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Melbourne coffee roaster takes out the first Golden Bean Roasters Cup

Matt Holden

Coffee gold: Coffee roaster Marichi Clarke won the inaugural Golden Bean Roasters Cup in Brisbane.
Coffee gold: Coffee roaster Marichi Clarke won the inaugural Golden Bean Roasters Cup in Brisbane.Sahlan Hayes

Marichi Clarke of Port Melbourne coffee roaster Red Star Coffee has been busy turning green beans into gold – literally: he just won the inaugural Golden Bean Roasters Cup at the recent Cafe Biz expo in Brisbane.

The Golden Bean is a real test of a roaster's skill: while many competitions judge coffee selected and roasted off-site, Golden Bean competitors are given a small sample of one coffee and a specification sheet detailing its characteristics, and then have to roast it.

"On the day you get told the type of coffee you're using, the screen size, where it comes from, the altitude at which it was grown," says Clarke. "Having everyone use the same coffee is fantastic: it makes a level playing field."

The coffee was a Kenyan AB Top from the New Irati factory. Working with a small electric sample roaster, competitors had 45 minutes to roast three batches. "Then you pick your best work to submit for cupping," Clarke says.

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"The first roast was really a test to see how the roaster operates and to get the roast moving. The second roast I thought I nailed: I got the development I wanted, I got the temperature right, I got the heat right. But I did a third one anyway just to make sure, and I ended up submitting the third roast."

The information sheet gives competitors plenty of clues about what to do.

"Kenyans are quite dense. They're a heavy coffee, and they're also quite a small screen size. So as soon as you start approaching first crack you really want to back off the heat. For me it was really about achieving an early first crack and a longer development," Clarke says.

The top four roasts out of the 20 entrants went through to the final round of judging.

Head judge Anne Cooper says: "The competition was a great exercise in challenging the roasters' instincts, using unfamiliar coffee and unfamiliar equipment – they had to show an understanding of the roasting system they were using and the type of coffee they had to roast.

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"Marichi's roast was the most balanced. It held together really well as it cooled. There were nice red currant and rhubarb notes – it was the best roast expression of that coffee."

Clarke – who carried off a trophy featuring a giant golden coffee bean – has been director of coffee at Red Star for five months; before that he was head roaster at Proud Mary for four years, and has also worked at Veneziano. He started out in coffee at Seven Seeds – washing dishes.

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