Yes! The Natvia Golden Bean not only attracted record numbers of entries and delegates but also had a week of perfect coastal weather in Port Macquarie. What better place to showcase the world’s largest coffee roasters competition than in this magnificent beach side location with Australia’s best climate. The Golden Bean is now in its eighth year and has returned to its birthplace after spending some time in Queensland.
This year’s event ran for four days and the judging was intense but very well organised by Anne Cooper our new Head Judge, under a totally new judging format. Anne also utilised senior coffee professionals to act as head judges for each of the 12 categories, which again improved the quality of the judging process.
“Roasters put their heart and soul into their entries so we want to make sure that their coffee is being given every opportunity to shine. We want to make sure that we are giving the roaster really good clear feedback in regard to the way their coffee’s performing within the format of the Golden Bean” said Anne.
The coffees tested over the weekend were made by world class barista champions and completing the judging was the strong turn out of coffee roasters from Australia and abroad who all pushed their palates to a new caffeinated level.
The final winner of the Golden Bean is the roaster with the top score by adding their espresso and milk based categories together – these two categories being the most popular style of coffee beverage in the market place. Proud Mary Coffee Roasters from Melbourne took out the crown with a stand out score. Nolan Hirte and his team have worked hard over the years in sourcing quality beans direct from origin and sampling them via his busy cafes. Nolan was in Western Australia at the time so his business manager Lucy Ward accepted the prize gracefully.
The Franchise/Chain Store Golden Bean went to Coffee Hit and was accepted by an excited Craig Dixon from Coffee Hits roasters Veneziano Coffee. Veneziano Coffee has had three gold medals over the last three years in the event.
This years Natvia Golden bean again included many networking opportunities with social activities such as jet boating, whale watching, a visit to local brewery and some wacky fun at the “back to school” awards night.
The Natvia Golden Bean team spent time researching the educational content for the event to ensure an interesting line up of speakers. Andrew Hetzel from Hawaii kept the audience entertained talking about the quality approach of Kona coffee and his cupping workshop on the Saturday was fully booked. Matt Milletto from Bellisimo coffee in Portland Oregon took the crowd on a journey of the American café scene and what the specialty market in the US has to offer the rest of the world. Each day consisted of educational workshops and a green bean buying day was included this year making for some forward moving business sales for all involved.
Sean Edwards the creator of the Golden Bean sees a big future for this event and has been approached to do similar events around the globe. “There is always positive outcomes when an industry puts aside competition and starts to share its success via networking and that’s what the Golden Bean has created.” Said Mr Edwards.
Dates have been set for next years event in Port Macquarie for the 07/11 October 2014 so fill in the calendar and become part of this caffeine fueled convention.
