Dove Chen of Hamilton’s Grey Roasting Co. has been crowned the first Aotearoa Brewers Cup champion since 2017, marking the return of the competition to the New Zealand national coffee competition calendar.
Taking place over Friday 1 and Saturday 2 May, Dove secured the title with an outstanding 509 points in the final. He will now go on to represent Aotearoa in Bogotá, Colombia at the World Brewers Cup in from 30 September to 2 October 2027.
Dove is a former Aotearoa Barista Champion, winning in 2017 and 2019, as well as winning the 2024 Aotearoa Cup Tasters Championship.
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Three days of competition culminated in the holding of the Aotearoa Cup Tasters Championship on Sunday 3 May, with Founder of Eternal Coffee, YJ Huang, showcasing impressive speed and accuracy under pressure to claim the title.
In the opening round, YJ correctly identified a perfect eight out of eight triangulations in six minutes and 52 seconds.
In the final, he correctly identified seven out of eight triangulations in a rapid two minutes and 53 seconds.
YJ has a strong history in national coffee competitions, having finished second in the Aotearoa Barista Championship in 2022, and third in the 2024 Aotearoa Cup Tasters Championship.
He will now go on to represent New Zealand at the 2027 World Cup Tasters Championship, with dates and locations for the event yet to be confirmed at the time of writing.
