FABB Ladies Roasting Competition: Designing a Test of Repeatability

Espresso Academic helped design and organise the Ladies Roasting Competition at FABB Open House 2026 in Bangkok. Hosted by FABB Academy of Coffee on 5 May, the event challenged competitors to roast with precision and consistency.

The central task was repeatability. Competitors first created their own target roast, then roasted a second and third batch to match it as closely as possible. This made control of the process just as important as producing a good cup.

Under this competition’s rules, a specified temperature served as the reference for first crack, followed by a development window of 1 minute 30 seconds to 3 minutes 30 seconds. Timing, whole-bean colour, ground-coffee colour and tasting contributed to the assessment of the batches.

Thank you to FABB for the opportunity to help build this competition, and to all the competitors who brought their energy and attention to the roasters. The day created a practical setting for learning about consistency through hands-on work.