Anthony Huy Nguyen: Ambitions

The World Coffee Roasting Championships will be held at the Taiwan International Coffee week. Giesen returns as the Official Production Roaster Sponsor. Over 20 competitors will be trying their hardest to represent their country by competing to win that awesome title! One of the competitors who are now busy preparing is Anthony Huy Nguyen. We asked him a few questions to get to know him better.

Swedish Roasting Champion 2019

Anthony Hug Nguyen lives in Gothenburg, which is the largest non-capital in the Nordics and located on the beautiful west coast of Sweden. “I’m currently the Swedish Coffee Roasting Champion of 2019 and I will represent Sweden at the WCRC 2019 in Taiwan this November. I’m also a founder of The Coffee Connections, roaster and partner of Coffea Cirulor and coffee manager of Alkemisten Kaffebar. “

Anthony will always try to serve the best coffee possible but also share the story behind the cup. “I’ve worked in the coffee industry for 11 years now and I’m always eager to learn about coffee and get to know people better.” Right now, his dream is to become the World Roasting Champion, but that’s not where his ambition ends. He also wants to find the true meaning of life through coffee.

Giesen

Anthony roasts on a Giesen since 2015 and tells us Giesen is his favorite choice of coffee roaster.

“It’s a solidly built coffee roaster that operates on the principle of convection heat and conduction. I can very precisely adjust the hot airflow by controlling the Pascal. This results in the increase or decrease of the convection heat which allows the temperature to go deep into each coffee particle and start developing the flavour compounds. The airflow control also helps me control the caramelization and Maillard process. The outcome is a clear and bright aroma which has a pleasant acidity and a high sweetness without hints of a smoke flavour. I believe this is more achievable with a Giesen coffee roaster.”

“The compact design makes it easy to install in a coffee shop or roasting factory, and it looks great!”.

He is not only content with the flavours Giesen creates but also with overall built of the roaster. “Regular maintenance is a time-consuming burden for roasters but Giesen’s easy maintenance is a huge factor that sets Giesen apart. The roaster is easy to take apart and reassemble, which makes the cleaning process more efficient.”

Experiment, examine, explore

“I am investigating the relationship between the drum speed and airflow control. Adjusting the rotation speed of the drum is useful to increase or decrease the flow of fresh air into beans. The analysis was conducted in different batch sizes and roasting processes to control for outside effects. In the end, it really takes a lot of time, but I believe that applying it appropriately will have a major impact on flavor quality.”

How to start roasting

Anthony starts with roasting new coffee beans on a standard profile and evaluates the quality and potential of the particular bean by cupping. Then he utilizes the roast replay function and manually changes the power settings to reach the targeted flavor compounds. “I also use the playback function to recognize the distinct bean development stages, and search for the distinct coffee’s sweet spot. Then I store all the application data for future use.”

You can follow Anthony’s journey on his Instagram.

If you have any questions for Anthony, please drop them below!