Alan Bruce, Eric Sugandi, Renee Cooper, Woohung Lee (L-R) photo credit Yuki Zhang
It was a hot Friday night on 28 February 2020 at Ozone Coffee Roasters in Auckland where 29 coffee cuppers from around New Zealand competed to win the New Zealand Cup Tasters Champion for 2020. They quickly slurped their way through eight triangulations of delicious coffee. With amazing slurping and tasting, the scores were tight. The leaderboard was steady as times got quicker.
The top four were Alan Bruce, Flight Coffee, in Wellington, Cup Tasters Champion of 2019; Woohyung Lee, Camper Coffee, Auckland and first-time cuppers, Renee Cooper of Sublime Coffee in Nelson and Eric Sugandi of Flight Coffee Roasters in Wellington.
The final announcement was tense as each cup was revealed. Alan seemed to pull ahead but it could be anyone’s game in this competition of taste.
With a score of 7/8 in 2.13 minutes, our Champion for the second year in a row, Alan Bruce of Flight Coffee Roasters in Wellington is off to Warsaw, Poland to represent New Zealand!
Runner up is Eric Sugandi, also from the Flight Coffee team in Wellington.
Third Place is Renee Cooper of Sublime Coffee in Nelson.
And rounding out the final in fourth place is the legendary Woohyung Lee, Camper Coffee, Auckland.
Congratulations to everyone involved! We are so proud of you all for stepping up and there are obviously some great palettes in New Zealand coffee.
Our volunteers were quality. Thank you for all your help. We could not run this event without you.
Thanks to all our amazing sponsors and especially Ozone Coffee Roasters for hosting.
Good luck in Poland, Alan Bruce!
All our cuppers:
Kaiqi Qiu, Aoraki Coffee Roasters, Waikato
Daisy Dong, Aoraki Coffee Roasters, Waikato
Cameron Hoogervorst, Vivace Espresso, Christchurch
Takahito Koyanagi, Toasted Espresso, Auckland
Anne-Lise Mornard-Stott, Ripe Coffee Company, Petone
Sam Miller, Hummingbird Coffee, Christchurch
Veronica Maughan, L’affare, Wellington
Ewan Kim, L’affare, Auckland
Renee Cooper, Sublime Coffee, Nelson
Alan Bruce, Flight Coffee, Wellington
James Gilling, Ozone Coffee, New Plymouth
Christy Oakenfull, Ozone Coffee, Auckland
Bernadette Zantman, Mojo Coffee Cartel, Auckland
Richard Poole, Mojo Coffee Cartel, Wellington
Kazuki Hanyuda, Archie Cafe, Auckland
Krisse McGregor, Coffee Lab, Auckland
YJ Huang, Independent, Auckland
Lucas Sidow de Campos, Emporio Coffee, Wellington
Angus Lin, Story Coffee, Auckland
May Chen, Story Coffee, Auckland
Heesun Lee, Atomic Coffee Roasters, Auckland
Casey Keane, Atomic Coffee Roasters, Auckland
Giancarlo Miggiano, Third Eye Coffee, Napier
Woohyung Lee, Camper Coffee, Auckland
Jamie Brown, Camper Coffee, Auckland
Eric Sugandi, Flight Coffee Roasters, Wellington
Jassher Clayton, Camarosa, Hamilton
Rick Millen, Castaway, Auckland
Thank you to our sponsors: Ozone Coffee, AMC Roastery Supply NZ, Cafetto, Marco via L’affare, Acme & Co, Castaway and venue host Ozone Coffee Roasters.