HUNGARY 27th April 2011

After the three-year reign of champion barista Attila Molnár, the Hungarian Coffee Championships in late March brought us a new champion--Sándor Tóth--who also won the Coffee In Good Spirit championship, reports Regional Coordinator Tibor Hajcsunk.

Sándor Tóth scored the highest among the 17 contestants competing in the Barista Championship, showing his passion, knowledge and enthusiasm to the judges and to the audience.

For the second time, the Hungarian Coffee Championships were organised during the Csodálatos Kávé (Wonderful Coffee) Exhibition. This year, we had increased interest from the baristi, who wanted to show off their knowledge to the audience which gave its enthusiastic support continuously to the contestants during the three days of the Championships.

Besides the Barista Championship, we organised the Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, Cup Tasting and Cezve/Ibrik Championships. For the first time, we even made a place for enthusiastic amateurs to try out their skills at the competition, in a section that we called Amateur Barista Championship. Five of them had the courage to take their chance, and I can tell some of them were very good. I hope next year they will be among the professionals.

Altogether 28 baristi competed, many of them in two or even three championships. Both the audience and the professionals found that the quality of the presentations in each category had increased compared to the last year. The organisers and the Hungarian SCAE chapter were pleased with the knowledge and passion of baristi and they very much look forward to seeing our champions at the World Championships in both Bogotá and Maastricht.

We would like to thank our respected judges Pauline Sherwood, John Sherwood, Marc-Pierre Dietrich, Marian Galuska,  and Silvia Constantin for coming from abroad and giving their support to us, helping to raise the standard of the Hungarian Championships and for their valuable advice. Thanks too, to the national judges and volunteers.

A special thank you to our sponsors, without whom this event could not happen:

• Astoria - espresso coffee machines,
• Mahlkönig - grinders,
• Technivorm - filter coffee machines,
• KSW - milk
• TGI Osmosis Water and More - responsible for clean water.
• Thanks to our media partners: Pincér Magazine and Helyi Téma

The rankings:

VII. Hungarian Barista Championship

1. Sándor Tóth
2. Ádám Török
3. Tibor Várady
4. Éva Szőnyi
5. Miklós Gál
6. János Gudmon

III. Hungarian Latte Art Championship

1. László Balázs
2. Ádám Török
3. Péter Cserkó
4. Lajos Horváth
5. Balázs Somogyvári
6. Antal Kovács

II. Hungarian Coffee In Good Spirit Championship

1. Sándor Tóth
2. Péter Hajdú
3. Miklós Gál
4. Csaba Balogh

III. Hungarian Cup Tasting Championship

1. Lajos Horváth
2. Márk Cseresznyés
3. Péter Hajdú
4. Balázs Somogyvári
5. Szabolcs Temesvári
6. Zsuzsa Zicho

II. Hungarian Cezve/Ibrik Championship

1. Zoltán Kiss
2. Vivien Tóth

I. Hungarian Amateur Championship

1. Zsuzsa Zicho
2. Tamás Stofán
3. Dóra Dragonya
4. Péter Pap
5. János Kun

We would like to congratulate all participants!
 
Pictured: the international judges make their evaluation. To see a full gallery of images from the Hungarian Coffee Championships and the accompanying Exhibition, click here.