Ep 01: "It's a YES!!" | WCC Podcast
This week, we’re excited to launch the first episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast.
“It’s a YES!!” traces the history and evolution of the World Cup Tasters Championship through stories about rule-breakers, phone calls home mid-competition, and backstage ballet. Co-hosted by Gloria Pedroza, 2006 World Cup Tasters Champion and long-time WCE Judge and competition organizer, this episode features interviews with Alf Kramer, Kim Staalman, José Joaquín Ordoñez, and Chloe King.
Special Thanks to Our Series Sponsor, Victoria Arduino
This series of the WCC Podcast is brought to you by Victoria Arduino. Born in the early twentieth century amid social and cultural transformation, Victoria Arduino broke with tradition and focused on progress, a mission it carries forward today. Victoria Arduino advances coffee knowledge and innovates across design, technology, and performance to produce machines that nurture coffee professionals' passion for espresso excellence. For more information, visit victoriaarduino.com. Victoria Arduino: Inspired by your passion.
Special Thanks to Our Episode Sponsor, DaVinci
This episode of the WCC Podcast is made possible with support from DaVinci. With its heritage in specialty coffee and expertise in trends and menu innovation, DaVinci is the beverage brand of choice for the foodservice professional. Their product range is designed to provide end-to-end solutions and support specialty coffee professionals in their mission to create inspirational beverages. Follow us at DaVinci Europe, DaVinci North America, or using #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
We’d like to thank Gloria Pedroza, our co-host for this episode, and our interviewees for their time in sharing their stories about the World Cup Tasters Championship, in order of appearance: Alf Kramer, Kim Staalman, José Joaquín Ordoñez, and Chloe King. Thanks, too, to those Berlin park-goers who participated in our listening game!
For a full list of those who helped across the entire series, a year-long effort, click here. Series 01 of the World Coffee Championships Podcast was produced by James Harper of Filter Productions for the Specialty Coffee Association.
Full Episode Transcript
James Harper: So, welcome to the first episode of the World Coffee Championships podcast series! Today, we are exploring a story of Cup Tasters, and I'm joined by someone you may have seen before.
Gloria Pedroza: Hello, everybody. I'm Gloria Pedroza.
James Harper: Gloria, tell me: where are you right now? Because this is a COVID recording setup, like I'm going to do with all the cohosts.
Gloria Pedroza: Well, I'm based in Switzerland, in a small town called Zug, in the German speaking part of Switzerland.
James Harper: Zug! So, I live in Berlin, and “zug” is "train" in German.
Gloria Pedroza: I know, it's a funny name.
James Harper: Describe Zug. What’s Zug like?
Gloria Pedroza: Well, Zug is a tiny town, but it has a beautiful lake where you can see the mountains.
James Harper: Amazing. Gloria, tell us, what's your story?
Gloria Pedroza: I have all working my whole life in quality as a cup taster. I started my career in Guatemala where I was born, and then I came to Switzerland. Just shortly after I came, I won the World Cup Tasters Championship in 2006. That allowed me to get involved into different other activities like judging. So, I am a WCE sensory judge. James, you’re going to be the cohost of the next six episodes of this series?
James Harper: Mmhm.
Gloria Pedroza: So,
James Harper: Yeah,
Gloria Pedroza: Can you tell us: who are you?
James Harper: I'm a coffee professional, Italian-Australian. I have worked in coffee since 2015. I've managed to wholesale departments for specialty coffee roasters, done sales. And these days I'm a podcast producer and I have my own coffee podcast called Filter Stories, but most importantly, I have helped organize the coffee championships at a national level in Australia, and I was even a backstage manager a couple of times at the World Barista Championships.
And for this episode about Cup Tasters, I want to start with the sounds, when you're there in the audience and watching the announcements.
Gloria Pedroza: I'd love to hear that, but before that, we should thank the sponsors.
James Harper: Okay! So: the World Coffee Championships Podcast Series is supported by Victoria Arduino. Victoria Arduino advances coffee knowledge and innovates across design, technology, and performance to produce machines that nurture coffee professionals' passion for espresso excellence. You can learn more at victoriaarduino.com or give them a follow @victoriaarduino1905.
And today’s specific episode on the World Cup Taster's Championship is supported by DaVinci Gourmet. Follow them on Instagram at @davincigourmet_europe or by searching the hashtag #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
Freda Yuan: [Competition noises] It’s a yes for Daniel!
James Harper: So Gloria, imagine this: you're there at cup tasters and they're lifting up the cups and saying, you know, this person got it right, this person got it wrong.
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. I mean, it's really exciting,
James Harper: But you know, what's funny. I thought to myself, what would happen if someone was to hear this screaming and shouting as the results are announced, but I didn't tell them what was happening and they only heard it. So, one day what I did was I went down to my local park here in Berlin, and I played people audio from the Cup Tasters winners’ announcements.
Gloria Pedroza: And what did they say?
James Harper: Hi, excuse me. Um, I'm a radio producer and I'm going around asking everyone to play a very silly game where I have 20 seconds of audio in my speaker.
Park Interviewee 1: Yeah.
James Harper: I'm just asking people to guess what's happening in the audio. Would you like to play? Are you ok with me getting a bit closer?
Freda Yuan: I’m going to do cup seven for Josh first… it’s a—noooooooooo. This is exciting!
Park Interviewee 1: There's a lot of public and they're very excited. It was a word in English…
James Harper: French?
Park Interviewee 1: Concourant?
James Harper: A competition!
Park Interviewee 1: A competition between, the competition of, I don't know what.
Park Interviewee 2: It's a dog show.
Park Interviewee 3: It sounds more like UK bingo game.
Freda Yuan: Everyone has six cups right now.
Park Interviewee 4: It’s a strip show. With cups! With cups and strippers. [Laughs]
Park Interviewee 5: Could be a live sex show, even. I have no idea.
Freda Yuan: It’s a yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!
Park Interviewee 6: She’s going crazy.
Park Interviewee 7: It’s a marriage contest--“she said yes!”
James Harper: like, “she said, yes!” Like, you know, “will you marry me?”
Park Interviewee 7: Yeah!
Freda Yuan: Josh. It’s a yes for Josh!
Park Interviewee 8: Okay. I don’t know.
James Harper: Give up?
Park Interviewee 8: Yeah.
James Harper: Ok. It's a coffee competition.
Park Interviewee 8: A what? A coffee competition?
James Harper: Yeah, it's a coffee competition.
Park Interviewee 8: How can you make a coffee drinking competition? Like who drinks the fastest, or… ?
James Harper: No. So you have eight sets of coffee, and in each set you have three cups. Two are the same. One is different… [Recording fades out]
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. You know, I think on people that are not involved in this industry, they might, they think that we're crazy.
James Harper: Maybe we are crazy. I'll be crazy. I think we're crazy.
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine: didn't you play them the sounds of someone slurping? Because I think that would have been
James Harper: Ohhhh.
Gloria Pedroza: Much fun, more fun.
James Harper: That would have been great, because I learned that that's what the first competition actually sounded like.
Gloria Pedroza: Do you know who initiated this competition?
James Harper: I think we both knew who that was. A man called Alf Kramer?
Gloria Pedroza: Yes. Yes. Alf Kramer.
James Harper: So I spoke with him and I learned that the first competition wasn't even called “Cup Tasters.”
Gloria Pedroza: How was it called?
James Harper: “The cupping competition.” Let's see what Alf has to say.
Alf Kramer: My name is Alf Kramer. I am the founder of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe.
The story of the cupping competition goes back to Monte-Carlo in the late nineties. We lined up 12 coffees, asked people to taste and tell us what is what. Simple as that. And it was a total failure.
It was coffees from all over the world. The failure was that most of the people were familiar with their own coffees or with blends. They had never even tasted coffee from, let's say Uganda, before. So, there was could no way they could identify it. At the spectators’ point, it was extremely boring. It's like, you're looking at people drinking 12 coffees after each other, and then they have to wait for the next taster.
So, after a couple of years, we simply changed the event as such. I had some experience in sensory training, not just from coffee, but also from other products. In sensory training, the main thing is using a triangle test. Two identical cups and one’s different. And that was actually directly transferable to a competition arena.
Alf Kramer (pretending to be an Emcee): Good morning, everybody, there in the clouds, you are now watching three of the most celebrated cup tasters on the below.
Alf Kramer: So, I've been used to being an Emcee in a lot of things. So, I transferred that into coffee. And the idea is to make it exciting and to tell what's going on
Alf Kramer (pretending to be an Emcee): … from Guatemala—do you have any fans here in the crowd? Can I have some applause? Yeah!
Alf Kramer: Their reaction was excitement and a full audience. And then you take the two competitors forward with one cup each in the hand and ask them to lift. And have a countdown.
Cup Tasters Crowd: Five! Four! Three! Two! One!
Alf Kramer: And, after the countdown, lift the cup. And then you see that one of them is a winner. Then you discover suddenly that the best cupper never wins. The best cupper that day always wins, if you master your nerves, which is fair enough, that's what's real life is like.
James Harper: That's real life.
Gloria Pedroza: That's real life. I mean, no, on one hand, I confirmed that I was successful with the new version of the competition because it keeps your attention, eh?
And if you check all the rules and regulations of this competition, this is the one that has had less changes throughout the last years.
James Harper: Oh really?
Gloria Pedroza: And what he says about the, who, who wins the competition is the best cupper that day just makes me remind on how I prepared for the competition.
James Harper: Oh, really?
Gloria Pedroza: Yes, yes. I really did intensive training for that!
James Harper: Tell me what did that look like?
Gloria Pedroza: So, I remember here, we had like three, four runs per day. For two months before the world championship, I was here practicing with my colleagues and they were, the whole office was there. Like cheering up and making nice trying to distract me so that I learn to focus.
James Harper: Oh my goodness. That's such a level of commitment, that's, this is a team effort.
Gloria Pedroza: Yes. I think that. [Laughs]
James Harper: and you mentioned that the rules haven't really changed very much since they came out. So I want to take you to a specific rule. [Pages flip] Sorry. I’m just flipping now to page nine. Here. Look at this. There’s this rule here that reads: “Competitors must taste at least two of the three cups to determine the odd one out.”
Gloria Pedroza: Yes. You know, I mean, it seems, or for some it's obvious that if it's a cup tasting in championship, then you have to taste… But if you don't have very specific rules, then participants, eh? Can use the gray areas and override a little bit what it says.
James Harper: So, Gloria, I have a story about a time in 2011, where someone played in that gray area with cup tasters. And I spoke with Kim Staalman, a volunteer who was there.
Gloria Pedroza: Okay. I'm curious what happened?
Kim Staalman: So, my name is Kim Staalman and I work for the SCA as the community manager. In 2011, a World of Coffee took place in Maastricht, which is a city in the South of the Netherlands. Annemarie Tiemes, who was the national coordinator at that time, she said: “Kim, if you want to be a coffee professional, you need to volunteer at one of these events and it's coming to our country, so you have to go.”
So, I volunteered as someone behind the scenes at cup tasters, I was one of the runners who get to walk around with all the cups and put them in the right place on a stage.
I remember there was like a lot of energy in the air and a lot of focus and people being quite stressed.
Kim Staalman: I remember seeing this one competitor and yeah, it definitely, it seemed like they weren't tasting the coffees. They were sort of skimming over the cups and looking at them and then maybe smelling some and tasting some others, but not, what you would normally see, is tasting each flight and then making a decision and maybe going back and tasting again.
When the competitor had realized that they won, all the supporters went crazy, the competitor went crazy and he was running over the stage and screaming and standing on the table and thanking God, I believe? Yeah. I think everyone backstage was a little bit in shock and we're all looking at each other, like what is going on?
Like, is this is real? Is this even allowed? I think the competitors were also a little bit shocked, and probably a bit sad, because it doesn't seem like this is the main aim of the competition, being able to visually one cup from the other. I believe that one of the changes they made to the competition after this incident was make the cups black on the inside, so it's much more difficult to see the color of the coffee liquid.
After I volunteered in Maastricht, I think I was even more passionate about the whole coffee scene because I'd met wonderful people. Um, I started working as a trainer for the company I was working for at the time? And after that, I became a manager there and I also moved to London at some point to work in coffee. And then now many, many years later, I work for the SCA. And now I've gotten to the point where I sometimes lead the volunteers at these shows!
Gloria Pedroza: I remember before that happened in, in Maastricht, there was a similar, similar situation in the championship in 2010 in London.
James Harper: Oh yeah?
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. Well, because there was one guy that's always also smelling the coffee and just tasting one cup of each set.
James Harper: So, this was a, this was a worldwide problem?
Gloria Pedroza: It was a worldwide problem. Yes.
James Harper: So, let's talk about like cup tasters across the world, because you know, it’s happening in London, it's happening in, but also in many other countries and also in coffee producing countries.
Gloria Pedroza: I mean, I really liked the competition a lot because probably is the simplest competition. I mean, you don't need any equipment. So, it's just about your skills, the individual skills. So that opens the door for many other people to participate and be part of the community, you know. And, you know, cup tasting has been a very important profession and origin countries because they produce coffee. So, the cup tasters, the “cuppers,” they are the ones evaluating the quality. So, I have also observed that in the recent years, we have more and more cuppers from producing countries, participating at a World Cup Tasting Championship. This activity has more relevance for producing countries, I believe, because of what they do farming and checking the quality of the, of the real product. I remember when I started cupping, I mean, actually, nobody really cared about that, about that profession, or was maybe not even seen as a profession, you know?
James Harper: Oh, really?
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. I mean, and now, they really appreciate it.
James Harper: Speaking of appreciation, I spoke of a man from Colombia, José Joaquín Ordoñez, about that country's first big national, proper cup tasters event.
Gloria Pedroza: Is he also a producer?
James Harper: He is a producer. He was a son of a coffee grower.
Gloria Pedroza: That's really awesome.
James Harper: And, what I was told, the cup tasting competition he participated in, in 2015, it was huge. This was a party, and everyone in coffee in Colombia was invited.
Gloria Pedroza: Wow. For the national competition? Wow.
José Joaquín Ordoñez: Mi nombre is José Joaquín Ordoñez…
My name is Sebastian Diácono and I will be translating for José Joaquín. I was born in Bruselas, Pitalito, Huila, Colombia, I’m a proud son of a coffee grower. My dad has been a coffee grower his whole life.
Before the contest, I wouldn't say that I wasn't happy—because I'm a happy person—but I wasn't really in love being a coffee grower. And I think that's the thing that every son or daughter of a coffee grower could say, you know, because usually we learn that from our parents or our grandfathers, and we have seen how they have struggled so much and we don't want that.
I wanted to be an engineer, I wanted to go to university and study and be something different. But due to economic reason, I had to start working.
So, I started as a lab assistant in some companies here in Pitalito. So, I started to realize that I was, I was good in cupping, that I have some abilities in making profiles for the cup.
When I went to Cup Tasters in Colombia, it was mostly to compete with myself.
I got there, it was a big venue in Bogota. I wasn't that nervous at first, it was more than excitement, but when you get onstage, is like the worst feeling, like nervous, your hands are shaking. And you see next to you, and you see the other person the same as you?
The funny thing is that, uh, the only person with me was my mom, of course, at that time, like cupping in Colombia or a specialty coffee scene, wasn't that strong. So, I call my mom and say like, “Hey, I just passed the first round!” “Oh, okay.” Like, “good for you.” But she didn't understand like really good how important that was for our industry.
Every round I told her, like, “Mom, I did it, I did it!” And she was, of course, it's my mom excited, but… I knew that she didn't understand.
When I won, everyone's like crazy and everyone wanted to take a picture with me. I felt like a celebrity, was so weird. But then I call my mom and say like, “Hey mom, I won!” And she was like, “Oh, that's nice.” [Laughs] It was like a small contest with friends, maybe.
And when I came back to my town, my small town in Bruselas, and I remember my dad was looking at the paper, the biggest paper in our region say like, okay, Huila, which is our region, has the best cupper in Colombia. And my dad was like, “Hmm. So I guess that this kid actually did something great in Bogota.” So. Even for my family, it wasn't that big of a deal, but for the industry was, so it's like that gap between the specialty coffee and the consuming part at that time was big. Right now, is getting thinner and thinner.
It was crazy. I could say it was the best thing that ever happened in my professional life because I was a lab assistant and I wanted, and now everyone wanted to talk with me, work with me, coffee exporters, growers, companies that manufacture coffee equipment.
I would say, to end this, like how my life is right now. It's great. I have my family, my roasting business in Bruselas, with the farm. We are applying to have like a garden of different varieties from around the world. I have my coffee shop in Pitalito, and in the farm also, I am establishing a dry mill, so we can dry mill our own coffees and export them and also coffees from growers around us.
These kind of contests that are really important, not only for the cup tasers who can achieve something in their professional life, but also to the consuming part in a region, because it's telling people, “Hey, try this. Pay more for this, because it's worth it.”
Gloria Pedroza: So, you see, I can't imagine. I mean, in origin, I mean, even his parents did not really know how important his activity was.
James Harper: They had no idea! And they were coffee growers and they had no idea.
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah, exactly. So, I, I'm really happy to see that the producing countries are given a lot of support and importance to this competition. And you see, in his case, I know many other cases like that, once someone wins a competition like this, it opens the doors for many other opportunities within the industry, because their skills are being recognized and let's say validated, so to say.
James Harper: Yeah. So, Gloria, you’ve spent a fair amount of time running these competitions in Switzerland, right?
Gloria Pedroza: I enjoy that activity because the logistics behind the cup tasting championships are so challenging.
James Harper: What's it like backstage?
Gloria Pedroza: The work backstage is really intense and stressful, preparing the cups for the tasters. If you make a mistake, like filling up a cup with the wrong coffee, that puts in risk, like success, of the competition or that round.
James Harper: Tell me, Gloria. Have you ever got a cup wrong backstage?
Gloria Pedroza: Yes.
James Harper: Ah! What happened?
Gloria Pedroza: Well, it was at the Swiss Cup Tasters Championship here. Normally we have a list with the coffees we're going to fill in and I just read it wrong. So, I was filling up the odd cup with the wrong coffee.
James Harper: So, if you hadn't caught the mistake, what would have happened?
Gloria Pedroza: Well, that's difficult to say. Because if nobody would have noticed that mistake, there is no way to prove that a mistake happened.
James Harper: So, you're saying that if the mistake hadn't been caught, three cups of coffee-
Gloria Pedroza: it would have been the same.
James Harper: And so, competitors would have tried to distinguish a coffee that wasn't different, but they would have made a choice?
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah, they would have, because that's the competition. They have to make a choice, or they have to choose one.
James Harper: And they would've said, “this is the hardest round in the world, I couldn’t tell the difference!” And then someone will randomly get through and some people randomly don't get through.
Gloria Pedroza: Yes.
James Harper: Oh, that would have been a nightmare.
Gloria Pedroza: What happened also once, it was also at the Swiss Cup Tasting Championship, the competitor's finished already. So normally, when they finish, a runner comes and removes the they're not the odd cup, the right answer, but the other cups, and unfortunately, the runner removed the cup that the participant chose as the correct answer.
James Harper: Ohhhhhh. Oh no. So basically, they took away the right answer.
Gloria Pedroza: They took away the right answer.
James Harper: But how did that happen? Because there are three cups, right, in a row. And the odd cup out, they lift up and they put above a line. And so, then you see eight cups from the eight sets, and they're all above the line. And those are the selected cups, which are different.
Gloria Pedroza: Mmhm. But apparently like the cup was kind of on the line and the person, the helper did not really realize. It was one of the first rounds.
James Harper: Okay.
Gloria Pedroza: Yes, but in the end, we could not do anything. Unfortunately, it was not possible to identify which couple would have been the right one.
James Harper: No. So what happened then?
Gloria Pedroza: The participant was, um, he said, “it's okay.”
James Harper: What? “It's okay?”
Gloria Pedroza: Yeah. He just actually accepted to lose that point. I mean, yes.
James Harper: But that could have been the point that could have pushed them to win!
Gloria Pedroza: Yes, I know. I know. But, uh, he just said it because he didn't want to put the helper in a bad position, you know?
James Harper: Wow. That's so selfless. It's pretty selfless.
Gloria Pedroza: Yes, it is.
James Harper: Well, speaking of the stresses backstage, I spoke with a woman called Chloe King from America who has stage managed Cup Tasters nationally and internationally, and how that helped her in her career.
Gloria Pedroza: Oh, nice. That'd be interesting.
Chloe King: I'm Chloe King, I work at the Counter Culture training center in Charleston, South Carolina.
So, I teach people how to make coffee, I train baristas… but I also fix equipment doing maintenance. All that dirty greasy stuff. Before I got into coffee… So, I dropped out of high school. I didn't want to go to college or at least not yet, so I was like the front desk girl at a tattoo shop. I worked at Victoria's Secret selling bras and underwear.
And then I got a, got a job at a café. I learned all about coffee and I was like super obsessed with it, and then I got a job at a different café, and then it just kind of evolved from there, like being a barista, being a manager, being a trainer.
The first time I volunteered at a coffee competition was the SCA Expo when it was still the SCAA. I'm on the East coast of America and in Seattle's on the West coast, so I like had to do that whole trek, and I’d never been. And I was really scared, and I didn't know anyone coffee except for a handful of people. So, I was pretty much alone. And I remember I would like call people from back home and be like, “I don't know what to do! I'm nervous. I'm anxious.” And they would be like, just like, you know, “go talk to someone.” And I actually found some people that like were in a similar situation and we hung out and we had a really fun time. And I made so many friends that by the time I left, I was like, “I have to go back.”
About three to four years ago, the stage manager from Brewers Cup called me cause she knew that I had been hosting these triangulation events at the café I was working at and she said that I would be great for stage managing Cup Tasters. And she talked me into it, and I was really scared.
I remember I flew into Reno, which I had never been to. And I had some like altitude sickness too, so I was like out of it. I walked in and I just had this huge open room in a convention center, but my room was just completely empty. I had a pallet on the floor with a bunch of boxes taped together and keep in mind, like, I had never even seen this competition happen before, like in person. And they were like, you know, “here's a list of stuff. You can just go through this box and see what you have and just start to organize the room.” And I was like, “organize the room for what?” Like, I was like, so lost.
Because everyone else is so busy, you know, not to say that they just like threw me to the wolves, but you know, it was kind of like a test, I think.
So, I got super into it. I asked for advice. I was like, “what do people usually do?” You know, “does this look right?” At this time, we were using coffees from people who were just volunteering to give their coffee to us. And we had to create the triangulation based on that. So that's, you know, bins full of bags of coffees.
I think I spent a half of a day weighing out coffee. I remember I had like two long tables, just covered in Ziploc bags. Teaching volunteers is usually what happens that second day. It's a lot of, you know, we just, we get into our system, we brew the coffee. We pour it into cups a very specific time.
It's kind of like a dance, you know, like we're dancing around each other. The people outside only see like this one little thing and in the back, we’re like sweating. And there's a lot to sweat about, to put it into perspective. You basically have to recreate the front stage, like in the back. So, you have to set everything up like you would set it up upfront. You're running from table to table with these trays of hot coffee. And you're like almost bumping into someone at every turn. All of the cups have to be filled the exact same amount. Everything has to be the same temperature.
Chloe King: I’ve been concerned that I've made a mistake.
And you know, this is a competition where there's no room for mistakes made by me, especially. So, if I think that I poured the wrong coffee into the wrong cup, I have to immediately dump that out, start over, just do whatever you can do. And I would have to like, communicate that to volunteers.
There's like a high level of comradery in the backstage, and I feel like by the end of the weekend, I have like, six new best friends. It's like, you know, when you're with your coworkers and, if you work at a café and you know, you go through like a crazy rush where it's just like chaotic and then you leave. And you're like, “Oh, I feel closer to these people because we experienced that together.” And you have like inside jokes, you know, because it's not fun if you're not like laughing the whole time, at least for me.
I think stage managing for Cup Tasters specifically has helped me, insane amounts. I have this like confidence with me now that you know, okay, well, if I can do that, you know, with no experience at all and like, just jump into it and fully take on that lead role, like I can do a lot of other things.
I think anyone that works in coffee can sympathize that your family, or, you know, people are like, “why is this a serious job? You're just a barista.” And I think that really like validated, “Oh, this is a real thing that can take you places and can introduce you to people and give you opportunities.”
Gloria Pedroza: Wow. That's a great story. I agree with everything that Chloe said. You know, the funny thing in that part, is that I think that discipline is where the volunteers probably work more than the contestants on the day.
James Harper: Yeah, right! And another thing Chloe told me was that she went to Brazil to help organize Cup Tasters with World Coffee Events. And, for her parents, that validated her career decision to work in coffee.
Gloria Pedroza: Nowadays, it's you can get into the coffee business so many different ways and, like we said, you don't have to be a coffee expert to be part of it. And you can, let's say, open your way into that community also volunteering.
James Harper: Right, right. So, this is it. Right? So, what if I'm a barista and I want to get involved in Cup Tasters. How do I do it?
Gloria Pedroza: Well, there are many ways. You can volunteer. I mean, attending to conferences, exhibitions, and like Chloe did, also helping out backstage in the regional competitions. Or you can sign up for the international competitions as well. We are always welcoming everyone that wants to help us!
James Harper: Always looking for volunteers, always.
Gloria Pedroza: Always looking for volunteers. That's the special thing about our community, you know.
James Harper: For sure.
Gloria Pedroza: So, okay, James, let's do the credits.
James Harper: That's a great idea. So for this episode, we'd like to thank: Alf Kramer, Kim Staalman, José Joaquín Ordoñez, and Chloe King. And there are many more people who helped out and we've listed all their names on the SCA website.
Gloria Pedroza: We should also thank the sponsors.
James Harper: Indeed we should! So: the World Coffee Championships Podcast Series is supported by Victoria Arduino. Victoria Arduino advances coffee knowledge and innovates across design, technology, and performance to produce machines that nurture coffee professionals' passion for espresso excellence. You can learn more at victoriaarduino.com or give them a follow @victoriaarduino1905.
And today’s episode on the World Cup Taster's Championship is supported by DaVinci Gourmet. Follow them on Instagram at @davincigourmet_europe or by searching the hashtag #WeAreDaVinciGourmet.
Gloria Pedroza: Tell me James, who's behind the production of this series?
James Harper: Ah yes, so, this series was produced by me, James Harper, of Filter Productions for the Specialty Coffee Association. And Gloria, I want to thank you for lending your insights and time to help tell this story about Cup Tasters.
Gloria Pedroza: You're welcome, my pleasure. But, um, tell me: what's happening in the next episode?
James Harper: Ah, yes. In the next episode, we are exploring a story of latte art. Gloria, Remember those latte art patterns, you know, you'd find in the mid-2000s, you know, someone squeezed the chocolate bottle and like drew a flower on top of the foam? That was latte art.
Gloria Pedroza: That was latte art back then, yes.
James Harper: We're going to explore a story of how we went from there to what we see today, an entire tropical bird, the Quetzal, drawn using latte art.
Gloria Pedroza: It is really interesting to see how this competition has evolved in the last years.
James Harper: We're going to explore some of the reasons why that happened, and along the way, we're going to hear the story of perhaps the ugliest kiwi bird ever poured using latte art and the story of a competitor who only really won the respect of his mother when she learned that he had won the competition.
Gloria Pedroza: I guess that Kiwi pattern was poured in New Zealand.
James Harper: Don't give it away! [Laughs]
Gloria Pedroza: Well, I'm really excited to listen to the next episode.
James Harper: Well, I can't wait to share it with you and hopefully I'll see you next year sometime during the competitions.
Gloria Pedroza: Yes, for sure. I'm always around there.
James Harper: Perfect. Alright. Well then, I'll speak to you soon.
Gloria Pedroza: Okay. Talk to you soon.
James Harper: Bye, bye.