The Panama Coffee Roasting Competition 2023 (PCRC 2023) is Japan's first roasting competition using only high-quality Panamanian coffee.
CROWD ROASTER cooperated with the tournament as a sponsor and official media, and also held an awards ceremony at CROWD ROASTER booth at SCAJ2023.
CROWD ROASTER cooperated with the tournament as a sponsor and official media, and also held an awards ceremony at CROWD ROASTER booth at SCAJ2023.
As a special collaboration project with PCRC 2023, we have started selling a tasting box using the beans selected in the finals!
What kind of competition is PCRC 2023?
The Panama Coffee Roasting Competition 2023 was the first roasting competition to use only Panamanian coffee, held from July to September 2023.
More than 80 roasters participated in the preliminary rounds in two categories, the "Traditional" and " Geisha " categories, which differed in varieties, with the participants divided into blocks of several people each.
In the finals, eight roasters will roast the designated beans for each of the traditional and Geisha categories. 
More than 80 roasters participated in the preliminary rounds in two categories, the "Traditional" and " Geisha " categories, which differed in varieties, with the participants divided into blocks of several people each.
The judges, consisting of veterans with plenty of experience in competitions, including Masakuni Sakata a roaster who will be participating in CROWD ROASTER , selected the roaster with the highest overall score in each block to advance to the finals. Eight roasters made it to the finals in each of the two categories.
The final event was then voted on by guest judges and the audience.
What's unique about this competition is that in the preliminary round, each block has a different set of beans, and each bean has its own evaluation point.
Through this competition, participants can experience the differences in Panamanian Geisha depending on the farm and lot, and the diversity of Panamanian coffee.
In the finals, eight roasters will roast the designated beans for each of the traditional and Geisha categories.
At the finals event, the cupping was done blind, without knowing which cup belonged to which roaster.
The winner was finally decided based on the votes of the guest judges and the audience, as well as the results of the judging team!
The winner was Shinya Kobayashi from Wakaya
The winner of this year's competition was Shinya Kobayashi, roaster and chief quality control officer at Wakoya, a specialty coffee bean store in Fukui City, whose motto is "to be a delicious bridge that connects customers with excellent farms around the Shinya Kobayashi ."
They have achieved good results in various competitions, including coming second at the 2015 JCRC, a competition of roasting techniques. And at this year's PCRC 2023, they achieved the amazing feat of winning two categories, the "Traditional" and " Geisha "!
Congratulations again, Kobayashi -san!
This special collaboration set from CROWD ROASTER x PCRC 2023 is a tasting set of the final beans from the Traditional and Geisha categories, roasted by the winning roaster and a CROWD ROASTER roaster.
The roasting was done by Shinya Kobayashi , the winner of PCRC 2023, and from CROWD ROASTER , Ishii Yasuo from LEAVES COFFEE ROASTERS and Suzuki Kiyokazu from GLITCH COFFEE＆ROASTERS .
The roasting was done by Shinya Kobayashi , the winner of PCRC 2023, and from CROWD ROASTER , Ishii Yasuo from LEAVES COFFEE ROASTERS and Suzuki Kiyokazu from GLITCH COFFEE＆ROASTERS .
・CROWD ROASTER x PCRC2023 Geisha Box
La Ueria Geisha Natural N97 Anaerobic Lot2
Roasted by: Shinya Kobayashi and Suzuki Kiyokazu
・CROWD ROASTER x PCRC2023 Traditional Box
Auromar Farm Lupao Natural
Roasted by: Shinya Kobayashi and Ishii Yasuo
This special box contains extremely rare, top-of-the-line Panama coffee roasted by two expert roasters and available only here.
Please take this opportunity to try it.
