Terry tastes victory in battle of coffee experts
Cream of city's coffee specialists join contest that reflects growing interest in cafe culture
Terry Tse Yuet-ming faced 24 cups of coffee, divided into eight sets of three. He and three other contestants in the Hong Kong Cup Tasters Championship were given eight minutes to pick out cups that tasted different from the other two in each set.
The competitors slurped a spoonful of coffee from each cup, making more noise than most polite diners do. It was their way of dispersing the coffee fully and quickly on their tongues to detect minute variations in taste.
When time was up, the finalists took turns raising the singled-out cups above their heads.
Loud cheers erupted among the 80-strong audience in the Convention and Exhibition Centre when Tse won by getting all eight sets right.
"The time limit was quite nerve-wracking. One cup was particularly difficult, and I spent a lot of time on that," he said.
The 32-year-old will now represent the city in the World Cup Tasters Championship, marking a new stage for his passion-turned-profession of two years.
For a decade he worked as a sales manager, first at Fortress then for Apple. "It was boring, and customers complained all the time. I hit a career dead end." He started attending coffee courses, following the example of his wife, and attained the professional Q-Grader qualification. The couple organise workshops on brewing and roasting, and have founded their own coffee bean brand.