The Golden Bean 2022 - From the Inside

In the world of coffee there's a lot which goes on behind closed doors. From sourcing and buying to sample roasting and cupping - all necessary, but some of these activities are more glamorous than others! In reality, customers only see the very tip of the iceberg. But there's a whole other world behind the curtain of the golden brew. Let's take a peak behind that curtain at the Golden Bean 2022, the 'World's Largest Coffee Roaster Competition' with Dom, who represented White Horse at this year's event as a guest judge. Enter Dominick Majdandzic, White Horse's Head of Coffee.

DOM: The Australian specialty coffee scene is blessed to have its own roasting competition. It's an annual event that draws hundreds of entrants - this year we had 800! The Format It's a simple format: coffee roasting companies from around Australia submit their best coffees, and they're judged by a broad representation of players in the coffee game. From roasting professionals, milk industry workers, coffee machinery specialists and other coffee industry-associated trades to ensure a wide and varied judging panel. Last year the Golden Bean invited roasters from New Zealand, and this year they have started to include Chinese, Korean and most Asian countries into the competition. So what was just 'Australia' is now very much 'Australasia'. I suppose it makes winning a medal all that more prestigious! Let’s get technical! For those technically minded out there, the espresso is judged using a basic 20g dose 40g yield recipe and milk drinks are 6 ounce in size. The filter coffee is brewed at a 6 gram of coffee to 100g of water ratio. These brewing standards are the basics for coffee brewing whether it be espresso machine based or filtered style. The aim is to maintain an even playing field for entrants to showcase their coffee roasting prowess. Personal Reflections There aren't many coffee roasting competitions with international reach, so I personally feel blessed that White Horse has the unique opportunity to benchmark what we do against the best roasters in Australia, New Zealand and the World. The Australasian Golden Bean competition has been so successful that it has now started an American branch, a very exciting development! I can honestly say, in the few years I've been attending and judging the Golden Bean the quality of coffees competing has consistently increased. This is consistent with the idyllic goal of Sean Edwards, founder of the Golden Bean, to raise the quality of the coffee drinking experience in Australia, and now the World. All the more evidence that we Australians did not invent the cafe experience, but we’re perfecting it! In 2022, White Horse Coffee proudly won the following medals:

Silver Medals White Knight Espresso Blend - Milk Based Ethiopia Worka Chalbesa - Pour Over Filter Panama Auromar Firestone Geisha - Elite Green Bean Bronze Medals Christmas Blend - Milk Based White Knight Espresso Blend - Super Automatic Espresso Ethiopia Worka Chalbesa - Espresso Short Black A huge shoutout to the full team at White Horse Coffee for all the hard work that goes into sourcing and roasting these award-winning beans!