Intensity in slowness - World Siphonist Championship 2010, Tokyo

WSC contestants (from left): Chia Wei Liu from Taiwan, Chizuru Motokawa from Japan, Anders Thor from Sweden, Helen Chow from Hong Kong and Daw Min Ahn from South Korea

Last week, I went to the World Siphonist Championship held at Tokyo Big Site. For those who are new to the word "siphonist", it means a person who makes use of the difference of air pressure in two glass containers to prepare a cup of coffee. Siphonists are rare in Hong Kong, where baristas and their espresso-based coffee still dominates the market. This year, Hong Kong sent its first siphonist, Helen Chow from Xen Coffee, to compete with other four contestants from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Sweden.

Judges score on aroma, taste, technical and time controlSiphon coffee is known for its smoothness - as well as its long preparation time. Grinding beans, boiling water, stirring, cooling glass container... a siphon coffee easily takes more than 10 minutes in the making. If you hate labor work and always look for 'instant' coffee, siphon is defintely a no-way.  In this annual world siphonist contest, participants are given 15 minutes to prepare four cups of black coffee, as well as four portions of a `signature drink', to the judges. A signature drink could be any variants using the black coffee as a base ingredient. Judges would then give marks based on the siphonist's technique, time control and of course, the taste of the coffee.

Signature drink by Korea's DawWhile I saw most of the competition through my camera's tiny viewfinder, I could still feel the intensity in the air as the siphonists slowly and carefully prepared their perfect cups. The concentration and determination on their faces were impressive.

Japan's Chizuru Motokawa won the title in her home country, greeted by a crowd of colleagues at the local giant coffee chain UCC. Taiwan's Chia Wei Liu came second, and Helen from Hong Kong ran the third. Helen stunned the audience by narrating the coffee making process in Japanese.

Korea's Daw Min Ahn presented a wonderful signature milk coffee, but ranked the last after being disqualified for overtime - otherwise I wonder he would have at least got into the top three.

Met some new friends, tasted some very nice coffee and took home with 200 grams of Ugandan beans I bought at the venue. A very good day indeed.

I will upload some photo highlights of the event in the Gallery soon. Stay tune.

Comments

[thajjh]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comment, and for taking the trouble to post it Guess shoes for sale