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We are in Johannesburg this week for the South African judging and the competition is fierce!
Things are a little different this year as we have two judging panels running concurrently. One for the single origin cupping round and one for the blending espresso round.
They have been hard at work! And are perhaps feeling equal parts jittery and excited to see who will emerge victorious out of the 36 brave roasters who are up to this challenge!!!
By the end of today we will have three Champions, one for Cupping, one for the Blending Challenge and one Overall Champion.
The cupping judging started early yesterday morning at Zuka Green Coffee's state-of-the-art cupping lab, with the judges working through the first 3 sets of 6 coffees. The judging panel consists of Mike MacDonald (Green Coffee Supply), Nicodemus Nabakwe (Zuka Green) and Cuth Bland (Zuka Green), assisted by Thoriso Mafisa.
The espresso judging started in earnest this morning at Equipment Cafe, with Stevo Kühn (TriBeCa) pulling the shots and scoring the best blends alongside Waseem Jadwat (Bean There Coffee Company) and Alicia Steyn (Sorcery Coffee).
A huge thanks must go to the Sponsors, and their teams for their involvement in A Shot in the Dark 2024 - we are very appreciative of having the best suppliers, facilities, equipment and resources in the coffee industry, behind the event.
We will be announcing these Champions at the Coffee Magazine Awards to be held in Stellenbosch next weekend!
Here are the judges and Zuka Team with the coffee that was basically moved across heaven and earth to get to us on time for this competition! Special thanks to Covoya Specialty for their assistance with making this happen!
