Techno music plays in the background as competitors sniff, slurp, and examine eight sets of three cups of coffee to identify the "odd cup out" in each group as fast and accurately as they can. This is a scene from the World Cup Tasters Competition, an annual worldwide event. When the timer starts, competitors jump to action around small soup bowls filled with coffee, rounded spoons at hand that they plunge into the bowls to spoon coffee from bowl to nose to mouth. This challenge is known as a "triangle test." Just a few feet away from the competitors, the crowds cheer and watch the action on a big screen.

"It's about accuracy first, then speed," says Jen Apodaca, who represented the United States at Berlin's 2019 World's competition. "If one competitor finishes in under two minutes, but they only get seven cups correct, they would place behind someone that took five minutes but got all eight cups." The World Champion in 2019, Daniel Horbat of Ireland, won with seven correct cups he identified within two minutes and 33 seconds. (We think the caffeine might have helped!)

The atmosphere of these competitions is very intense, and the competitors will go to great lengths in preparation for these events. "There are competitors that ate essentially chicken and rice for six months to prepare..." stated Apodaca. These tactics help protect taste buds, and some competitors go as far as wearing a face covering for up to a year before the event to protect their noses from intruding scents.

This competitive competition of sensory skills begins with the ceremonial method of tasting coffee called "cupping," a topic we've explored on our coffee knowledge blog. It's an intricate, multi-step process that coffee producers, baristas, buyers, roasters, and coffee enthusiasts use to identify and categorize different types of coffee.

Competitions like this can help individuals in the industry advance, and the practice of cupping can earn you the title of Q Grader. (A Q Grader is the equivalent of the wine sommelier within the coffee industry; they score the quality of roasted coffees. To achieve this title, coffee professionals must pass a total of 22 tests to prove that they have the sensory and coffee knowledge to grade coffee on the most impartial scale possible. It's a big deal! The testing is rigorous, and the candidates face challenges beyond merely "tasting coffee." For example, one part of the test consists of nine glasses of water. First, candidates have to identify which three are sweet, which are sour, and which are salty. Then, within those three sets, the test is to rank which glass from most to least sweet, sour, or salty. Q Graders evaluate the quality of a coffee and assign grades, which can help farmers earn more money for crops or learn about flaws within their crops to improve quality.)

Some people find this 'Speed Cupping' to be more than just a novelty exercise, including Shannon Cheney, Lab Director at Coffee Lab International. "That kind of competition is just fun for people...I learned so much at Worlds, so I definitely have advice for people who want to go for it," she says. It is an excellent opportunity to meet coffee lovers from all parts of the industry. Taking a top spot on the global stage does require some intense preparation, but that's the kind of dedication a world champion coffee taster might have to make.

Rest assured with SunriseCoffeeLA; there is no need for a fancy title or going through the guesswork. We take extreme pride and pleasure in top-quality sourcing coffee beans and roasting them daily to ensure that you get the freshest cup of coffee possible.