Sofia Heuri is the new Swiss Roasting Champion. Raul Rivero is the runner-up. Our roasting team is therefore doubly brilliant. And that's not all. With Juan Boillat (4th) and Philipp Schallberger (5th), four of the top 5 places at the Swiss Roasting Championship go to Basel. 3rd place goes to Zurich roaster Dario Stoop (Coffee Architects).
For our team, this multiple triumph is an enormous validation. We have chosen to work in our roastery with flat hierarchies and shared responsibility. Everyone on the team roasts, tastes, and learns together. This exchange helps us progress and constantly challenges us to improve.
Sofia's Path to the Roasting Championship
Sofia's victory is great, well-deserved, and logical in many respects. With discipline, precision, and passion, she prepared for the championship, just as she worked her way into the craft of roasting. At the beginning of 2022, Sofia started with us as a barista in the café at the station. Soon, she also assisted with courses at the coffee school and had her first guest shifts in the roastery.
A milestone on Sofia's path to becoming a roasting champion was participating in the Coffee Farm Training in Nicaragua in January 2023. "I am ready to take responsibility and want to help translate the work of coffee producers from the field into the cup." That's what Sofia said after the farm training, and she not only became a central pillar in our roasting team but also got involved in conducting roasting courses.
13 Men, 1 Roasting Champion
Thirteen roasters and one female roaster competed in the Swiss Roasting Championship in Cham from October 7th to 9th. Roasting was done on an electrically heated roaster from the Dutch company Giesen. The Swiss Coffee Roasting Championship is organized by the Specialty Coffee Association. The winner qualifies to participate in the World Coffee Roasting Championship 2025 (WCRC) in Houston, where roasting champions from all over the world will demonstrate their skills. Competitors go through several challenging phases: they evaluate green coffee beans, create roasting plans, roast samples, and finally produce single and blend roasts. Every step is meticulously evaluated by an international professional jury.
The roasters must not only demonstrate technical skill in handling the roasting machines but also develop a deep understanding of the expected taste. They must precisely predict how their roasts will unfold in the cup. The competition demands the highest level of precision, creativity, and sensory expertise.
Sofia and Raul at the roaster.
Dario Stoop, Coffee Architects (3rd place), Sofia Heuri, Kaffeemacher:innen, (1st place) and Raul Rivero also Kaffeemacher:innen (2nd place)
