BELGIUM 28th October 2010

In mid-October, SCAE Belgium and Belgian Coffee Education organised the second edition of their successful coffee event The Golden Portafilter, Belgian National Coordinator Jeanne Gennar reports.

The beautiful location of San Marco Village gave the event an extra touch. Gene Bervoets was the MC for the four SCAE coffee competitions, and there was a lot of atmosphere and tension in the big hall.
 
Kathleen Serdons won the 6th edition of the Belgian Barista Championship. She is a teacher an the catering and hotel management school in Hasselt. This was not her first time competing, but it was the first time she actually won! Supported by Koffie Rombouts, she became proudly the number one Barista in Belgium, and  she will now start training for the WBC in Colombia next year. Second place in the Barista Championship went to Isabelle van Verschraegen of Caffénation, while in third place was Louis Donck of Donko’s Koffie.

The 5th edition of the Belgian Cup Tasting Championship was won by Roel Driesen of Java Koffie. Second place in the Championship went to Bart van Sande from Efico, who in 2009 was the second best cupper in the world. In third place was Tom Janssen of Koffiebranderij Or. Roel wil represent our country during the World Cup Tasters Championships in Maastricht next June.

The 4th edition of Belgian Latte Art Championship was extremely exciting, because it was a real competition between hushband and wife: Dorien Jansen beat her hushband Jef Gladines, as the couple came first and second. Dorien and Jef run the Aroma coffee house, and CoffeeRoots roasted their coffee, while dairy supplier FrieslandCampina supported them with its Nutroma Opschuimmelk. Dorien will respresent Belgium in Maastricht at the World Latte Art Championships in June 2011. Third place in the Belgian championship went to Damien Sosson from Cafés Knopes.

Gérard Meylaers was the winner of the 3rd edition of the Belgian Coffee in Good Spirits Championship. Supported by CoffeeProfs, Gérard unexpectedly but proudly won the Championship. CoffeeRoots roasted Gérard's coffee, and helped make the competition a success. Second place went to Ronny Billemon from Everpure, while Kathleen Serdons took third place.

Beside the big success of the competitions, again this year we had some well organised workshops. Ingrid Bogaert from Schuilenburg created a professional area together with some of our sponsors, and the subjects covered all the different aspects of coffee.

All of the activities of this year's Golden Portafilter were possible because of the sponsors of Belgian Coffee Education--so many thanks to all of them!

Pictured (above) are Belgian Coffee in Good Spirits Champion Gérard Meylaers (left) and Belgian Barista Champion Kathleen Serdons; Belgian Cup Tasting Champion Roel Driesen (pictured below). You can get more details of the event and the Belgian chapter on its website www.scae-belgium.be.