World Cup Tasters Championship
The World Cup Tasters Championship is the world championship for palate accuracy. It is the shortest of the seven World Coffee Championships to explain and, arguably, the hardest to fake: there is no speech, no signature drink, no rare lot to hide behind — just a taster, some cups, and a clock.1
The test is a triangulation. Three cups sit in a triangle. Two are the same coffee, one is different. The competitor’s only job is to find the odd cup out.1 Do that eight times, faster and more accurately than everyone else, and you are world champion.
It is run by the Specialty Coffee Association (older sources credit World Coffee Events, the body that operated the championships before the 2017 merger — see that note for why the two names describe the same competition).
How it works
A round is eight triangles — so 24 cups, eight of them the odd ones you have to spot.1 You move down the row smelling and tasting, pulling the cup that doesn’t belong in each set.
Two numbers decide everything: how many you got right, and how long you took. Ranking is on most correct answers first, fastest time as the tiebreaker — so a taster who nails all eight beats one who gets seven, and among two who both get eight, the faster one wins.1
The rounds narrow the same way the other championships do:
- Round one — everyone cups their eight triangles; the top 8 on correct-answers-then-time go through.1
- Semi-finals — those eight cup again; the top 4 reach the final.1
- Final — the last four cup once more, and the best score-and-time is champion.1
Entry is bottom-up, like all seven titles: you win your national cup tasters championship first, and that seat is your way onto the world stage.
This is a close relative of Cupping, the tasting ritual the whole specialty trade is built on — but far more brutal. Cupping asks what does this coffee taste like; triangulation asks only are these two cups the same or not, and gives you seconds to answer. It rewards a different muscle: not vocabulary, but raw discrimination under pressure.
To verify
Time limits and the exact tie-break procedure. The official page describes the shape of the competition — eight triangles, accuracy then speed — but states no time allowance per round and no formal tie-break rule beyond “fastest time.”1 Those live in the organisers’ separate Rules & Regulations documents, which were not read for this note. Do not quote a time limit from here.
Recent champions
| Year | Champion | Represents | Host | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026 | Le Quang Cuong (“Nicky”) | Vietnam | Bangkok, 7–9 May |
| 2 | 2025 | Chatchalerm (“BOSS”) | Thailand | Geneva, 28 Jun |
2026 — Bangkok. After three days at World of Coffee Bangkok (held at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre), Le Quang Cuong, known as “Nicky,” representing Vietnam, was crowned the 2026 champion from a field of 46 competitors.2 The official finalist ranking:2
- Le Quang Cuong (“Nicky”) — Vietnam
- Catherine Queiroz — Switzerland
- Mehmet Sogan — United States
- Mizuki Tagami — Japan
2025 — Geneva. Chatchalerm, known as “BOSS,” representing Thailand, was named the 2025 champion on 28 June 2025.3 The official finalist ranking:3
- Chatchalerm (“BOSS”) — Thailand
- Max Mak — China
- Huamin Chen — Canada
- Hiroaki Nitta — Japan
Both champions came from Asia, which fits the wider pattern the World Coffee Championships note points at: in 2026 five of the seven world titles left Europe and North America entirely, and the show circuit itself moved to Bangkok, Panama City, Dubai and Tokyo. The palate championship is riding the same current.
To verify
The 2025 date, across sources. The official announcement gives 28 June 2025, Geneva.3 A national-federation results page cited in the research behind this note gave the date as 26 June. The two-day gap is unresolved — the official page is the stronger source, but if a precise date matters, check the event schedule directly.
The founding year and full history are missing
Because the championship is clearly one of a set that has run for years, it plainly has a back catalogue of champions — but no primary source consulted gives its founding year, its first champion, or a complete year-by-year winners list.
To verify
The imported archive at the foot of this note does reach back to 2006, and the earliest rows are the least trustworthy part of it: the 2007 Tokyo table has its competitor and country columns swapped, and its winner is entered as “Anette Molvaer,” United Kingdom — almost certainly Anette Moldvaer, the Norwegian co-founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, whose published biographies call her a World Cup Tasting Champion without ever giving a year. See her note for why the year is probable rather than confirmed.
To verify
The competition’s history before 2025. The exact founding year, the identity of the first World Cup Tasters Champion, and the full list of past winners are not established here. Independent sites and social posts list older champions, but each would need cross-checking against the organisers’ own year-by-year announcements to be stated as fact. The organisers publish past results as year-by-year rankings rather than one browsable table.
No coffees, no scores, no prices — and that’s the point
A reader arriving from Best of Panama or Cup of Excellence will look for the coffees used, their scores, their auction prices, the farms behind them. None of that exists for this competition, and none should be invented.
That is not an oversight; it is the nature of the event. The green-coffee auctions judge a lot and publish a price. This championship judges a person and publishes a name — the coffees in the triangles are a test instrument, not a product for sale, so there is no lot, no score, no buyer and no per-kilo figure attached to them.1 The organisers’ announcements list competitors and rankings only, never the coffees.23 Any statement like “the 2025 final used a washed Ethiopian at 1,900 m scoring 88” would be pure fabrication.
Why it matters
A championship result is a public verdict, and a public verdict reprices things — the premiumisation engine this wiki keeps running into. On the barista and brewers side you can watch a title lift a coffee: Emi Fukahori’s 2018 World Brewers Cup win put a Laurina lot from Daterra on the map.
The Cup Tasters title works differently. It sells no coffee, because it uses no branded lot. What it reprices is the taster — a professional cupper’s word on quality is worth more once they have out-triangulated the world. It is the sensory equivalent of the Q Grader licence: proof that a palate can be trusted, staged as a spectator sport.
Champion history
| Year | Champion | Country | Company | Score | Host city | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026 | Le Quang Cuong (Nicky) | Vietnam | — | — | Bangkok, Thailand |
| 2 | 2025 | Chatchalerm (AKA BOSS) | Thailand | — | — | Geneva, Switzerland |
| 3 | 2024 | Dionatan Almeida | Brazil | — | — | Chicago, USA |
| 4 | 2023 | Young Baek | Australia | — | — | Athens, Greece |
| 5 | 2022 | Heongwan Moon | South Korea | — | — | Milan, Italy |
| 6 | 2021 | Kyoungha (Charlie) Chu | Australia | — | — | Milan, Italy |
| 7 | 2019 | Daniel Horbat | Ireland | — | — | Berlin, Germany |
| 8 | 2018 | Yama Kim | Australia | — | — | Belo Horizonte, Brazil |
| 9 | 2017 | Lok Chan | Hong Kong | — | — | Budapest, Hungary |
| 10 | 2016 | Juan Gabriel Céspedes | Costa Rica | — | — | Dublin, Ireland |
| 11 | 2015 | Juan Gabriel Cespedes | Costa Rica | Ecomtrading Costa Rica | — | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| 12 | 2014 | Pang-Yu Liu | Taiwan | — | — | Rimini, Italy |
| 13 | 2013 | Lajos Horváth | Hungary | — | — | Nice, France |
| 14 | 2012 | Cory Andreen | Germany | — | — | Vienna, Austria |
| 15 | 2011 | Kyriakos Ouzoundis | Greece | — | — | Maastricht, Netherlands |
| 16 | 2010 | Hector Gonzalez | Guatemala | — | — | London, United Kingdom |
| 17 | 2009 | Valentina Kazachkova | Russia | — | — | Cologne, Germany |
| 18 | 2008 | Casper Engel Rasmussen | Denmark | — | — | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| 19 | 2007 | United Kingdom | Anette Molvaer | — | — | Tokyo, Japan |
| 20 | 2006 | Gloria Pedroza | Switzerland | — | — | Bern, Switzerland |
Results archive (every edition)
Final-round placings for every World Cup Tasters Championship edition on record — 20 editions, 2006–2026. Earlier rounds (the full field, 945 rows in total) are kept as data in data/competitions/wcc/wctc.json.
2026 — Bangkok, Thailand
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Le Quang Cuong (Nicky) | Vietnam | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Catherine Queiroz | Switzerland | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Mehmet Sogan | United States | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Mizuki Tagami | Japan | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (46).
2025 — Geneva, Switzerland
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Chatchalerm (AKA BOSS) | Thailand | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Max Mak | China | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Huamin Chen | Canada | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Hiroaki Nitta | Japan | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (49).
2024 — Chicago, USA
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Dionatan Almeida | Brazil | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Aurore Ceretta | Germany | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Han Jong Lee | New Zealand | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Jonathan Rangel | Guatemala | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (34).
2023 — Athens, Greece
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Young Baek | Australia | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Mandie Soengkono | Indonesia | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Andrii Vasyliev | Ukraine | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Orestis Sfiris | Greece | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (35).
2022 — Milan, Italy
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Heongwan Moon | South Korea | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Jaco Chu | Hong Kong | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Heli Santiago Castaño | Colombia | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Dénes Rajmond | Germany | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (29).
2021 — Milan, Italy
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Kyoungha (Charlie) Chu | Australia | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Dénes Rajmond | Germany | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Sang Min Ju | South Korea | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | José Maria Gómez Mora | Costa Rica | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (12), Preliminary (27).
2019 — Berlin, Germany
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Daniel Horbat | Ireland | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Dajo Aertssen | France | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Josh Clarke | United Kingdom | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Dulce Barrera | Guatemala | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (17), Preliminary (45).
2018 — Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Yama Kim | Australia | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Niels Te Vaanhold | Netherlands | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Walter Acevedo | Colombia | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Waruth Tangsuriyapaisan | Thailand | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (39).
2017 — Budapest, Hungary
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Lok Chan | Hong Kong | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Amano Satsuki | Japan | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Freda Yuan | United Kingdom | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Hsuan Chuang | Taiwan | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Preliminary (42).
2016 — Dublin, Ireland
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Juan Gabriel Céspedes | Costa Rica | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Dongho Lee | South Korea | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Mateusz Petlinski | Germany | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Boris Ortner | Austria | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Round One (35).
2015 — Gothenburg, Sweden
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Juan Gabriel Cespedes | Costa Rica | Ecomtrading Costa Rica | — |
| 2 | 2 | Mateusz Petlinski | Germany | Woyton Roast Inc. | — |
| 3 | 3 | Yoeri Joosten | Netherlands | Boot Koffie | — |
| 4 | 4 | Krisse Mcgregor | New Zealand | Coffee Lab | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (17), Round One (36).
2014 — Rimini, Italy
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Pang-Yu Liu | Taiwan | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Amanda Juris | United States | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Panu Reinikainen | Finland | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Yoeri Joosten | Netherlands | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (17), Round One (33).
2013 — Nice, France
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Lajos Horváth | Hungary | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Risa Sasaki | Japan | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Jan Komarek | Czech Republic | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Nikolai Aunbakk | Norway | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (8), Quarter-Finals (16), Round One (36).
2012 — Vienna, Austria
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Cory Andreen | Germany | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Tassos Moschopoulous | Greece | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Kim Ossenblok | Spain | — | — |
2011 — Maastricht, Netherlands
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Kyriakos Ouzoundis | Greece | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | David Walsh | Ireland | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Terukiyo Tahara | Japan | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Carolina Franco de Souza | Brazil | — | — |
2010 — London, United Kingdom
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Hector Gonzalez | Guatemala | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | David Walsh | Ireland | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Gyoung Jin | South Korea | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Tasos Moshopoulos | Greece | — | — |
2009 — Cologne, Germany
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Valentina Kazachkova | Russia | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Bart van Sanden | United Kingdom | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Ejiro Goto | Japan | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Ben Kaminsky | United States | — | — |
2008 — Copenhagen, Denmark
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Casper Engel Rasmussen | Denmark | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Jorge Escobar | El Salvador | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Anna Nordström | Sweden | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Marta Piigli | Estonia | — | — |
| 5 | 5 | James Hoffmann | United Kingdom | — | — |
| 6 | 6 | Rasmus Helegebostad | Norway | — | — |
Earlier rounds: Semi-Finals (37).
2007 — Tokyo, Japan
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | United Kingdom | Anette Molvaer | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Iceland | Arni Ragnarsson | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Brazil | Jacques Pereira Carneiro | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Norway | Thomas | — | — |
| 5 | 5 | Austria | Michael Lang | — | — |
| 6 | 6 | Switzerland | Gloria Pedroza | — | — |
| 7 | 7 | Russia | Nikolay Khyuppenen | — | — |
| 8 | 8 | Italy | Fulvia Pamfili | — | — |
| 9 | 9 | Germany | Alexander Scholtz | — | — |
| 10 | 10 | El Salvador | Louis | — | — |
| 11 | 11 | Netherlands | Lous Claus | — | — |
| 12 | 12 | Estonia | Marta Piigli | — | — |
| 13 | 13 | Denmark | Peter Nørgaard Dupont | — | — |
| 14 | 14 | Australia | Hazel de los Reyes | — | — |
| 15 | 15 | Sweden | Lina Sandersson | — | — |
| 16 | 16 | Czech Republic | Štěpánka Havrlíková | — | — |
| 17 | 17 | Greece | Nicos Psomas | — | — |
2006 — Bern, Switzerland
| Place | Competitor | Country | Company | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Gloria Pedroza | Switzerland | — | — |
| 2 | 2 | Hirokazu Hamasaki | Japan | — | — |
| 3 | 3 | Christian Schaps | Guatemala | — | — |
| 4 | 4 | Njall Bjorgvinsson | Iceland | — | — |
| 5 | 5 | Rasmus Helgebostad | Norway | — | — |
| 6 | 6 | Mena | Costa Rica | — | — |
| 7 | 7 | Touri | Finland | — | — |
| 8 | 8 | Emma Markland-Webster | New Zealand | — | — |
| 9 | 9 | Steven Hearst | United Kingdom | — | — |
| 10 | 10 | Carrington | Kenya | — | — |
| 11 | 11 | Arthur Wynne | Ireland | — | — |
| 12 | 12 | Katrin Hoenig | Austria | — | — |
| 13 | 13 | Evgeniya Yurievna Logvinova | Russia | — | — |
| 14 | 14 | Nikos Psomas | Greece | — | — |
| 15 | 15 | Fulvia Pamfili | Italy | — | — |
| 16 | 16 | Robert Forsyth | Australia | — | — |
| 17 | 17 | Nestor | Burundi | — | — |
| 18 | 18 | Raimond Feil | Estonia | — | — |
| 19 | 19 | Alfons Schramer | Germany | — | — |
| 20 | 20 | Joe Hayek | Lebanon | — | — |
| 21 | 21 | Joakim Hjulström | Sweden | — | — |
Source conflicts
To verify
The hand-written table on this page and the imported archive disagree on 3 field(s). Neither is assumed correct — check them against the official World Coffee Events record and fix whichever is wrong at its source.
| Year | Field | This page says | The archive says | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2025 | host city | Geneva, 28 Jun | Geneva, Switzerland |
| 2 | 2025 | name | Chatchalerm (“BOSS”) | Chatchalerm (AKA BOSS) |
| 3 | 2026 | host city | Bangkok, 7–9 May | Bangkok, Thailand |
Related
- World Coffee Championships — the seven-title circuit this one belongs to
- World Barista Championship · World Brewers Cup — the flagship and best-documented siblings
- World Coffee Events · Specialty Coffee Association — who runs it, before and after the 2017 merger
- Cupping · Coffee scoring — the sensory groundwork the triangulation test is built on
- Q Grader — the other credential that certifies a coffee palate
- Le Quang Cuong · Chatchalerm — the 2026 and 2025 champions
- Anette Moldvaer — a title-holder who turned the palate credential into a green-buying career
- Best of Panama · Cup of Excellence — the green-coffee equivalents, judged on lots rather than people
- Premiumisation · China coffee market · Japan coffee market — why a competition result moves money
Official links
- Official site — World Cup Tasters Championship
- Official — World Coffee Championships past rankings
- Official — World Coffee Championships news