During my trip to Guatemala I had the pleasure of competing in the World Cold Brew Championships (hosted by Toddy).
The was an amazing competition and lots of fun to take part in. On day one we had ten minutes prep time. I used 100g of Hacienda Sonora to 1.7 litres water. http://www.sonoracoffee.com/home Piramide Fermentation which is a Centroamericano varietal. Hacienda Sonora currently works with more than 20 varietals and several unique processing methods. The farm has been in the Guardia family for more than 100 years but has focused exclusively on specialty coffee since 1999. We have worked with these guys many times over the years and their coffee is synonymous with quality Costa Rican lots worldwide.
Using the Toddy essential brewer ( I enjoyed using it so much, they are now available on our website)
A medium/slightly coarse grind was selected and the coffee was then refrigerated for 24 hours. Competitiors had the option to leave it at room temp or to make a concentrate for the following day.
The rules are fairly relaxed compared with other competitions but you need to make a coldbrew and a specialty drink/cocktail.
I had one small issue, upon travelling I didn’t bring glassware or any tools for presenting. Up steps Christian from Unitrade http://unitradecoffee.com who was our host for the trip. Himself and Nico were THE most amazing hosts and their generosity was unbelievable. So I had glasses a Antigua Cerveza bottle to serve (Cerveza is a native beer in Guate).
To prepare the coldbrew was easy enough as described above although this exact ratio I hadn’t tried previously. The specialty drink was a little different. I had bought and brought with me an ice cube mould in the shape of small coffee beans and 100g of Cascara again from the same tree and farm (Hacienda Sonora).
I made a syrup of 100g cascara to 100ml water this was steeped for 5 minutes to concentrate and then frozen in the mould overnight.
The first day of the PRF (producer roaster forum) I met Jorge Mendez a farmer form Finca La Apiario also known as the Honey Bee Farm. His honey is called coffee blossom honey https://youtu.be/2hjQmTDgXwE?si=w5w0L7bVRBJZ9p7- and I was so inspired by him his story and his amazing product that I wanted to somehow include it in the drink.
So I erm *borrowed an ice bucket from my hotel and some spoons and set off on day 2 to compete.
The competition was well organised and lots of fun to take part in. I was really happy with how the drink turned out the coldbrew had notes of orange fruits, muted acidity due to its 24 hours brewing which was perfect. Stewed peach, apricot, candy cotton and a huge honey note 🙂
The presentation went really well and I had the guys from my sourcing trip pumping up the crowd 😂😂
So onto my specialty beverage * Honey Blossom Cascara. I used the same coldbrew but added 5g of frozen cascara syrup to each drink and asked the judges to add their own honey (in case they didn’t like it). I managed to place 4th overall which I was genuinely delighted with. This is something I would definitely do again.
Brew Recipe
100g Hacienda Sonora Centroamericano Piramide Fermentation
1.7 litres of water
Med/Coarse grind on Fellow
Brewtime 24 hours
Specialty * Coffee Blossom Cascara
Add 5g of frozen Cascara Syrup
Coffee Blossom Honey
