The same raw materials, it’s obvious whose craftsmanship is good and whose is bad.
Zhuang Haoran felt no pressure about this at all; he had been mixing with Luca for several years here, and, although he couldn’t understand the beans as intimately as the locals who had grown up with them, it was enough for him to brew the specified coffee well.
For those contestants who were not locals and didn’t understand these beans, of course, this round of the competition seemed to have an added difficulty.
The designated brewing time was seven minutes, and each contestant was to brew three cups of coffee for the three judges to taste. Therefore, Yang Family’s mother and daughter, who were invited as special guest judges from overseas, could only take up one judge’s position, with Mrs. Yang serving to taste and score.
The other two local judges included one who was said to be a famous local radio host, Steve, also one of the well-known coffee gurus online and one of those who had previously criticized Zhao Coffee.
The last of the three judges was a famous local barista, Mon Okachi, whose coffee workshop had been around for a long time and was known as a century-old establishment.
Zhan Dapeng glanced over and, anyway, didn’t feel that any of the judges were in favor of Gu Nuan and her team. They could only rely on real skill now.
Seven minutes could be said to fly by in the blink of an eye.
Soon, within the designated time, the first round of contestants finished their creations, one after another, which were then presented to the judges for tasting and scoring.
At a glance, almost every contestant used ceramic cups to hold the coffee. True, the competition hadn’t rigidly specified that contestants must use a particular kind of cup to serve their coffee to the judges, but they had to use cups that had been checked by the competition organisers and contained no added substances.
Most contestants wouldn’t try to be clever with their choice of cup because the judges weren’t looking at the cups, they were looking at the coffee. Trying to deceive experienced judges with a cup was considered futile by almost every participant, spectator, and judge, without exception.
When the ceramic coffee cups were presented for the judges to taste, they all looked like the most common type supplied by the organisers. So, when a cup that looked different appeared in the public eye and the judges’ view, the response it received was not praise, but a barrage of ridicule.
"Who’s the newcomer that came up with this? Thinking of playing tricks with the cup because the craftsmanship isn’t up to par?"
"If she really wanted to play tricks with the cup, shouldn’t she use a gold cup used by the Empress of the United Kingdom, not such a shabby paper cup?! A paper cup?"
The audience watching the competition were all laughing, believing it to be some joker popping up in the competition, the effect on the crowd was obvious, they were really entertained.
Everyone was eager to see who this fool was.
Zhong Qiaohui’s face tensed up as stiff as a board; she didn’t have Gu Nuan’s ability to stay calm, listening to so many mocking voices coming wave after wave.
After Zhuang Haoran handed his cup of coffee over to the judges, he wasn’t so nervous anymore. But now, hearing some sounds that seemed unfavorable towards Gu Nuan, he couldn’t help but glance her way.
He saw her expression was as indifferent as ever, no different from before.
Luca asked, "What are they planning to do?"
With Zhuang Haoran’s previous comment, Luca didn’t dare to underestimate this woman, and asked with some concern. Official source ıs 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝓷𝓮𝓽
Zhuang Haoran only knew that, trusting his instincts, with Gu Nuan wearing that expression, an unexpected outcome was bound to occur in tonight’s contest.