Coming off the back of her first nationals win at the 2019 Australian Brewers Cup in February, Yanina Ferreyra of Project Origin travelled to Boston determined to do her best in her first World Championship.
Going to the World Brewers Cup (WBrC) in April at the Specialty Coffee Expo in the United States, Yanina felt a combination of nerves and excitement backstage as there was a lot of competitors.
Yanina didn’t know what to expect, and tells BeanScene she was amazed by the competition as a whole and enjoyed every moment.
“There are big names in the coffee competition world. It’s exciting to back yourself against the best people in the industry,” she says.
The WBrC highlights the craft of filter coffee brewing by hand, promoting manual coffee brewing, and service excellence. The competition sees competitors prepare and serve three individual beverages for a panel of judges. Consisting of two rounds, competitors complete a compulsory and open service routine.
Read more:
• Yanina Ferreyra places ninth in 2019 World Brewers Cup
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• Matthew Lewin reflects on WBC journey
For Yanina’s open service, she used a Geisha coffee produced by Jamison Savage of Finca Deborah in Panama. During her routine Yanina spoke about the complexity of the coffee, which she named ‘Opal.’
Using a thermometer, Yanina demonstrated to the judges what happens to the flavour of the coffee as it reaches a new temperature.
“I wanted to have as much complexity within the flavour as possible and really push the boundaries with the profile,” Yanina says.
“When you drink a coffee, you experience different textures and I really wanted to have more control over what was happening to the coffee, at what stage, and why.”
The flavours have to hit at certain times, so nothing gets lost when tasting,” she says.
The correlation to the gemstone was shown within the variety of colours that change between the different temperatures, from hot to warm and again from warm to cold.
“In between stages there were transition periods where you would find the flavours crossing over, when hot to warm the temperature would read 47°C to 45°C and when cool the temperature falls to 38°C to 36°C,” Yanina says.
While hot, the blue flavours resembled blackberries and dark grapes. When warm, the flavours transitioned to green and yellow represent kiwi and pineapple, and while the coffee cools, red flavours reflected white peach and watermelon.
The open service round saw Yanina finish in the top four, scoring 80.9 points. In the compulsory round, Yanina scored 67.4. She finished her WBrC campaign with an overall score of 148.3, finishing in ninth place.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the results. There was a great atmosphere of excited coffee lovers wanting to try coffee and everyone was so helpful and friendly,” she says.
When reflecting on her performance, Yanina is confident she will continue competing she walked away happy with her delivery knowing what to work on when she competes in the Australia Specialty Coffee Associations’ Central Region Brewers Cup competition.
“Next time I will approach the compulsory round differently and really understand what the judges are looking for. I’ll continue to work on the connection with the consumer and keep developing more complex coffee with distinct flavour stories,” Yanina says.
Yanina adds that for any brewers looking to compete in high level competitions shouldn’t be deterred from experienced competitors, instead to use the opportunity to benchmark how far they can push themselves.
“There’s a moment of truth in competitions,” she says. “When you get mic’d up before going on stage it can be scary with adrenaline and excitement taking over. Practise helps build your confidence when presenting in front of judges.”
Yanina will share her journey from beginning in filter coffee to presenting on the world stage in a Road to Boston tour throughout May. For more information, click HERE.