Last week the A Shot in the Dark South Africa judging took place at African School of Coffee (ASC), in Cape Town, where 29 of the countries best coffee roasters had their competition coffee samples judged and scored.
This is the 8th Season of A Shot in the Dark (ASITD) and for the very first time, the judging was held in Cape Town. The Judges were Mike MacDonald (Green Coffee Supply), Shewaan Khan (Yellow Jacket Coffee), Nicodemus Nabakwe (Zuka Green JHB) and Cuth Bland (Zuka Green CT) on the Cupping panel and Mike MacDonald, Shewaan Khan and Winston Thomas (Cedar Coffee) on the Espresso panel.
The Judging spanned over four days, at ASC - starting with a careful calibration of sample roasts - with roast defects and one blind 'target' roast that allowed the judges to lock in on possible sweet spots for the cupping coffees and a variety of espresso blend ratios and mixes to give the judges an idea of the potential flavour mix for espresso.
Each day consisted of a Morning session and an afternoon session of judging, with careful deliberation in between. Our Judges worked incredibly hard and spent many, many hours using their incredible sensory talents to score each and every detail of the various competitors coffees. Judges - you’re amazing- and we salute you!
We are extremely excited to tally the final scores and see where the blind tasting ranked everyone. The winners will announced on 12 December at The Coffee Magazine Awards.
A huge thank you to the A Shot in the Dark Sponsors, for ensuring we could run the best possible competition with the utmost integrity.
To Green Coffee Supply for supplying the green coffee for the Cupping Challenge and Zuka Green Coffee for supplying the blending coffees.
To BWT water+more for creating the competition spec water and sending it to every single competitor AND supplying the ASC for the Judging of the competition.
To Ecotact for supplying the Roasters Packs which will be delivered to each and every roaster with the competition feedback and for the ecotact coffee bags that could both protect the integrity of the coffee and ensure anonymity for our roasters during the “blind” judging.
To Slayer for providing the absolutely gorgeous Slayer Steam Single espresso machine for the espresso round. What a beautiful machine it is!
To Mazzer Grinders for providing both a Mazzer Philos and a Mazzer Robur for the judging. Elegant, accurate and superbly consistent dose after dose.
To Moreflavour for providing the Timemore PUCKS tools - the distributors and auto-tamper ensured absolute consistency across the puck preparation.
To Loring Roasters for backing this competition in South Africa and the Middle East. Your support has been invaluable!
To Lizzard for supplying the limited edition 2025 competition tee shirts for competitors and judges. Each one is a collector's item.
To ASC for creating a beautiful space to judge in and wonderful coffee professionals to assist with all the Judges needs.
