Middle East 2024/25
ENTRIES OPEN:
A COFFEE ROASTING COMPETITION TO CHALLENGE SKILLS in roasting and blending
OUR Partners
SUCAFINA Specialty Coffee – Official Green Competition Coffee Sponsor
Cimbali Group – Official Espresso Machine & Grinder Partner
Loring – Official Roaster Partner
Brewing Gadgets – Official Event Partner
Bluewater – Official Water Partner
PUQ – Official Equipment Partner
Ecotact – Official Packaging Partner
The Coffee Magazine – Official Hosts and Media Partner
Entries are open
2024/25 Cycle
You will receive your specialty coffee beans in your competition pack via courier when the competition begins. The beans will be fresh crop of something truly delicious. We can’t wait to taste your roasts of these beans!
Test your
ROASTING Skills
And receive detailed feedback on your submissions.
Roasters are able to experiment with beans in the comfort of their own roastery to achieve the best flavour results. We believe it is important for you to work on your own equipment to achieve the best possible results.
Who will be crowned
2025 CHAMPION
The third edition of this competition starts NOW. Be sure to follow us on social media so you can see the competitors and see how the competition is progressing around the world.
WHAT iS INCLUDED in 2024/25?
What's included in your entry fee?
-
Competition specialty (87pt) green coffee using new processing method, for both cupping and blending sponsored by Sucafina SpecialtyCupping coffee: 30kgBlending coffee: 5kg x2
- The competition entry bags for submission
- A Shot in the Dark merch
- Limited Edition Tees
- Bluewater Liquid Rock to create competition water in your region
- All the important information on judging
- Feedback on your roasting skills from industry professional judges
- Winners Announcement on Monday 10 February 2025
- Feature on Coffee Magazine website and A Shot in the Dark social media
HOW IT WORKS
There are two challenges in this competition:
Cupping & Blending
All Competitors receive the exact same green coffee to roast. There are 3 coffees in each competition pack – One extremely high quality specialty coffee exclusively for the cupping challenge as well as two additional coffees for the blending challenge. Competitors may roast their competition coffee in their own roaster and on their own coffee roasting equipment. This Green Coffee will be sent out to all competitors at the same time.
All coffee will be blind judged by a team of coffee professionals using the specially formulated A Shot in the Dark scoresheets.
challenge one
CUPPING
Competitors submit 250g of the high quality specialty coffee used for the cupping challenge, roasted to its best potential and then submitted to the judges via courier. The roasting notes will be submitted digitally for the Head Judge to consult after blind tasting to offer you the best possible feedback.
challenge two
BLENDING
Competitors will also have to roast and blend the additional two supplied coffees in addition to their original competition coffee. This will be roasted and blended for the espresso recipe – parameters will be provided for this.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the coffees?
You can find out all about the amazing coffees provided for this competition by our partners Sucafina Specialty here.
- The entry fees are high, what are the benefits to my business?
Our main objective with this competition is to provide an educational platform to learn from detailed feedback provided on your roasts and to share in the community events from 9-12 February 2024.
We have also specifically designed the competition so that you can make back a large portion of the entry fee by retailing the remaining coffee you receive, you can also sell this exclusive lot on bar if you have a cafe.
- The water is different in each region, how does this work?
Our partners Bluewater are providing Liquid Rock for each competitor to have the optimum water in their cafes for cupping, so that you can have confidence that what you taste and what the judges will taste will be the same.
- How much time will I have with the coffee?
You will have around 4 weeks to experiment with your roasts and plan resting/degassing time for your coffees that will be tasted on 8 & 9 February 2025.
- How is the judging done?
The judges use specifically designed scoresheets. These are sent to you with your competition packs along with a document outlining what each category means. The judges have both roasting experience and Q-grader qualifications.
- What are the rules for the Espresso Blend?
You can use any ratio you wish for your espresso blend, but you must use all three coffees provided. You can provide us with an espresso recipe within the parameters provided so that our ASITD Barista can pull the shots most accurately.
- How do the judges provide feedback?
When you submit your coffees, you also submit detailed notes on your roasts (including a roast curve and flavour notes) and the blend. Michael Mac Donald, our Head Judge will use these notes to provide you with incredibly detailed feedback on what they tasted and what you can learn. This will be emailed to you shortly after the competition concludes
ENTER NOW
Ready to test your roasting skills and compete for the title of A Shot in the Dark - Middle East Champion 2024?
Every Roaster that wishes to enter A Shot in the Dark, needs to fill out the online Entry Form below and pay the Entry Fee.
The Entry Fee is $750 (€715/AED2750)*
You can pay via Bank Transfer or PayPal.
Thanks to our partners we have been able to reduce the fees for competitors!
*Remember that you only submit 500g total coffee for judging, so you have around 23kg left to retail OR you can serve your roast on bar.
Both ways you can make back your entry fee.
ENTRIES CLOSE 31 DECEMBER 2025
Recap of A shot in the dark 2024
The competition was fierce in 2024 and we are ready for the 2025 Season to kick off!
Here’s how it all played out in February this year.
1. Ajeyudu Pathuri – Brewing Gadgets
2. Adeola Peter Akingbade – Laura Coffee & Bakery
3. Emmanuel Verola – Gold Box Coffee Roastery
The beauty of this competition is that the anonymity means the results are always a wonderful surprise. To do well in this competition, you also have to be skilled at blending and creating espresso recipes with your team, an often overlooked part of roastery life.
Ajey Pathuri, our 2023/24 Champion, is not a roaster in the traditional sense, as he is part of the vibrant Brewing Gadgets team. In fact, his role is to train people to use the piece of equipment that he used to roast his coffee submission, the Roest Sample Roaster. He entered the competition to challenge himself and make sure that he is at the top of his game as he guides other roasters through the learning process. He completed over 120 roasts before choosing the profile and screen sizes he wanted to submit. To say that he is details orientated would be a vast understatement. Huge congratulations!
Adeola Peter Akingbade of Laura Coffee & Bakery is obviously built for competition life, as he has had a busy time the last few months winning accolades, and now he can add A Shot in the Dark Runner Up to his list! Please go visit Laura Coffee in Abu Dhabi on Yas Island and if they have tiramisu on the bakery menu, just trust us and order one alongside your coffee roasted by Peter!
The Gold Box team does nothing in half measures and they proved that they maintain a consistently high quality of performance by placing 3rd this year! Well done to Emmanuel, this is an incredible achievement!
To all our competitors, thank you for participating and being part of this community, the feedback you will receive from Head Judge, Mike Mac Donald will be invaluable to your journey through coffee! It will be with you soon!
Thank you so much to all our incredible sponsors, this is a huge community effort and we look forward to growing it alongside amazing partners.
Thank you to Cafe Rider Roastery for accommodating the judging and workshop day, we felt so at home and welcomed and an educational and delicious time was had by all.
It was an amazing opportunity to engage with the producers, judges and most importantly, each other!
WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT: Hosted by La Marzocco at Akiba Dori
You can watch the Winners Announcement and see all the amazing photos from this fun and colourful night here.
SUCAFINA CUPPING at WORLD OF COFFEE: THE TOP 10!
For something a little different for the visitors to World of Coffee Dubai, we presented the Top 10 Cupping Coffees to the public to taste one coffee roasted 10 different ways. The feedback was wonderful and there was a lot of surprise around the fact that they were cupping the same coffee roasted with 10 different profiles and how much difference it makes to the final cup
THE CONTENDERS 2023
Find Full Competitor Profiles at links below
Laura Coffee And Bakery – Peter Akingbade
CLICK Coffee – Nasser AlMaamari
Empire Coffee – Bharath Chandagalu Govindanayaka
Gold Box Roastery – Emmanuel Verola
Cafe Rider Roastery – Efril Prince Caminero
REFILL ROASTERY – SAMUNDRA KC
Magic Beans – Rima Alghanim
CMI Roastery – Bogdan Claudiu Prunila
Copper Roastery – Mohammad Reza Khadem Alhosseini
Neighbourhood Roastery – Rashed al Mazrouei
Neighbourhood Roastery – Josh Pailan
Doppio Roasters – Jonalyn Dela Pena
Azura The Coffee Company – Angelo Benedict Abordo
Brewing Gadgets Trading – Ajeyudu Pathuri
HAUTE COFFEE ROASTERS – Abdul Serwadda
HAUTE COFFEE ROASTERS – Jonathan Wamala
Windmill Cafe and Roastery – John Michael Sumarago
Altitude Roasters – Mohamad AlAdsani
White Leaf Coffee Roaster – Saddam Hossein
Air Roastery – Rahmat Setiawan
Cazador Specialty Coffee Roastery – Abdulaziz Almarzooqi
Form Roastery – Kenneth Mark Daguyam
Brewlab Roastery – Runday Boyonas/Chard gallo
48east – Raditya Andaraga
48east – Hassan Dashti
48east – Momammad Dashti
Independent – Sunny Kumar
THE JUDGING Panel 2023/24
Thank you so much to our esteemed judges from last year. This year we will have two separate judging panels, one for Cupping and one for the Blending (espresso round).
Mike Mac Donald - Head Judge, Green Coffee Supply
Anička Marková - Sucafina Specialty
Sherryl Napit - ORE Coffee Roastery
Andrew Nicholson - Windrose Coffee
Baristas: Sitaram Napit (ORE Coffee), Charina Dela Cruz (Seed Coffee)
The entire competition is blind judged by a panel of Coffee Professionals (Q-graders + Roasters) in a cupping laboratory using the specially formulated A Shot in the Dark judging scoresheets and feedback forms. Each competitor receives detailed feedback regardless of their final placement.