Bewley’s coffee expert goes forward to World Tasting Championships 2009

Coffee expert Bernard McDonnell, Technical Manager at Bewley’s, has been selected to represent Ireland at the 6th World Cup Tasting Championship 2009, part of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe’s (SCAE) Wonderful Coffee event which takes place in Cologne, Germany from June 26-28 inclusive.

Bernard will use all 10,000 of his well honed taste buds to compete against 40 other participants from countries around the globe.  The task they will be set is to taste and identify individual coffees from a range of unidentified coffees which they will be confronted with for the first time at the competition. To make the contest even harder, individual coffees will be flown into Cologne from coffee estates all over the world.

More than 6,000 coffee professionals from all over the world will gather for the event culminating in the Tasting Championships which will identify the best international “Cupper”.  Bernard McDonnell was selected at the national Irish qualifying event which took place in Dublin last September.

The World Cup Tasting Championships are designed to raise awareness of the specialised practice of coffee tasting, to educate coffee professionals and to promote the concept of quality coffee as such.   Bernard was coached and mentored in cup tasting by Paul O’Toole, Bewley’s Master Coffee Roaster.

Speaking about the Cup Tasting Championships, Paul O’Toole commented, “The taste of coffee reflects a unique combination of soil character, altitude, climate and flavour.  The intensity of that taste lies in the roaster’s ability to unlock the various flavour oils that are present in the beans through a meticulously controlled roasting process, creating a truly enjoyable experience for coffee lovers.”

“The ability to distinguish unique and subtle flavours between high quality coffees is an art form and testament to the skill that cuppers have to develop. At Bewley’s we are very proud of Bernard and are delighted that he been able to apply his expertise and knowledge to represent Ireland at the finals. We wish him the very best of luck in Cologne.”

The competition is a triangular test with 8 rounds. Each test presents the contestants with three coffees – two are identical, one is different.  Finalists will be asked to identify the single cup in all 8 triangulars.