National Cup Tasters Competition

It was while visiting the Finals of the World Coffee Barista Championships when Jessy from algrano and I decided to take part in the Italian Cup Tasters Competition.
That was October 2021. The Finals were meant to take place in January 2022 at the Sigep coffee fair.
Two months to go. Let’s do this!

We spent late evenings and weekends at algrano’s where we got the ideal space to train our taste buds.
It was a fun and exciting time but also accompanied by sleepless nights from all the caffeine overload. Oh lord!

Shortly before Christmas we got the news that the competition was postponed to March. This decision luckily gave us some more time to train but also intensified the process and prolonged the journey. 
I am glad for having had miró having my back through all this time. Supporting me mentally, with coachings and also with organizing an internal final competition the week before my trip to Rimini.

Having missed the finals by a few points only, there’s so much I take with as learnings from this time. I loved to train and focus on precision and accuracy in terms of the whole cupping flow. It’s about timing and strategy but also about improvisation and finding my unique ways of solutions if I cannot distinguish the coffees in the first round. And of course in the end it’s a lot about sensory and sensoric training which is a big part in my everyday life as a roaster here at miro’s.

Sigep was a great coffee fair to meet and exchange with coffeeafficionados that share my passion but also bring a very own story and background from Q-Graders, baristi, roasters etc.

If you’re interested to learn some more about my background read my interview for communicaffe. Thanks to Simone for getting in touch!
For now I will keep on training and looking forward to next year’s challenge! 

Alfonso