Pascal Bauwens (Now Coffee, Durban) won the first ever April Brewers Cup in Africa, held at Creative Coffee Week, in Durban last week.
We were absolutely thrilled to host Patrick Rolf, from April Roastery, Copenhagen, and under his guidance run, the first ever South African April Brewers Cup at Creative Coffee Week, which was one of the main attractions for competitive baristas in South Africa.
Thank you to all the sponsors, both global and local. Shout outs to Cedar Coffee Roasters, Bluebird Coffee Roasters and MoreFlavour/Timemore for their support on the ground!
The April Brewers Cup competition used specialty coffee for the competition, roasted by Cedar Coffee in Cape Town.
Three time SA Barista Champion, Winston Thomas, ran proceedings on the floor!
"The April Brewers Cup in South Africa showed us two very important things," said Winston. "Firstly, how simple it is to run a Brewers Cup, which seems to be one of the hurdles as to why we haven't done it in the first place and secondly, it has given us context in what the Judges would look for on the world stage in terms of this format, which clearly we were quite far off on, and so Patrik has helped us calibrate and get closer to what the world standard would be like. "
The April Brewers Cup drew a significant crowd, and some of the most respected SA coffee professionals to the competition.
Taking the first-ever South African April Brewers Cup title at this year’s Creative Coffee Week was Pascal Bauwens (Now Coffee, Durban) after an intense final round where the Top 6 baristas brewed 3 separate, but identical pour-overs for the 3 judges, using the uniquely designed April Brewer and some of April's best coffee! This included a presentation to the judges explaining their technique and the reasons behind that methodology, as well as describing, flavour notes and taste profiles in the cup.
Pascal takes the judges through his brewing method during the finals round.
"It's surreal - it hasn't really hit me yet! says Pascal. "I'm very proud of Lee too! I didn't expect to make the finals even, as I was up against two very good champions in my opening round - so I was content to be eliminated having been part of it, so I was very surprised and shocked to go through. It was an honour to get through to the finals, to brew coffee for Patrik Rolf, who we all look up to in the industry. I love brewing filter coffee, I drink it all day and so it's something I'm very into."
Luhle Mnyandu (Bluebird Coffee Roastery, Howick) earned a very credible 2nd place, and Lee Maps (Now Coffee, Durban) came narrowly behind in 3rd place.
Luhle pours carefully into the April Brewers to achieve maximum results!
“The main takeaways for me were Brewing Ratios and Water.” Said Luhle after the post-competition debrief. “My ratio was around 1:14, which is probably too tight for this type of coffee, which is something Patrik mentioned to pretty much all the competitors, we could use a bit more water to coffee in our brews and also the water quality was a bit soft, we brought our own water from Howick, and so I learned a lot about building the water spec for a competition like this, which I’ll take into the future.”
Lee Maps, explaining to the judges exactly what to expect, as none other than Patrik Rolf looks on.
Round one of the April Brewers Cup took place on Wednesday, with eighteen competitors brewing against each other in 3 person heats - with an immediate winner selected on the spot by the judges - which included Patrik Rolf himself. The winners of each round proceeded to the finals on Thursday evening.
Each competitor was given the same April Coffee to practice brewing with, all adding their own unique recipe. Their coffees were tasted by the judges, with competitors giving a 10-minute presentation explaining the tactile, aroma, and sensory experience the judges should expect as well as the flavour experience. The winner was chosen on how accurately they were able to describe the flavour experience and their chosen brewing method.
Simnikiwe Mkhize (Rosetta Roastery, CT) is a formidable competitor and made it through to the Top 6.
Significantly, after the celebrations died down, Patrik took all competitors to the breakaway room for detailed feedback on their brews and presentations, in a concerted effort to ensure that they can learn from their experience on stage - and from one of the highest profile competition baristas in the world!
"Patrik's feedback was incredibly useful" says Pascal - "He's a coffee celebrity and most of us follow him - my feedback was similar to everyone else... basically we need a longer brew ratio, we all use too much water to coffee in our ratios, so lighter roasted coffees need longer ratios - and the Scandinavians prefer a lower TDS than we do in South Africa, so that was super useful"
