Posted on: 2016-01-15 10:15 AM There are many events to bookmark in the 2016 competition calendar.
In July the world’s best riders will compete in the 103rd Tour de France.
In August Rio de Janerio will come alive when it hosts the 2016 Olympic Games, and as always Australia will celebrate that one day in September – or October as it may be – when Australian Football League teams compete for the annual Premiership cup.
But before all that there’s a gold-medal event set to draw widespread national and international interest – the Australian International Coffee Awards (AICA).
The AICA will return in 2016 for its fourth year, conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV). The awards recognise excellence and consistency of quality coffee roasting in Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia Pacific region.
Roasted coffee samples are blind tasted, assessed, and scored out of 60 points.
Entrants receive invaluable feedback from independent industry experts, and have the chance to receive medals for their coffees. A bronze medal is awarded to coffees that score between 44.5 to 48.9 points, silver medals are awarded to coffees that score 49 to 53.9 points, and gold medals are award to entries that score between 54 to 60 points.
The Champion Roaster trophies are awarded to the Australian and international roasters with the highest average score, calculated on the roaster’s three top scoring exhibits.
In 2016 the Champion Roaster categories will be divided into espresso, milk-based coffee and filter coffee (including siphon, plunger, and pour over coffee), soy-based coffee, and one new addition – batch-brewed coffee.
Since winning the 2015 milk-based coffee champion trophy, Justin Mellors of MFC Roasters says he hasn’t been overwhelmed by autographs or selfie requests, but his business has enjoyed a heightened profile.
“Winning has been a very rewarding and humbling experience. It’s definitely opened doors for MFC Roasters,” Justin says. “The awards are great for brand recognition, but more than that it gives roasters the chance to benchmark their coffees against hundreds of others peers, and it allows the marketplace to raise the quality of coffee collectively. The more people who submit their coffees, the greater Australia’s coffee roasting identity will become.”
Justin says entering the AICA is also a great learning curve for roasters and a way to test flavour parameters.
“I remember the first year I sent through a few of my coffees which I thought were fantastic, but one in particular scored poorly by the judges to my surprise. But it did help me make improvements. That’s really what roasters like myself and the market as a whole need from AICA if we want Australian coffee at the forefront.”
For Justin, the recognition keeps coming. As an AICA winner MFC Roasters was invited to be RASV’s feature coffee producer at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show in Melbourne from 19 – 29 September. On display for the public to enjoy were MFC Roasters’ gold-medal-winning Capital Roast, and 2015 Champion Trophy-awarded Organic Roast.
“We were nervous and excited of the opportunity, but the coffees tasted better than I could have imagined,” he says.
One roaster who knows only too well about performing to high standards is Gavin Gam of Aroma Coffee in Marrickville, New South Wales. For the second year in a row Gavin collected the award for Champion Australian Roaster and Champion Filter coffee.
“Being awarded roaster of the year by my peers in such prestigious competition makes the hard yards all the more worth while, and helps keep me inspired in my role,” Gavin says. “I’m so passionate about our finished product, the relationships we establish and giving back at origin, so [winning an AICA] award has been another way of showing my gratitude to all our sustainable business trading partners for their years of dedication.”
Aroma Coffee has entered many roasting competitions in the past but Gavin says he’s found the AICA platform to be one of the best because of its unbiased and impartial nature of judging.
“The AICA competition is extremely dedicated and centred around the Melbourne International Coffee Expo [MICE], an international coffee exhibition with credibility and prestige that lends credence to entering into this competition,” he says.
AICA is a partner event of the 2016 Melbourne International Coffee Expo, taking place from 13 – 17 March 2016.
Application entries are open now and close on 6 February 2016.
