunately, he kept his cool, and borrowed a ceramic V60 dripper from his friend. Although it was made of different material, he managed to use his past experiences to brew the best coffee and become the first prize winner.
After the competition, Chief Judge; Yip Leong Sum from Beans Depot who is also the coffee beans sponsor for this tournament expressed that the cup that scored the highest was almost flawless and bring out the highest intensity of flavours, acidity and sweetness of the coffee. She said “I am impressed and amazed that the contestants were able to handle the coffee after just 30 minutes of practice time but able to show case the unique flavours of the Panama Geisha coffee. This proved that the brewing skills for these generation of coffee brewers should not be ignored.”
JWC’s Cecillia Lau Zhi Yan was the second prize winner after Jeffrey Ang with the difference of 7 marks; the other highlight of this competition coming from Didie’s Kitchen and Coffee which is located at Setapak, Munirah Shafee with only 3 months hand brew experience was crowned third prize with 39 marks. Khairul Anuar Alias with just 1 mark short became the fourth prize winner. He is a home brewer and this proves that amateurs are also able to brew good coffee. Kelvin Toh Wei Kang from Tipsy Brew O’Coffee was the fifth prize winner with 35 marks and Littlepeople Café barista Wong Jo Ying was the sixth prize winner.
The objective of this competition is to promote the culture of specialty coffee brewing while providing a platform for coffee brewers to interact and share among one another.
Over a month of registration period, the organiser has received a number of 72 competitions, coming from Malaysia (69), Australia (1) and Myanmar (2). There has been a total of 48 cafe baristas and 24 individual or home-based coffee brewers. Among the participants, their ages ranged from the youngest at 16 years old to the oldest at 52 years old.
The 72 competitors have already received coffee beans from the sponsor – Beans Depot for practice purposes beforehand. On the day of the tournament, the competitors were divided into 3 groups (A, B and C), and following the style of a KO tournament, were eliminated in each round of the tournament until the final round. Competitors who have successfully made it into the 2nd, semi-final and final round of the tournament used different coffee beans (Guatamela and Geisha) for brewing. The coffee was then blind tested by 3 groups of judges and are assessed based on their flavours, acidity, sweetness and the overall experience so as to make it a fair assessment.
The cash prize of this coffee tournament was the highest among all other coffee tournaments previously organised in Malaysia. The 1st prize winner received a total cash prize of RM6000, the 2nd prize winner RM3000 and the third prize winner RM2000. The 4th prize winner received a cash prize of RM900, 5th prize winner RM600 and the 6th prize winner RM300. The first 6 prize winners also received a trophy specially designed by a 3D designer. 12 other consolation prize winners received a gift sponsored by Dankoff Coffee Specialist.
Besides, Barista Guild Asia has also provided 12 coffee classes as lucky draw prize. Among them 4 are coffee appreciation classes, 4 espresso sensory classes and 4 brewing method classes, all with the goal of promoting the beauty in the art of coffee.