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Competition

Article by Alexandru Niculae

Introduction to

World Coffee Roasting Championship

By Alexandru Niculae

The whole experience about competition started about
3 years ago. It was when I competed in the World Brewers Cup
th
Championship in Rimini and got the 16 place. In order to go
far, I knew I would have to roast the coffee myself to develop the
way I considered best. I started studying more about roasting
and reading all the books you could read about coffee and coffee
roasting. After I started roasting more and more, I decided to
compete in the first Romanian Coffee Roasting Championship
and won. I went on to compete in Gothenburg and I got the 8th
place at the World Roasting Championship. It was not bad for
me but my dream was to become the world champion. Although
I did not win that year, I was very happy because I understand
more about roasting. However, in that same year my girlfriend
was in the 2nd place at the World Cezve/Ibrik Championship
and my good friend received 3rd place in World Coffee in
Good Spirits and they both used coffees roasted by me. As a winning the second national roasting championship.
result, this made me go on even further. I tried new thing and Let me tell you more about the roasting competition as
attending seminars of many famous roasters and one of them many people ask me exactly what happened during this event. It
had an interesting point of view that helped me open my mind is a four-days competition in which all the competitors receive
to different concepts and ideas which may seem wrong. But I the same 4 coffee beans - one single origin and three single
considered all the roasters and baristas as chefs and we create origins for a blend. The competitor will roast with the same
our own recipes and are trying to deliver a unique experience roaster in which they do not know which brand until a few
to the customers every single time. So my journey continued by
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