Kurasu Brewers Tournament #2 Event Report

We hosted our 2nd Brewers Tournament at Traveling Coffee in Kyoto.

The venue used to be a teachers' office in elementary school- people were sitting on low kids chairs, keeping themselves warm holding coffee and beer in hands.

This nostalgic venue was perfect for opening up people's mind and connecting with our fellow coffee lovers.

18 people were chosen by a lottery, and people competed in teams of three. The rule is simple- who made the best coffee out of the beans provided on the day will win the trophy.

Contestants were allowed to use their own brewing kit, and three judges decided the winner.

The winners' names are getting highlighted on the blackboard

This time, we picked medium roast Kenyan roasted by Kurasu. Flavor note includes raisin, orange and brown sugar, and compared to the Costa Rican beans we chose for the last tournament, this Kenyan allows many different brewing methods to express its complex characteristics.

Kalita wave would produce a pleasant richness, while Hario V60 would make a perfectly-balanced cup- that's where the skill of the brewers comes in.

Seeing how varied the equipment contestants brought along were was fascinating. Some took both Kalita wave and Aeropress, some are using kruve to adjust the level of micropowder- but the Aeropress was the most chosen equipment in the end for its quickness, followed by American press, Hario V60 and Kono filter.

We asked three coffee specialists to be our judges- Suzuki-san from TRUNK COFFEE, Yoshihara-san from Ogawa Coffee, the previous champion, and Tsujimoto-san from DCS/ CAFE IMPORTS who sponsored the beans used at the tournament.

The opinions of the judges varied as we allowed a wide range of brewing method, and with countless variation of equipment, temperature and concentration, the most debated topic was which characteristic was expressed in the cup the most- citrussy, very Kenyan flavor, or the sweet and complex one like raisins.

The winner, Sasada-san from Light Up Coffee used Aeropress to express the perfect amount of richness and every single flavors on the flavor note. The well-balanced cup produced with his superb skill was just amazing. Congratulations Sasada-san!

The tournament was of such a high standard with so much to learn from- while the half of the contestants were non-professionals, they were all very skilled and one person was even using Kruve, which told us how specialty coffee is now widely accepted and is gaining its serious fans.

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At Kurasu Kyoto we have many exciting events coming up.