Stephen Leighton UK Brewers Cup semifinals
Last week I was in conversation with Stephen Leighton, green been buyer, coffee roaster, head of Has Bean, author of Coffeeography.
What I did not know and only stumbled upon last night, was that Stephen Leighton was a semifinalist in the SCA UK Brewers Cup last year.
Had I known, I would have asked him to brew me a coffee.
Stephen Leighton did something very strange, he did not use Geisha, which most do, he used, I would hate to describe it as an ordinary coffee, and certainly not an inferior coffee, he did not pop down to the local Costa or tax-dodging Caffe Nero and ask for some coffee beans, or order over-roasted catering supply coffee from Stokes, he used a perfectly acceptable Brazilian coffee.
Is that not what the Brewers Cup should be about, a skilled barista challenging us all to obtain the best from a coffee that we may actually buy in the real world? Showcasing the skills of the barista not showcasing the coffee?
Last year, I tried what Martin Hudak used to win Coffee in Good Spirits, I had the beans, goes with out saying Geisha, and wooed people with the beans. A coffee that was in very short supply and retailed at around £200 per kilo.
Stephen Leighton was therefore taking a risk, he knew he was taking a risk, but he was also making a point, mere mortals do not drink Geisha, they do not come across Geisha in coffee shops, though I did at Just Made 33, mere mortals in speciality coffee shops are served excellent coffee, but not Geisha.
Should the Brewers Cup not be about brewing, rewarding innovation, it is not a Cup of Excellence judging a coffee.
I had a message I needed to share with the world. I love coffee and I love barista competition, but I regret the way that the competition has become a Geisha show, using caricature coffees that have no resemblance to the coffees that our customers drink at home. Coffee is multi faceted and has so many things it can give us.
So decided to make a presentation about this and used what I described in my presentation as an unexciting Brazil, a pulp natural that’s grown at 1100 to 1250 masl and is a yellow bourbon varietal from Fazenda Cacheoria in Sao Paolo state on the border of Minas Gerias.
Quite a risk to bring this coffee to a Brewers Cup competition, but after a lot of thought I decided actually not. There’s a clue in the name, Brewers Cup. It’s about brewing coffee, not airfreighting in micro lots from around the world that show off, I know, I’ve done that in the past, but it should be about making three drinks and ensuring predictable, intended, outcomes. Brazil’s are perfect for this, with a huge window of brewing opportunity. It is much easier to work with than Geisha or a Kenyan, so it would be actually easier for me to hit my brewing parameters and give the judges a delicious cup of coffee. It’s extractable and predictable.
I’ve worked with his farm for 14 years, slowly and surely increasing our volumes. I did some quick sums and and I’ve bought over 150 tonnes of this coffee in my time at Hasbean. I’ve brewed this coffee more than any other, and drink buckets of the stuff while I’m banging out emails. It’s my go to coffee, I know it inside out. I’ve also worked out that in the last 14 years my customers have probably brewed around 10 million cups of this coffee. There has to be something in it right ? It has to be a good brewed coffee if we have sold so much of it and have such customer demand. They love it for the same reasons, easy to brew extractable, predicable outcomes and simple descriptors that anyone can get.
Rebellion, rocking the boat, never goes down well with judges. Stephen Leighton sadly did not make it to the finals.
The judges criticised his workflow, failure to explain use of Chemex.
I saw nothing wrong with workflow. He added a fourth Chemex to allow him to pace his workflow, and avoided the need to pause (always an awkward pause as what to do?). It was also an innovation to have a fourth Chemex, allowing the audience to taste what he had brewed. Maybe that was seen as an affront by the judges.
He delved into some depth on why he was using the Chemex.
I’m using Chemex as this is how I brew at work and at home. I love Chemex for the unique cup profile and the aesthetically pleasing design. Its also according to Ian Fleming the choice of brewer of James Bond, and who can argue with 007? It also gives a clean sweeter lighter cup removing lots of suspended solids with its thick paper filters which is perfect for a normally thick gloomy pulped natural Brazil, making it lighter and cleaner while retaining its inherent sweetness and tasting notes.
There was innovation on the water, half bottled, half tap water. Innovation no bloom. Innovation on the pouring.
There is a reason for allowing the coffee to bloom, it allows the CO2 to escape, aids the extraction, or so the theory runs and yet Stephen Leighton says it makes no difference.
A V60 and a Chemex, we see pouring in a circular motion. Not here.
I have seen similar in Athens, when Manos Mamatis, Coffee in Good Spirits World Championship No 2 poured me a V60 at The Underdog, a very narrow stream of hot water directed at the centre, a technique pioneered by World Champion Barista Stefanos Domatiotis of Taf.
The Brazilian coffee used a yellow bourbon varietal from Fazenda Cacheoria in Sao Paolo state on the border of Minas Gerias is from a producer featured in Coffeeography.
Last year Dale Harris Director of wholesale at Hasbean won the World Barista Championships.
Hasbean will be opening a pop up coffee shop in Brick Lane for the duration of the London Coffee Festival (12–15 April 2018).
