London: The Mercanta Roasting Competition Is Happening On March 23rd

Here’s something fun happening on merry olde Other Side of the Pond. London coffee importer Mercanta is hosting a roasting competition later this month, and the winner—the roaster with the moster, as it were—will be taking home an all expenses paid trip to Antioquia, Colombia.

The Mercanta Roasting Competition will feature 21 roasters from around Europe, all offering their best take on Herlindo Sepulvera’s 100% Caturra Chiroso variety coffee grown on his 1.5 hectare farm, Bella Vista, in Urrao, Antioquia. The Caturra Chiroso is “a variety of Caturra originating in Urrao that is rarely seen outside the region” and was specially selected by Pergamino Coffee Exporters for use in this competition.

The full list of competitors is:

Austrått Kaffebrenneri, Grumpy Mule/Bewley’s UK, Carvetti Coffee Roasters, Colonna Coffee, Dark Woods Coffee, Etno/Wroasters (Hamda Trade), Extract Coffee Roasters, Fjord Coffee, The Golden Bean, Has Bean Coffee, JB Kaffee, Mac&Me Roasting, Origo Roastery, Pharmacie Coffee Roasters, Rave Coffee Ltd, Redemption Roasters, Round Hill Roastery, Tangermünder Kaffeerösterei, Taylor Street Roasting, Volcano Coffee Works, and Williams and Johnson Coffee Co.

Each roaster will receive 30kg of the Caturra Chiroso to tinker with, looking for that winning profile. They will then have to return one kilo to Mercanta for a blind judging. And who are the judges, you ask? Why the roasters themselves. Each of the 21 roasters will send a representative to the big event to join six Mercanta employees in deciding the Chiroso Champion.

The winner earns an all expenses paid trip to Jantioquia 2019, Mercanta’s three-week residency program in Antioquia. For their efforts, the second place team will take home the sleek Ikawa Sample Roaster. Third place gets two cartons of Sepulvera’s Caturra Chiroso.

And the best part is, you can join in on the fun! The big showdown takes place March 23^rd at the Mercanta Lab in Kingston upon Thames, just southwest of the Greater London area. For more information on the Mercanta Roasting Competition, visit their official website. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to dip your spoon into a cupping bowl or two and taste some of Europe’s best roasters’ interpretation of a rare coffee.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*all images via Mercanta the Coffee Hunters

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