World’s First Liberica Roasting Competition

We were honoured to kickstart and co-organise the first ever Liberica International Roasting Competition with Q-Cup Coffee Roasters in Kuching, Sarawak. Six winners were nominated (out of 22 international candidates) by a strong panel of professional judges, flew in from around the world. Dr Steffen Schwarz (founder of Coffee Consulate) was our head judge, leading a team of Master Coffeologists, Q-Instructor, Q-Graders, SCA-certified trainers, and most importantly, some local Liberica growers and roasters who have been working with Liberica for many years.

The format of this competition is also first of its kind, it was created to act like a pilot study to explore the flavour possibilities of Liberica with different roasting approaches. All six winners were selected for their strengths in different aspects. One of the awarded winners was chosen by 30 local regular coffee drinkers to reflect the reception of this coffee from the consumer market.

The competition green coffee, sponsored by Rekajaya, was 100% home-grown Sarawak Liberica, and it is just one of the many indie species and varieties that deserves more attention in the specialty coffee industry. We also had the support from Jason Brooke of Brooke Trust, whose ancestor was the first to bring in Liberica coffee to Sarawak! With so much historical meaning, the mission of this competition is to create a movement to show the flavour potentials of Liberica coffee, and also the potentials of Sarawak-grown coffees.

Lastly, the trophies of this competition, sponsored by Coffee Consulate, are definitely worth a mention. The six artisanal trophies were crafted by Frank Glenz, one of the few remaining Master Woodturners in Germany, using the log of Sarawak Liberica as raw material. Given such unique prizes, we hope the winners will carry on the movement and continue to advocate for Liberica and Sarawak coffees.