The first coffee cup test world champion won a cup of coffee in 12 seconds.

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In order to become a professional barista, in addition to brewing skills, it is also important to make good use of taste buds and sense of smell to accurately identify the subtleties of coffee taste, and then adjust it for guests to taste. At the end of last month, a winner of the World Coffee Cup Test Competition (World Cup Tasters Championship) was born in Hong Kong. He is the owner and baker of Tai Kok Tsui "Craft Coffee Roaster" ── Chen Tianle (A Le).

After winning the championship of the Hong Kong Division in September last year, A Le represented Hong Kong in July and went to Budapest, Hungary to participate in the World Coffee Cup Test Competition. After a three-day competition, Aleri beat more than 30 other contestants from different countries to win the first place in the World Championship. it also shattered the dream of a contestant from Costa Rica to become a three-year champion, becoming the champion in 2017 and winning glory for Hong Kong's coffee industry. Different from other brewing competitions, the cup test contest tests the accuracy and speed of tasting coffee. On the stage, there are four contestants in each round, and each contestant will have eight groups of coffee, with three cups as a group. What the contestants have to do is to test the taste of the cup of coffee with the fastest speed within the limited time of 8 minutes to find out that the cup of coffee in each group is different from the other two cups, which may be due to the different origin of the coffee or the different methods of coffee processing. Competitors rely on their golden tongues and have to taste an average of one cup of coffee every 20 seconds to tell the difference. After many rounds of competition, A Le finally tasted a cup in 6 minutes 26 seconds, or an average of about 12 seconds, and won the championship in 8 cups, fast to the second Japanese player for nearly a minute.

In retrospect, A Le was the runner-up in the Hong Kong Division Cup in 2013 and 2015 respectively, and won the Hong Kong championship in 2016. With so much experience in the competition, when asked how to prepare for the competition, A Le replied, "I started preparing for the competition six months ago. Although we have all had some experience before, this time I want to simulate the competition according to the concentration, taste and cleanliness of the coffee. So when we practice, we will look for some lightly roasted beans, or some coffee beans with obvious flavor, maybe floral flavor and fruit flavor. Then put them together and find out the differences in the subtle differences. " Did you anticipate the result before the game? A Le: "I just want to get into the top 8, because Hong Kong has not reached the top 8 in the world championships for so many years. I am so satisfied as long as I get into the top 8!"

Already won the world championship, what else do you want to try? Ah Le thought for a moment and said that he might try to participate in the judging work of the competition and hope to have more opportunities to go abroad to see the coffee producing areas. "Raw beans account for a large proportion of our making a good cup of coffee." If we can learn more at the source, or can get better quality coffee beans, then it will be of positive help to our whole market. "