Nashville Coffee Champs 2020 Roundup

Hey y’all!

Chris here, fresh off a weekend in Nashville for the US Coffee Champ Qualifiers to compete in the US Brewers Cup. I presented a washed Ethiopia Sidama from the Horizon Farm of Arfasa General Trading brewed with the Origami Dripper. I love that thing — it takes flat-bottom filters like the Kalita, which helps ensure that the bottom of the coffee bed doesn’t get over-extracted. It’s got a large opening in the bottom (kind of like the V60) that keeps flow rate fast, giving consistent brew times. And, it’s got grooves in it that keep the filter from shifting during the brew process.

In my presentation, the main theme was getting out of the way of the coffee. What does that mean?

In preparation for competition, I tried a lot of experimental techniques: grinding twice, grinding from frozen, extremely tight ratios with tons of bypass water, and five minute bloom times... I would have loved for something to jump out at me as a super special ace-in-the-hole, but I realized that these things weren’t worth the extra work and ended up with a simple recipe:

20g coffee, 300g water

0:00 | 60g bloom

0:30 | Pour to 100g

1:00 | Pour to 200g

1:30 | Pour to 300g

Everything ends in zero. I love the idea of being able to tell someone a recipe that they could memorize and recreate at home. The producer grew and processed an amazing coffee, and our roaster Dean did tons of work behind-the-scenes getting the coffee ready. I didn’t need to do anything especially creative to get a great result, so I decided to double-down on keeping the complexity of the brew process low.

Some other gear I brought to competition:

• Acaia Pearl Scales LINK

  • The industry standard at this point — hard to beat.

• Fellow Stagg EKG Kettle LINK

  • Really beautiful kettle — aesthetically and performance-wise. I wish I had brought two, because I had to fill it all the way and had some hot water dripping from the top.

• Hario Cube Pour-Over Stand LINK

  • The Orgami comes with a little wood circle stand, but it feels pretty unstable. I liked using the Cube, but they’re a little big for both traveling and fitting on the scales. Also, definitely get the black ones instead of clear. As soon as a drop of coffee hits the clear it’s really obvious that it’s dirty!

• Custom Mugs from Box Sparrow LINK

  • Really, really amazing mugs made by Abbie Preston at Box Sparrow. Their shape helps amplify the aroma of the coffee

• Black Dosing Jars LINK

  • These dosing jars are really useful. You pull the top of them and ground coffee falls into your brewer. It really helps with keeping everything clean and to keep your coffee bed fluffy before brewing. A fluffy bed helps ensure that the bloom water hits all the grounds quickly.

Didn’t get the result we were hoping for, but I had a ton of fun reconnecting with some of our friends in the industry and gaining experience for next time. Competition is addicting! Also, check these photos from the USLAC Activation events/booth with Slow Pour Supply, Rancilio, and Ivy Lky):