Image © Brian's Coffee Spot
This post has been a long time coming, apologies for that, things crept up in the way, but we're here now!
As the title suggests Freda Yaun, of Caravan Coffee, the 2017 UK Cup Taster Champion did it again and has become the 2018 UK Cup Taster Champion, a few weeks ago at the Manchester Coffee Festival.
We had some fantastic scores from the 33 competitors starting out in round 1 and whittled them down to the last 3 for the final round.
The final round was a winner takes all match between Freda Yuan, Katelyn Thomson & Don Altizo and the coffee reached it's most difficult triangulation to identify.
The same coffees were used throughout the two day competition, but the pairing got progressively harder to tell apart. Below are the coffees and their triangulations for the final round.
A huge thank you to our sponsors Bunn & Campus at Union for doing a fantastic job, plus the volunteers who without it would be difficult to pull this off.
Here are the results in full - Lots of numbers in reverse order starting with the Final round!
Finals
| Position | Name | Score | Time | Company |
| 1 | Freda Yuan | 7 | 3.11 | Caravan |
| 2 | Katelyn Thomson | 6 | 4.10 | BaxterStorey |
| 3 | Don Altizo | 4 | 2.44 | Coffee Curation |
Semi-Finals
| Position | Name | Score | Time | Company |
| 1 | Freda Yuan | 8 | 3.43 | Caravan |
| 2 | Don Altizo | 7 | 2.47 | BaxterStorey |
| 3 | Katelyn Thomson | 7 | 4.20 | Coffee Curation |
| 4 | Marshall Kingston | 6 | 4.25 | Speciality Coffee Blog |
| 5 | Simon Humes | 5 | 2.58 | Origin |
| 6 | Jesse Dodkins | 5 | 4.11 | Origin |
| 7 | Ed Greenall | 5 | 5.17 | Hasbean |
| 8 | Denes Biro | 4 | 3.55 | Taylor Street |
| 9 | Sonali Tailor | 4 | 4.34 | Hasbean |
Round 2
| Position | Name | Score | Time | Company |
| 1 | Freda Yuan | 7 | 4.19 | Caravan |
| 2 | Don Altizo | 7 | 4.44 | BaxterStorey |
| 3 | Marshall Kingston | 7 | 7.56 | Speciality Coffee Blog |
| 4 | Sonali Tailor | 6 | 4.14 | Hasbean |
| 5 | Simon Humes | 6 | 5.40 | Origin |
| 6 | Katelyn Thomson | 6 | 5.50 | Coffee Curation |
| 7 | Ed Greenall | 6 | 5.50 | Hasbean |
| 8 | Denes Biro | 6 | 6.17 | Taylor Street |
| 9 | Jesse Dodkins | 5 | 4.46 | Origin |
| 10 | Dan O'Regan | 5 | 6.22 | Origin |
| 11 | Scott Lannon | 5 | 6.23 | Bewley’s |
| 12 | Joshua Tarlo | 5 | 6.24 | Origin |
| 13 | Andrew Rigby | 5 | 6.34 | Bewley’s |
| 14 | Jokubas Morkunas | 5 | 6.37 | Taylor Street |
| 15 | Diana Johnston | 5 | 7.10 | Independent |
| 16 | Kieran Lamont | 4 | 6.13 | Climpsons |
| 17 | Michaela Ho | 4 | 7.55 | Taylor Street |
| 18 | Paul Ross | 3 | 3.16 | Sans Pere |
| 19 | James Aitken | 3 | 5.45 | Us vs Them |
| 20 | Ian Kissick | 3 | 6.19 | Taylor Street |
| 21 | Eliasz Minkiewicz | 3 | 7.19 | Independent |
Round 1
| Position | Name | Score | Time | Company |
| 1 | Denes Biro | 8 | 3.42 | Taylor Street |
| 2 | Freda Yuan | 8 | 4.38 | Caravan |
| 3 | Dan O'Regan | 8 | 5.25 | Origin |
| 4 | Sonali Tailor | 8 | 5.45 | Hasbean |
| 5 | Marshall Kingston | 8 | 7.02 | Speciality Coffee Blog |
| 6 | Jesse Dodkins | 7 | 3.34 | Origin |
| 7 | Ed Greenall | 7 | 5.28 | Hasbean |
| 8 | Katelyn Thomson | 7 | 5.52 | Coffee Curation |
| 9 | Scott Lannon | 7 | 7.22 | Bewley’s |
| 10 | Joshua Tarlo | 6 | 5.08 | Origin |
| 11 | Don Altizo | 6 | 6.01 | BaxterStorey |
| 12 | Kieran Lamont | 6 | 6.01 | Climpsons |
| 13 | Paul Ross | 6 | 6.23 | Sans Pere |
| 14 | Eliasz Minkiewicz | 6 | 6.28 | Independent |
| 15 | Michaela Ho | 6 | 6.36 | Taylor Street |
| 16 | Andrew Rigby | 6 | 6.51 | Bewley’s |
| 17 | Jokubas Morkunas | 5 | 3.37 | Taylor Street |
| 18 | Diana Johnston | 5 | 4.39 | Independent |
| 19 | James Aitken | 5 | 4.47 | Us vs Them |
| 20 | Simon Humes | 5 | 5.03 | Origin |
| 21 | Ian Kissick | 5 | 5.17 | Taylor Street |
| 22 | Zach Chipp | 5 | 5.28 | Chip Coffee Co. |
| 23 | Kasjan Orzol | 5 | 6.20 | Taylor Street |
| 24 | Lara Hunter-Rodwell | 5 | 6.42 | Bewley's |
| 25 | Tim Medley | 5 | 7.38 | Cimbali UK |
| 26 | James West | 4 | 4.05 | Union |
| 27 | Peter Whittle | 4 | 4.19 | Kahaila Café |
| 28 | Matt Randell | 4 | 4.44 | Climpsons |
| 29 | Tom Booth | 4 | 5.12 | Bewley's |
| 30 | Derek Buckley | 3 | 6.04 | BaxterStorey |
| 31 | George Burgess | 3 | 6.07 | Climpsons |
| 32 | Luke Holcroft | 3 | 6.46 | Origin |
| 33 | Ed Jago | 3 | 6.47 | Bewley's |
For an more in depth write up on the Cup Tasters Championship and the Manchester Coffee Festival in its entirety head over to Brian Coffee Spot.