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First, a huge congratulations to Kaye Ong of Habitual Coffee. She won third place for Philippines at the World Aeropress Competition recently held in Seattle, WA. “It’s the first time I joined the Philippine Aeropress Championships and the World Aeropress championships,” she tells Coconuts Manila over email.
When Kaye’s Habitual Coffee, a coffee joint neatly tucked inside Ortigas Home Depot, opened in July 2014, Aeropress was the only way they served their caffeine. Aeropress, along with chemex and V60, are among the newish methods of preparing coffee introduced and used mostly by third wave coffee joints.
In March, she won the Philippine National Aeropress Championships, held at Yardstick Coffee in Legazpi Village, Makati, and a month later, she flew to the US to represent the Philippines in the World Aeropress Championships. Kaye competed in 16 rounds of coffee making. “There were three rounds: 12 rounds of eliminations, three rounds of semis, and finals.”
Lukas Zahradnik of Slovakia and Nick Hatch of Canada won the first and second place respectively. Below, Kaye tells Coconuts Manila more about the competition:
Okay, how do you win such a competition?
To put it simply, winners should be able to make the best tasting cup of black coffee brewed with the Aeropress. All competitors were given the same beans to compete with, leveling out the playing field for everyone. The judges, experts in the specialty coffee industry worldwide, chose the “best tasting cup” based on cleanliness and balance of flavors, extraction, and overall taste experience. Aroma, sweetness, acidity, body, and after taste were also assessed by the judges as they went over each cup.
On the website, it says there were 35 competitors. Was there anyone that everyone was nervous about? The rockstar in the crowd?
It would have to be Jeff Verellen of Belgium. Jeff has won two World Aeropress Championships (2011 and 2013) and bronze in 2014. This year, he put on quite a show by incorporating an interesting principle of static electricity while he was brewing the coffee.
So how did the competition go?
The competition took place in Within SoDo, a very cool events place with an awesome roof deck located in a very industrial area, South of Downtown Seattle. All competitors were asked to arrive at the competition venue about three hours before the actual competition. We were split up into two groups, and each group was asked to practice for 30 minutes. Initially, I thought it would be more than enough practice time, but there were only five sets of equipment available so a lot of us spent most of our time waiting for our turn to get to use the kettle or grinders or weighing scales.
For the competition, there were three rounds: 12 rounds of Eliminations, 3 rounds of semis and finals. For the eliminations, we were split up into 12 groups of three (with the exception of one group which only had two participants). In each group, one will win and move forward to the semis. I ended up being on the 12th round, and I was up against the guy who brought the champagne, and Floris Van der Burg from Netherlands.
For the semis, we were grouped into threes again, and I had to go up against the US representative who also happened to be Filipino, Rusty Obra, and the Czech Republic representative, Jiri Sladek. For the finals, I competed against Paulina Mickza of the UK, Nick Hatch of Canada and Lukas Zahradnik of Slovakia.
What was the most nerve-wracking thing about it?
I think the most nerve-wracking thing about it was the fact I was representing our country with only nine months of specialty coffee and Aeropress experience, and I was going to go up against other baristas who’ve been in the industry longer than me. I told myself that getting into the semis would be enough, so I took the first round very seriously. After I got into semis and even during the finals round, I became more relaxed and started enjoying the competition with my friends and family who came all the way to Seattle to cheer and support.
Is aeropress Habitual’s speciality? I mean, is this what people should not miss when going to Habitual?
Yes, I can proudly say that it is. When we started in July 2014, we served all of our coffee drinks by using nothing else but the Aeropress. We chose to brew with the Aeropress because we believed in it’s capacity to bring out the best possible flavor of the coffee, and that’s one of the things that’s most important for us and for the specialty coffee industry. While I know most people still drink their coffee with milk, we really do encourage them to try it black first! Specialty coffee, and more so the ones brewed with an Aeropress, is very different because it is packed with flavor with no bitterness. We are expanding our coffee menu though, and we’ve recently gotten an espresso machine so for those who still prefer to have milk, espresso-based drinks are still the way to go.
Habitual Coffee C14 Building B, Ortigas Home Depot, Pasig. +63917 5741119. Mon-Wed 12-10pm. Thur-Sat 12-11:15pm. Sun 12-8pm.
Photo: Habitual Coffee/ Facebook; Sprudge.com
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