Lecture Description
For the past four years, the Specialty Coffee Association has undertaken a project to develop a more rigorous way to define and measure specialty coffee quality, based on sensory science, economics, and feedback from the coffee community. Last year, some of the learnings from this project were integrated into the scoring scales, scoresheet layouts, and evaluation categories of three competitions. Meanwhile, the World Coffee Championships Competition Strategic Committee (CSC) and staff have been working to make WCC systems more transparent by publishing more documentation around things like Judge competencies, selection processes, and more—including how the SCA's Coffee Value Assessment was being integrated into the WCC portfolio. This lecture brings both of these initiatives together, by answering some of the very basic questions often asked by the community around the WCCs—How do you become a world judge? What goes on in the judges room? Who writes the rules? What's the CSC?—along with a review of the 2023 and 2024 rules and regulations changes for the World Barista Championship, the World Brewers Cup, and the World Coffee Roasting Championship.
Date: Friday, April 12, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Room Number: S401D
Instructor
Jenn Rugolo (she/her)
Curatorial Director and Editor, 25, Specialty Coffee Association
Jenn Rugolo is the Curatorial Director for the Specialty Coffee Association, where she leads the development of content in different mediums for some of the association's broadest projects, including its biannual publication (25) and Re:co Symposium, and builds connections between emerging knowledge and existing SCA programs. Perpetually curious about how people create culture and belonging through different activities, Jenn holds a Bachelors of Music Ad Hoc (Northwestern University) and a Masters of Arts in Ethnomusicology (University College Cork). Before taking on her current role, Jenn worked to design and run casual educational platforms across roles at 3FE, World Coffee Events, Facebook, and Tamper Tantrum. Concurrently a partner in Playset Coffee, Jenn spends her “free time” supporting progress in specialty coffee through projects that embrace collaborative learning and sharing.