This is the 3rd South African championship being held, but will certainly be the biggest with all the international and local support. Bonavita and Baratza have extended their global support of the World Aeropress Champs to South Africa, and will be the event's official kettle and coffee grinder. These awesome kettles and grinders are also going to be the prizes of the winners, along with Bonavita Scales and a of course the plane ticket to worlds sponsored by MoreFlavour, SA's distributor of the AeroPress. That's a total price purse of over R30 000! There will also be a spot Prize for the top "If your AeroPress had extra super powers, you'd use it to... tweet @moreflavourSA #AeroPressSuperPower
Dan tweaking his brew to perfection
We are very stoked the event is fittingly being hosted at Durban's 8 Morrison Street a creative hub located in the thriving Rivertown Precinct of Durban. The 8 Morrison space is part of an exciting urban regeneration strategy for key areas throughout the city. Through collaboration with local architects, designers and innovators, this precinct begins the birth of a new era of urban regeneration.he most recent addition to the transformation of this inspiring space, is the development of co-working office and retail spaces, designed to meet the needs of startups, entrepreneurs and creatives who seek an urban workspace.
8 Morrison is home of local micro roastery Firebird, who will be pumping the coffees out to the crowd, and are playing host to the event.
That's Dan Erasmus on the right. He's Firebird's roaster and SA's 1st AeroPress champ to represent at World's in Rimini Italy in 2014. Dan has enteblackbtn this year and is determined to qualify again! It won't be easy though as this year will feature all of SA's top barista's, as the comp will run directly after the SA National Barista Champs. The judging panel will be Craig "Champ" Charity, SA Barista Champ 2014 and World 15th place, Cuth "Anything but" Bland, Bean There Coffee Co's queen of QA and Zane Mattisson, King of QA at Union Hand Roasted SA. Aaai Sho that's a planel!
The competition coffee will be "Guatemala SHG EP Huehuetnango Finca El Coyegual" roasted by the legendary Gerald "Doctor G" Charlse from Rock and Roller. The Doctor had this to say about the comp coffee:
Huehuetenango from the north highlands are exceptional coffees with distinct acidity and fruited flavours. Of the three non-volcanic regions, Huehuetenango is the highest and driest under cultivation. Due to the dry, hot winds that blow into the mountains from Mexico’s Tehuantepec plain, the region is protected from frost
Cultivation between 5000 and 5500 feet above sea level.
A light medium to medium roast is suggested which is what I'll be doing. Coffee is being roasted on the 11/11/2016, given it 11 days resting period.
This coffee has a sweet aroma, with a fruity start reminiscent of plums and a milk chocolate finish. Generally it is a great all round coffee.
Guatemala is one of the worlds top coffee origins and the eighth largest producer. This relatively small country boasts the most climatically diverse regions in the world. The soil, rainfall, humidity, altitude, and temperature are varied enough to produce seven distinct types of Guatemala Arabica coffee. Huehuetenango and Antigua coffees are well-known and highly rated.
Flavour profile: Chocolate, Plum and Berries. Sweet flavour"