World AeroPress Champs is THIS SATURDAY!
The ins, outs, ups, downs and words from the TWO NZ reps!
The World AeroPress Championship is happening this Saturday in Melbourne! Live from Bureaux Coffee.
This year’s event is going to be all virtual - due to some little bug that seems to be kicking around…
It’s the first time the WAC will be run like this - so, how does it work?
Virtual Pressing…
The national Champions from all around the world, as well as some lucky wildcards (more on that later), were sent a pack of competition coffee and asked to come up with a recipe. On the big day, a team of surrogate baristas will make the brew, taste and then judge a winner!
Third wave what?
Helping to even out the playing field, everyone has been sent ‘Third Wave Water’ - a mineral supplement to add to your tap water. Sounds strange, but it means that everyone, no matter where they are in the world, is using similar water with a similar mineral make up.
Given water makes up 99% of the final cup, it has a huge impact on the final taste!
Tough times force great innovation!
Live stream
Even though COVID-19 throws up it’s challenges, the cool thing about a virtual event is accessibility.
The prelims will be streamed on the WAC Instagram page from 4.15pm NZT.
The quarters, semis and finals will be all live streamed on the interwebicals, from 4:45pm NZT from the WAC website - just click the link below!
Things are going to happen fast! The winner will be announced at 7:30pm NZT!
Exciting.
Aotearoa has two (count it) reps!
Alex Escobar won the New Zealand AeroPress Champs this year and won the right to represent Aotearoa on the big stage.
But in a bit of a twist, An Nguyen, who got third in the New Zealand AeroPress Champs, will be joining Alex in lights, thanks to an awesome wildcard competition that the World AeroPress Champs team ran.
It was a ‘guess the beans’ competition, open to anyone in the world. And our very own An managed to get pretty close with his guess, and scored an entry along with Yuki Saito from Canada, and Federico Ciamberlini from Ireland.
For the record, there are 1167 coffee beans in that AeroPress!
How are our boys feeling?
I had a yarn with our amazing reps ahead of the big competition! Check out their amazing words below!
TMR: What’s better than one? Two! GET IN! It’s amazing that we are going to have two competitors at this years World AeroPress Champs.
Firstly An, how excited are you right now? What cosmic forces dud you draw on for the successful guess?
An: Yes, I'm still buzzing. Kenyan coffee got picked quite often in the past competition, so I went with it to fill up the AeroPress to count. Pretty lucky though.
TMR: Lucky? Na, it looks like you’ve used some expert knowledge there! Awesome. Alex, now that you’ve had a chance to let your win sink in, how are you feeling about the big dance?
Alex: Feeling pretty good. There a lot that feels different with the WAC, but mostly just excited and privileged to be a part of it.
I would have love to meet the other competitors in person. But I have been able to connect with a few on social media and chat with them. There seems to be a collective excitement and support around the WAC.
TMR: The excitement is definitely building in my household (or, at least with me!). What preparation are y’all doing in the lead up?
Alex: For a while there wasn’t too much prep I was doing before the competition beans came in. I was experimenting a bit with different brew ideas and ways to simplify it. Not knowing what the beans were going to taste like or exactly how the virtual competition was going to work was a challenge. A bit of a waiting period.
But then all of a sudden more info came out around the competition and beans came in and it was go time!
TMR: Shot! What’s your approach to coming up with your brew recipe, and what elements from your NZAC brew are you taking into this? Is there a balance to be struck with coming up with a great tasting cup, and a cup that is easily replicated by the judges on the floor?
An: It has to be straightforward, easy to follow as someone will replicate your recipe. My game plan so far is to keep it simple, and I’m definitely using a bypass method with water dilution [at the end of the brew].
Hard to tell [where the balance is] - a great-tasting cup depends on how everyone like it but in terms of a great recipe, I really enjoy the " long steep AeroPress recipe " of Johnathan Gagné - never had a bad brew so far!
Alex: I am definitely changing up my recipe approach. There are a lot restrictions on how to brew or what you can use for your brew. It’s very simple which means I had to find a way to make the best cup I could within the limitations.
I experimented a lot with the water options mixing the different Third Wave Water mixes with distilled water. Was a great learning curve that opened some more possibilities and understanding of coffee and water. I also had fun learning and measuring the accuracy of my new Mahlkonig x54 grinder. I took some time getting to know my grinder and how it would compare to the competition grinder.
We always knew we would have surrogate baristas not exactly sure how it would work. Once we find out it would only be a few baristas, you really had to not only think about how to make a good brew but if your recipes could be followed at first glance. I started considering things like if there is enough time between each step to read the next step or is it worth sacrificing a better recipe for one that is easier to follow. It feels like a whole new game in some ways.
TMR: It sounds like a bit of mental gymnastics is required for a virtual event like this. It really adds a new and different element to this. Any tips that you can give people if they’re heading into something like this?
Alex: Oh man, I don’t know if there will be other completions like this. Feels unique year being virtual but by no means should be the normal.
For a virtual WAC the best advice I could give be as clear and simple as you can with your recipe, learn to let go of control, and remember to have fun. At the end of the day, the new challenges provided a new dynamic of competing that I have really enjoyed. Just because it’s not the ideal doesn’t mean we can’t find joy in the different.
Amazing words from the two legends representing New Zealand on the world stage!
All the best to the An and Alex, and to everyone competition! Check out their instagram pages to see how the final goes down:
Keep an eye out for a wrap up in a few weeks!
Wait - who got 2nd in the NZAC? Did you miss someone?!
With a gold and a bronze, there must be a silver right? Damn straight!
Bill Rathsamy took out the silver medal at the New Zealand AeroPress Champs.
Bill was in the throws of moving his life to move to Auckland in the wake of the NZAC, and to everyone’s sadness, we weren’t able to include his thoughts in the last blog.
As is the accessibility of the AeroPress, Bill is another home brewer, and an admirer and support of the coffee industry, especially local New Zealand roasters!
Like many people who try out the AeroPress champs, Bill found it really appealing from the perspective of a home-brewer.
In Bill’s words:
“It's got such a rad and supportive atmosphere that keeps me coming back for more. It's also so rad seeing so many different recipes and techniques being used to produce that perfect cup of joe.”
You know I asked Bill what is silver medal brew was, so here it is in all its glory.
Bill Rathsamy - second place
This is epic bro. Thank you, for bringing this information to light for us. I learn't heaps from this, I didn't even know that the wild card contest was run like that through Instagram. So good!
I love the interview style articles - they are super great. More of those please!