Barista and Latte Art championships have become established and are now familiar to many. The coffee roasting championship, however, is still a niche. Yet, it is the championship where only craftsmanship counts, and no showmanship is required. The focus is on taste, and the learning curve is high.
It smells, it cracks, and then Sofia opens the flap door on the Giesen roaster and lets the beans fall into the cooling sieve. The roaster from the Kaffeemacher:innen roastery team has just roasted her last batch for the 2024 championships. The coffee she selected will be packaged and tasted two days later by a professional jury.
Sofia roasts her blend at the Swiss Roasting Championships
Sofia achieves the highest score and becomes the Swiss Roasting Champion 2024, closely followed by Raúl, who comes in second with only one point behind and also roasts in our team.
For only the second time since 2019, the Swiss Roasting Championships have taken place. 14 participants competed in the championship. Experienced roasters from primarily micro and small-scale roasteries took part.
In 2013, the first World Roasting Championship was held in Nice. In 2025, the World Championship will take place in Houston, where Sofia will represent Switzerland.
The real challenge
Coffee roasters usually work on a familiar machine. After a few years, they know its quirks and exactly how to handle them. This way, they develop a relationship with their own roasting machine and are reluctant to switch to a new system.
At the roasting championship, however, this was the case until recently: all participants roasted on an unfamiliar machine. At the 2024 roasting championship, this was an electrically powered Giesen 6kg roaster, located at Blossom Coffee in Zug.
Raúl inspects the roasted beans on the Giesen 6kg roaster
Those who already had experience with Giesen coffee roasters might have been able to get to grips with the system faster than someone roasting on a Giesen machine for the first time.
However, the setting was new for everyone, and that made it interesting. Although as a participant – I as the author participated myself – one masters one's craft, the setting influences one and causes a bit of adrenaline. Time has to be kept in mind, every handling is monitored, every gram is weighed by the observers.
The Process
The championship is divided into three parts:
- Green Coffee Analysis
- Production Roasting
- Cupping
The Green Coffee Analysis
In the assessment of green coffee quality, all participants receive a bag with 350 g of green coffee. This must be examined for density, size, moisture, smell, and color using the provided materials. Afterwards, participants must inspect the coffee for defects and categorize them.
Primary defects are serious flaws that can directly impact sensory perception. A black, infected, or completely fermented bean, for example, can impart a metallic or medicinal taste to the coffee.
Green coffee sorted by hand, Cuauhtémoc, Finca la Capella, Mexico
Second category defects, so-called secondary defects, do not necessarily taste different from intact beans, but in large numbers, they can negatively affect the taste. Likewise, half beans, a secondary defect, are roasted differently and therefore may taste different than intended.
Within one hour, participants sort and analyze the green coffee. The correct measurement and classification of defects are evaluated here. I often hear from judges that coffees are sometimes sorted too precisely, meaning every cosmetic blemish is considered a defect.
Here it can be helpful to remember that coffee is a natural product. Or one remembers a motto from green coffee analysis:
"Ugly is not a defect."
Single Origin and Blend
Participants are given four Arabica coffees to choose from. They are to roast one of them as a single origin. Three of them are to be blended into a blend, with each coffee accounting for at least 10%.
At the 2024 Swiss Championships, the focus was solely on creating a blend. We received three green coffees in advance. The origin and processing method were also communicated.
It was a pulped natural from Brazil, a yellow honey from Costa Rica, and a washed coffee from Tanzania. From these three coffees, we had to create a blend.
"Number 2 it is" - when choosing the blend
It is usually not advisable to mix coffees with different densities or various post-harvest processes. But that was precisely the task here, and that made it exciting. All participants faced the same challenge.
We roasted the coffee on a sample roaster, tasted it, and described it as follows:
- Brazil: Hazelnut, medium body, some cups slightly icy, citrusy
- Costa Rica: yellow fruits, apple, full body and velvety texture, many Quakers
- Tanzania: Blackberries, citrusy, high acidity, medium body, silky texture
Normally, we wouldn't mix these three coffees, but that was the task. We all decided to reduce the Brazilian proportion to the minimum of 10%. Sofia and Raúl chose the same blend: 60% Tanzania, 30% Costa Rica, 10% Brazil. Juan and I chose: 50% Costa Rica, 40% Tanzania, 10% Brazil.
We worked together as a team and gave each other feedback
The Evaluation
A professional jury tastes the coffees in a blind cupping, without knowing who roasted them. Various attributes of the coffee are evaluated:
- How intense and complex are the aroma and flavor notes?
- How intense is the body and how pleasant is the texture?
- Are acidity and sweetness in balance, and does the acidity structure the cup?
- Is the coffee long-lasting and does it leave a sweet impression?
The jury's evaluation and comparison with the roasting profile result in the final score. Without tasting the production coffee themselves, participants must anticipate how the coffee will taste in the end, based on sample roasts.
This was a tricky task, as we had to base assumptions on vague conjectures. We knew how the coffees tasted on the sample roaster, but whether the result on the unfamiliar machine would turn out exactly as desired was the challenge.
If the roasting profile and the description of the sensory experience match the observations of the judges, a high score is awarded. Sofia and Raúl both achieved this.
The Giesen Roasting Machine
Roasting was done on a Giesen roasting machine. From 2013 to 2023, Giesen sponsored the World Championships, which was logistically complex as several small roasting machines had to be transported worldwide. Since 2024, Stronghold electric roasters have been used. These machines represent a changing of the times: they are fully electric, filter exhaust air, and are therefore a popular alternative in coffee shops where live roasting takes place.
Me against myself
What I particularly appreciated about the championships were two things:
Firstly, the exchange with the other participants. Since everyone had the same starting point, there were no secrets or advantages. Everyone roasted according to their philosophy and blended the coffees according to their own taste. The atmosphere at the championships was open and collegial – ideal for exchange and learning.
Secondly: The roasting championship is solely about taste and predicting how the coffee will taste. There is no jury that pays attention to showmanship. You only compete against yourself. If the coffee wasn't well roasted, you are responsible for it yourself.
This character-building competition is emphasized by giving all participants the chance to taste the other coffees in a blind cupping after the championships. It was a nice moment when I stood with other participants at the cupping table and we tasted the cups, which were labeled with codes, together.
We agreed on which cups we particularly liked and which we liked less. I had two favorites in this blind tasting: Sofia's and Raúl's.
from left to right, Dario Stoop from Coffee Architects, Sofia Heuri, Raúl Rivero
