The best coffee roasting businesses were awarded on 25th November at the 12th annual Golden Bean Roaster’s Competition and Conference. The pirate-themed awards evening at the Westport Club was filled with fun as everyone had to muster their inner Jack Sparrow.
The annual conference was held at Rydges Hotel Port Macquarie and the competition received a record number of contestants. Over 200 entries from Australian & New Zealand, and 1,402 top quality coffees were judged through a blind tasting format, in 10 different categories and brew methods.
As the largest roasting competition in the world, some of the best baristas and bean experts converged to showcase their skills during the four-day long affair. Many industry legends and professionals were present to oversee the process. The coffees are across the categories of espresso, milk and filter.
Knocking off hundreds of other entries to claim top position, ONA Coffee from Canberra was named the 2017 Golden Bean Australia Overall Champion having entered truly exceptional coffees in the Espresso, Milk and Filter categories.
Zest Specialty Coffee Roasters took home the honour of being the First Runner Up and Coffee Snobs won Second Runner-Up.
Foodco – Jamaica Blue took out the overall Large Franchise/Chain Store award whilst the Espresso Room claimed the Small Franchise award for the second time.
Here’s the list of the Gold Medal winners:
- Espresso: ONA Coffee – Finca Deborah
- Milk-Based Latte: Patio Coffee Roasters – Ethipiano Sidamo Areka
- Pour Over Filter: Zest Specialty Coffee Roasters – Ethiopian Suke Quto
- Australian/NZ Grown: High Trees Estate – Premium Single Estate Organic
- Organic Espresso: The Vertue of the Coffee Drink – Guatemala Renanciamento
- Single Origin Espresso: Boston Bean Coffee Company – Odyssey Yirgacheffe Konga
- Decaffeinated: Nat’s Coffee – Indo Blend Decaf
- Chain Store/Franchise Espresso: White Mojo – Gawain
- Chain Store/Franchise Milk Based: Mantle & Moon – Super Nova 2.0 & Tulip Shi – Tulip Shi Cafe
- Chain Store/Franchise Filter: Roasting Australia – Gloria Jeans Colombia
Castaway Food Packaging has been one of the major Golden Bean sponsors for the last seven years. Participants were delighted with the free boat ride around Port Macquarie’s River while enjoying a delicious buffet of seafood.
This year’s Golden Bean was also the perfect venue to launch our new Coffee Bags as the event hosted several educational seminars to a captive audience of coffee roasters and suppliers. It provided a valuable opportunity for roasters to network with each other and form bonds within the industry.
