Golden Bean started 19 years ago after its founder saw the global need to recognise the professional coffee roaster for their skills, dedication and passion toward coffee science.
The industry was very focused on making espresso coffee at the time and was only rewarding baristas. Coffee roasters are a vital link in the supply chain and are the flavour-makers for the coffee world. Many roasters also own their coffee businesses, and they are the decision makers controlling the direction of the market.
Sean and Kristine Edwards, owners of Café Culture Magazine attended a few small roasting competitions in New Zealand and North America, which was enlightening, however they felt they were not 100% inclusive as fair and equitable to the full range of coffee companies. So, they came back to the drawing board to see how they could design a competition where there were no barriers of entry for any size roastery.
The wine industry was a good benchmark for tasting competitions, they had been made very compliant through many years of trial and error, so deciding this was the best strategy the Golden Bean framework began to take place.
The Golden Bean has now rewarded thousands of coffee roasters over the last 17 years with a generous tiered award system and has connected everyone from the farmer to the consumer, in the process of the competition. Currently, the event is held on two continents - North America and Australia (encompassing The Americas and the Australasian territory), with Europe the next targeted area.
The event provides three levels of medal achievement for competitors – Bronze, 20% of entrants; Silver, 5% of entrants; and Gold, 1%. The overall winner is established by
combining the three highest scores from the Espresso, Milk and Filter categories.
The Golden Bean competition has judged over 30,000 individual coffees since 2006 and many of the overall champion roasters have used this award to grow their businesses into successful global organisations. The competition also has an education and networking component with the sponsors/suppliers provided with allocated speaking session times between judging time slots.
All the Golden Bean judges are mostly roasters or professionals from the coffee industry and must go through the Golden Bean Calibration process with the Head Judges before the event. The format of judging uses multiple tastings to break down the cuppings into a Final which is then judged by the Head Category Judges, whom have been involved in The Golden Bean over the last ten years. Every Golden Bean we can have over 100 judges and can judge about 1,500 coffees during the three days of the event.
