Gustos Coffee Co., Coffee Academy to host AeroPress competition
Gustos Coffee Company and the Coffee Academy announced an open call for baristas, amateurs, and coffee lovers to participate in the National AeroPress Championship, to be held Oct. 30 at Vivo Beach Club in Isla Verde.
The national winner will travel to Vancouver, Canada, in December to represent Puerto Rico at the AeroPress World Championship, which will feature competitors from 50 countries.
Participants at this family event will be eligible to win several cash prizes in a series of categories, organizers said.
“We’re very excited to have been selected to host the first national AeroPress competition in Puerto Rico and bring a representative from the Island to this important global industry event,” said Omar Torres, co-owner, and founder of Gustos Coffee Company.
The competition will follow a strict knockout tournament format with quick multiple rounds. Competitors have five minutes to prepare, strain and present their coffee, to be evaluated in a blind tasting by a group of judges, who will select the best presentations that will advance to the final round.
The World AeroPress Championships began in Norway in 2008 and have continued to grow ever since. In 2018, the event had more than 3,000 competitors who participated before an audience of 68,250 people.
The AeroPress preparation modality presents challenges for competitors because they must stand out with their creative proposal using only ground coffee and water as the only permitted ingredients. Similarly, they can use only 18g of coffee to prepare 150ml of the drink, in a maximum of 5 minutes.
A small, twin-tube device, the AeroPress quickly brews full-bodied coffee by allowing the user to push water through a filter. Unlike traditional pour-over devices such as the Greek or the espresso machine, this type of coffee substitutes electricity and coffee equipment for the pressure exerted by the human being.
It has similarities with the style of French press coffee or “French Press” although the specialty coffee industry has praised the AeroPress for much more, due to its particularities and challenges in the preparation, including the preparation time and the temperature of the coffee. recommended water, organizers explained.
The AeroPress initially appeared in 2005, and its creator, engineer Alan Adler, found in this modality the solution to a problem he faced with the quality of his coffee machine, and the drink.
“We want to invite baristas and fans to participate in this first National AeroPress Championship and we invite the general public to attend this family event at Vivo Beach Club, which will also include activities, product displays and services related to the fascinating world for lovers of this popular drink,” said Torres.
The registration deadline is Sept. 9, 2022. Competition rules can be downloaded here.
