National Brewers Cup 2024 - Florence represents Café Saint-Henri again

This year, the National Brewers Cup will be hosted by Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc. in Delta, British Columbia. The winner will represent Canada at the World Brewers Cup Championship, April 12-14 in Chicago. A unique opportunity to highlight the skills and know-how of our team at the national level. We are proud to send, again this year, Florence Vézina Floor Manager to Quebec, to represent Café Saint-Henri at the National Brewers Cup.

In the Brewer's Cup competition, three individual drinks are prepared and served by the competitor to a panel of judges. Essentially, competitors provide two coffee services. During the first service, competitors prepare three drinks using coffee beans provided by the competition. In the second coffee service, the open service, competitors can use any coffee beans they choose and accompany their preparation with a presentation of it.

There will be three judges during each service for which competitors will serve 3 separate cups. There will also be a head judge who will taste the three cups that have been prepared, to judge for uniformity. This judge will also review the overall flow of the presentation.

We asked Florence about her motivations and her preparation:

• What made you want to participate in coffee competitions? The reason why I am motivated by competition is my desire to surpass myself and my thirst for learning. Competitions are a great way to get away from the daily life of being a barista behind the counter and take the time to experiment.
  
  

• Why did you want to participate in the Brewers Cup again this year? I want to participate in the Brewers Cup again this year because I loved my experience and I gained a lot of knowledge. Both through the preparation process and once there. The competition also allowed me to meet great people who share my passion for coffee from all over Canada.
  
  

• How do you prepare for the Brewers Cup? Preparation for the Brewers Cup consists in particular of a choice of coffee to present, the development of a recipe highlighting the chosen coffee as much as possible as well as the preparation of a 10-minute presentation on the selected coffee. The preparation includes a lot of testing on all parameters included in the recipe. We are talking here about the type of infuser, the ratio, the composition of the ideal water, the choice of filters and so on…
  
  

• What coffee are you going to present and how did you select it? The coffee I chose this year is a washed Geisha from producer Raul Perez on his El Llano farm in Guatemala. It is a delicious and impressively delicate coffee. I chose this coffee from a selection of exceptional batches from the company Apex Coffee Imports. I held a cupping with 8 other potential coffees, comparing them side by side and the coffee that stood out was this Geisha.
  
  

• Are you more stressed or excited about your participation? Of course, the competition always has a stressful aspect since it includes a presentation in front of many people and we want to perform as well as possible. There is also always a certain feeling of lack of time and of questioning ourselves in relation to our own skills which inhabits us when we embark on projects of this magnitude. However, the feeling that is most present for me is the excitement of competing once again, of sharing my passion and this incredible coffee
  
  

• If you had to give 1 piece of advice to someone who wants to participate in a coffee competition, what would it be? One piece of advice I could give to someone who would like to enter a coffee competition; it would be to watch as many competitions as possible and mainly to trust yourself. Sign up and go! Competing is a way to learn, meet great people, and participate in the coffee community's sense of belonging.
  
  

Florence is a great example of involvement and surpassing oneself which motivates us all to surpass ourselves. We wish him the best for this competition!