
On September 20, 2023, the finals of the Panama Coffee Roasting Competition 2023, a competition for Panama coffee roasting techniques, was held.
Panama Coffee Roasting Competition (PCRC) 2023 is the first competition of the year aimed at promoting the quality, taste, and diversity of Panama coffee.
This is a qualifying tournament-style roasting competition limited to Panamanian coffee, sponsored by BRISA & TIERRA, which imports carefully selected Panamanian specialty coffees.

Entries will begin on July 5, 2023, with over 80 rosters participating.
Preliminaries were held in two categories with different varieties: ``Traditional Division'' and `` Geisha Division'', divided into blocks of several people.
Preliminaries were held in two categories with different varieties: ``Traditional Division'' and `` Geisha Division'', divided into blocks of several people.
The one person with the highest overall score from each block will advance to the finals by a judging team comprised of veterans with extensive experience in competitions, including Roaster Masakuni Sakata , who participates in CROWD ROASTER . Eight rosters made it to the finals in each of the two divisions.
The finalists are:
Traditional categoryKeisuke Anzai (μM)
Kensuke Kudo (Reiwa Cafe ZIZZ)
Masato Hoshi (hinata cafe~coffee roastery)
Hitoshi Takahashi (AMAZING COFFEE ROASTER)
Yasushi Koike
Daigo Shinohara (Café satori)
Yuta Nakaoka (WayMaker Coffee Roasters)
Shinya Kobayashi (Japanese cafe)
Geisha Division <br />Ryoji Tsukioka (Tsuki Coffee Co., Ltd.)
Koike (ignis)
Ryutaro Nakayama (dotcomspace tokyo)
Yuka Abe (Mountain Mover Co., Ltd.)
Yasushi Koike
Junya Keita (NAKAMURA COFFEE)
Shinya Kobayashi (Japanese cafe)
Haruka Morita, Hiroaki Yanagi (Nekojita Coffee)*Titles omitted
In this final event, voting was done by guest judges and the audience.
The winner will be determined based on the results of the judging team.
The final results announcement and award ceremony will be held at CROWD ROASTER booth at SCAJ2023 from 3:00 pm on the 28th (Thursday) after a talk event inviting Panamanian farm owners!
Please be there to witness the birth of the champion of this first-ever competition.
Report on the final tournament

What is unique about this competition is that each block has different beans in the preliminaries, and each bean has different evaluation points.
Through the competition, you can experience the differences in Panama Geisha depending on the farm and lot, and the diversity of Panama coffee.
In the final, eight roasters roasted the beans from each of the Traditional and Geisha categories.
At the finals event, cupping was done blind, with no one knowing which cup belonged to which roster.

The beans in question were a new variety from Panama called ``Auromar Farm Lupao Natural'' in the traditional category, and ``La Hueria Geisha Natural N97 Anaerobic Lot 2'' in the Geisha category.
Each cup had a different focus on flavor and texture, demonstrating the individuality of the roaster, and participants seemed to have a lot of trouble deciding which cup to vote for.

Finally, Geisha category was voted by guest judges who are experts in Japanese tea, wine, craft gin, etc., and the traditional category was voted by the audience at the venue, and the competition came to a close.
These results will be combined with the results of the judging team to determine the winner.
At CROWD ROASTER , we will also be selling a drink comparison set of the brands used in the finals, created by the winning roaster and CROWD ROASTER 's participating roasters.
We are planning to have you drink the beans used in the competition, so please look forward to it!
2023.9.21
CROWD ROASTER