Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) Australian Brewers Cup Champion Heath Dalziel is preparing for the 2018 World Brewers Cup, to be held in Brazil from 7 to 9 November.
Heath, of Third Time Lucky, won the National Brewers Cup title in March at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo.
He is currently in Canberra, training with 2017 World Brewers Cup runner-up Sam Corra. He has also worked with 2014 Australian Brewers Cup Champion Devin Loong, and 2015 World Barista Champion and Ona Coffee Founder Sasa Sestic.
Heath says he will carry on the themes from his National routine but will expand on them even further.
“I talked a lot about colours at Nationals and that’s a strong theme in this presentation as well. The way that I’m applying it to my coffee is kind of different and it’s very well tied into everything,” he says.
Heath compares the development of his routine to the escalating levels of the competition circuit.
“I like to think of the whole process of competing as building [over time] and each time I don’t want to just do what I did before. It needs to be a development,” he says.
Still in his first year of competition, Heath feels he’s learnt to become more organised in his preparation and to not get overwhelmed.
“I try to make sure that I keep my training very productive,” Heath says. “If I’m having a bad day, sometimes I’ll just put the tools down rather than keep getting frustrated. And if I’m having a really good day, sometimes I’ll also put the tools down while I’m ahead.”
Heath can’t reveal too much about the coffee he is using, but hints that it’s sourced from Panama and tastes delicious.
“It’s the most amazing and complex coffee I’ve ever tasted, with a wider spectrum of fruits than I have ever seen in once cup,” Heath says.
Heath became involved in competitions through Third Time Lucky’s connection to Ona Coffee, who encouraged him to compete and trained him.
“You can’t understate that relationship. There’s just so much information and so much experience. Wading through all of this without them, I wouldn’t even know where to start,” he says.
“When I need help with something, I can trust them to help steer me in the right direction.
“It is really good learning from them because they’re not just force feeding me information, there’s a lot of nudging me in the right direction to find [the answers] myself.”
Heath will spend the rest of the week with the Ona team in Canberra before flying to Brazil on 2 November.
“I’m really happy with the concepts I’ve got. I know what to say, and I’m becoming very natural with it,” he says.
“I’ll be ready by the time I get on the World stage.”
