In the autumn, the Aeropress Finnish Championships were held in Helsinki.
We sent two representatives from Lehmus Roastery to the competition: roasting master Visa Tuovinen and barista Noora Fisher from Satamatie 6 café put on their spiritual sweatbands and traveled to the competition.
How do you compete with an Aeropress? How do you prepare for the competition? Here is our duo's race report from the competition!
Noora:
"Visa told me at work about the possibility of participating in the Finnish Championship in September. Even though it sounded and felt really exciting - even a little scary - I decided to go along and surpass myself. Growth happens outside of your comfort zone!
Visa also entered the competition because she wanted to delve into the world of hand extractions for the first time in a long time. Of course, she was also interested in representing Lehmus Roastery and competing with representatives of other Finnish coffee roasters and coffee enthusiasts.
By training towards consistent and routine performance
So we started training.
In addition to practicing at home and at work, we held playful Aeropress competitions, like a competition against each other. We used Lehmus in the competitions
Roastery coffees or other high-quality coffees from small roasteries that we happened to have at work. The actual competition coffee was only received a week before the competition.
This was good and fun practice for the competition, and at the same time it motivated and inspired me to try my own recipe even more.
I prepared for the competition by testing different recipes, changing and varying the extraction method.
factors. These are the coffee grind and the amount of coffee, the amount of water and the water temperature, the extraction time and agitation, i.e. creating movement. In the Aeropress, this is achieved by the way the water is poured into the coffee and/or by mixing the coffee and water during extraction. I looked up different recipes on YouTube and based on articles. My final recipe was almost the same as the one we use at work when we make Aeropress coffees for customers.
This is perhaps what bothered me the most, as I could have tested and modified my recipe even more wildly. I'll do that next time.
Visa prepared for the competition the same way I did, by refining her own recipe and testing at home and at work within her schedule.
The main point and most important thing about hand extractions, coffee things, and training is that your performance becomes a routine. When you clearly know what you are doing, you avoid fussing and unnecessary tension during extraction.
This way, the performance and the extracted coffees are of uniform quality and consistent with each other. You have to be careful, because even a small excess of water or extraction time can affect the extraction and alternatively over- or under-extract it. We want a perfect extraction every time!
Getting the competition coffee was a last-minute decision for us, the coffee was supposed to arrive on Thursday and the competition was on Saturday. However, we had plenty of time to test the coffee and guess its origin and processing method. The coffee was “unlabeled”, which of course made the situation more challenging, but at the same time even more interesting and fun.
Race day: towards Helsinki
Noora on the verge of qualifying.
On the day of the race, VR took us to Helsinki. We were both a little nervous, as it was our first time and a race should always be a little exciting, right?
I was in the qualifying group, as there were more participants than places available. As I recall, there were nine of us in the qualifying group, and two made it to the official competition group. In the qualifying group, there were always two coffees competing against each other, and three judges chose the best one. My coffee lost to the coffee competing against me. Of course, that was really disappointing, because that was the end of my competition!
Visa was directly involved in the official competition, which began after the qualifying round. The competition was initially held in groups of four. Each person had five minutes to prepare, followed by eight minutes to make and extract the coffee. The coffees were then brought in anonymously for tasting by three judges.
The four coffees were then divided into two groups, i.e. the competition was a duel. The judges were allowed to taste the “battle pair” for half a minute each, after which the judges indicated the winning coffee, which advanced to the next round. So there were several rounds.
Visa Tuovinen in the middle of her competition performance.
Visa did well and advanced several times, eventually placing in the top eight in the entire competition.
The last coffee that led to the fall was slightly overextracted.
"The coffee was really good, so it would have been cool to know what would have happened if my own extraction had been a perfect success," Visa commented afterwards.
We both had a really good feeling about the competition. The competition, held at the Kaffa premises, had a relaxed, open and encouraging atmosphere. The DJ played relaxed music, and there was an interesting discussion among the competitors about the recipes and the competition coffees.
It was really interesting to see the performances of others and the many different
ways and recipes for brewing with an Aeropress. Really inspiring!
On the way back, the day's intense concentration was already taking its toll.
The Finnish specialty coffee community is doing really well; there are so many talented and professional people. It's cool to join a group like that. The best thing was to get a new amazing experience and surpass yourself!
"Participating in the competition itself was great, as was meeting other people from the Finnish coffee scene."
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Also read Markus Asunta, who came in third in the competition, 's post on the topic on the Kahjona kahviin blog.
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You can purchase the Aeropress from Lehmus Roastery's online store .