3rd Huky Roasting Competition Discussion

[kenneroast]

Finally! Details are hashed out for this upcoming contest. Before I go into details, I leaned heavily on Sweet Maria's advice on some of the decisions made. Two reasons- 1) they're experienced at evaluating coffee, and even more experience with their inventory 2) I had a strong desire for this to be as efficient as possible for them. Since they still have a business to run, let's keep it simple. Their feedback is still invaluable.

The highlight of my news is that they're giving us a 50% discount on the coffee. This coupon is exclusive to us for this contest. I couldn't be more appreciative of it. Each of you guys that expressed an interest in participating will get a message from me containing the coupon code. If you don't receive a message from me, just reach out to me and I'll share the coupon code.

One of the great things from past contests were the videos. Sweet Maria's agreed to help us video record this next event. We talked briefly about bringing a Huky on site to feature it in the video. Assuming all goes smoothly, I think this will be a very cool small production.

Contest Date: Tuesday, March 15th
Location: Sweet Maria's in Oakland, CA
You guys have until March 15th to submit your samples. Sweet Maria's expects a 1/2lb sample. Please contact me directly if you have questions.

Judging format: SCAA
I asked Sweet Maria's team to evaluate our custom judging form. In the end, the cupping staff felt strong about the SCAA format. On the bright side, they've requested we organize the submissions by roast degree (light to dark) and they will evaluate accordingly. It seems like a great tradeoff. Thank you all for helping me put this form together. I appreciate the effort that went into our form, but we were really reinventing the wheel. 

In respect for maintaining some anonymity, I will assign and privately message each participate a number. Roasts in the recording will be reference your assigned number instead of by member name. We will announce the ranking bowls in each category if there are enough submissions, and overall best roast(s).

Spectating / Participation:
The good news is Sweet Maria's is fully open to allowing spectators AND participants on the contest day. The bad news is there's only room for 2 more heads. We had more than 2 people in the Bay Area express an interest in coming. Please private message me (or I'll message you) if you're still interested and let's possibly organize a group discussion about it. We'll figure out a fair way to fill the seats. I'm sorry we couldn't allow for everyone to join. I tried my best.

Bean Selection: Burundi Kayanza Mpemba
Kayanza cups fantastic at City+ with notes of spiced apple cider (clove and all-spice), and candied citrus peel. Citrus notes of white grapefruit and a mandarin build in the cooling cup. Black tea fills out the profile and helps define acidity too. City to Full City. Good for espresso

Grade: A1
Appearance: .6 d/300 grams; 15+ Screen
Region: Kayanza District
Roast Recommendations: City to Full City
Organic: No
Farm Gate: Yes
Recommended for Espresso: Yes

More information: https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/burundi-kayanza-mpemba-4986

Note about Bean Selection
In past contests, I know a vote was conducted on the bean selection. Originally, I wanted to honor this tradition. Because of how things had to be coordinated, this would have further delayed things. Since Sweet Maria's knows their inventory best, I turned to them to single out a selection. They made this recommendation considering what we've already roasted and what would be most interesting in a contest format. There's a wide spectrum of flavor that can be expected from this coffee in different roast degrees. From my point of view, that makes a great candidate for this contest.

Thank you everyone. Let me know if you have any questions. 

** Edited on 2/12/2016 **

I received some great news today. Since the first 2 rounds have been so much fun, we started scheming for another roasting competition. We're going to be hosting the next round in the Bay Area / Oakland, CA. Sweet Maria's agreed to be our source for coffee, and also to judge the roasts.

So now this leaves us with some details to hash out.

Cupping Schedule
A date hasn't been selected yet. We decided with Sweet Maria's that the competition should be held after the holidays (early 2016). This should allow for us plenty of time to prepare for the next one. The format will be similar to the previous. Along the lines of, "100grams of roasted coffee will be sent in by X date."

Evaluation Format
After the 2nd round, some members started discussing how we could/should have the roasts evaluated. Using a scoring system was mentioned. I believe the idea was to keep the judging on a level playing field and to avoid biased opinions. If you have a preference to how we request this to be handled, speak up.

Select a coffee for the competition
This may be a no brainer, but thought I'd put it out there for everyone to know. We agreed to choose something from their inventory since they agreed to judge the roasts. I will probably ask Sweet Maria's for suggestions, but please let us know if you guys have any preferences.

Total number of participants
They asked us how many people would be participating. I know that the schedule and bean selection will matter for some. Even if it's a ballpark, we still need to figure out who's interested in participating. Please let us know so we can get list and count together for them.

Looking forward to doing this again. Thank you everybody.

Sincerely,
Chris

[thusband]

I'm very interested and will definitely participate.  Maybe attend, if possible, since it's just up road a piece.

edit: And help out if need be.

[Gregr]

This is outstanding news
They have so many great coffees that's going to be a tough decision. Fun fun fun!

[DanJH]

I am very excited to hear this and will definitely be participating!

[Contrabass Bry]

I'll certainly toss my hat in the ring again!

[Daave]

I'm definitely in.

I wonder if it would help level the playing field if we have everyone roast on a certain day. That way they will all be the same level of freshness.

[Chert]

A competition by Sweet Maria's.  I am so in!!

[rawman]

I hope to be ready to present something drinkable by then!  I'm in..  Is the cupping open to (semi) locals?

[kenneroast]

Is the cupping open to (semi) locals?

I didn't realize how many Huky users there are in / around / near the Bay Area. We'll find out how much space they have available on site and see if they're ok with a group of spectators.

[jyalpert]

I'm in and I'm local so would love to attend.

[Taekwondodo]

I'm very interested. Looking forward to details.

[rodraguirre]

Another contender here. Count me in!

[venerablemonster]

I'd like to participate. I'm trying to ramp up my productivity with roasting. It's been slow the last couple months.

[hankua]

Great!

A couple of thoughts for possible improvements:

* We need to score, otherwise there's no way to place members. Maybe the top three or everyone; not sure which way to go?

* I'm in favor of developing our own scoring system that focuses more on roasting defects/successes than the actual coffee itself; if that makes sense. We'll all be roasting the same coffee and it can do well at different roast levels other than cupping/defect tasting.

Something like a 1-5 for each category with 5 being the best. Underdevelopment and Overdevelopment are roasting defects ( my last entry had some of these notes do to a very short drying phase). Also think balance should get points, vs 100% Nordic full fruit acidity (I like this style especially with Ethiopian but most members have more development I'm thinking). On the flip side, origin notes should get a category; which one brings out the best. This can be done collectively for the judges to use.

If we want to get feedback on the individual roast; including a copy of the profile or notes would be almost necessary.

[Gregr]

Great points Hank.
One way to do it is to have a Defects category and break it down into say, over development, under development, baked, sour/hay, roasty, ?The defects can be assigned negative points that take away from the positive points earned in the other categories.
And the other categories? Body, brightness, balance, sweetness, origin notes, ?