The New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association (NZSCA) has crowned Alan Bruce of Flight Coffee Roasters and Hoony Chae of Mojo Coffee as its new Cup Tasters and Latte Art Champions in competitions held on 3 and 5 May.
In the final round of the NZ Cup Tasters Championship, held at Ozone Coffee Roasters in Auckland, Alan sored a perfect 8/8 in 2.07 minutes.
Anna-Lise Mornard-Stott of Ripe Coffee Roasters placed second, Ewan Kim of L’affare placed third, and 2016 NZ Cup Tasters Champion Takahito Koyanagi of Toasted Espresso rounded out the finalists.
Read more:
• Dove Chen of Grey Street Kitchen wins 2019 NZ Barista Championship
• MJ Kim of Shamble Coffee Brewers wins 2019 Cup Tasters Championship
• Jibbi Little wins Australian Latte Art Championship
The 2019 NZ Latte Art Championship was held two days later at La Marzocco Auckland, where Hoony took the title.
Reigning champion Leo Li of Newbie Café placed second and HoJun Sung of Grey Street Kitchen placed third.
Alan and Hoony will represent NZ at the World Coffee Championships in Berlin, Germany from 6 to 8 June, where they will go up against Australian representatives MJ Kim of Shamble Coffee Brewers and Jibbi Little of Jibbijug, respectively.
For more information, visit www.nzcra.org.nz
Image credit: Yuki Zheng