Irish Brewers Cup 2019 – Meet our Competitors pt.1

Cian Manning

1) Briefly tell us about yourself.
My name is Cian. Grew up in Cork, now working in Rift in Limerick

2) Have you ever entered a coffee competition before?
Never

3) Why did you decide to enter the Brewers cup?
The experience

4) What would your autobiography be called?
Started at the bottom and still here 

5) If you could have any coffee superpower, what would it be?
Crush astringency 

6) What coffee producing country would you most like to visit and why?
Don’t have a single answer for this, but two: Ethiopia and Panama. Too many reasons

7) Whats the best coffee experience you’ve had to date?
Too many to mention 

8) If you were trapped on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring?
No idea 

9) If you weren’t working in the coffee industry, what would you be doing?
part time at nahboy industries/ artist

10) Name of a song that best describes your coffee skills.
Freestyler – Bombfunk Mc’s

11) If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
“A rat” – Dalton

12) A fact about yourself that you’re embarrassed to admit to a room of new people.
I’m vegan.


Michael Powell

1) Briefly tell us about yourself.
My name is Michael Powell and I have been a barista for over 10 years in various places of work. 

2) Have you ever entered a coffee competition before?
Yes brewers cup and aero press comp 

3) Why did you decide to enter the Brewers cup?
Hopefully second time lucky competing

4) What would your autobiography be called?
The life and times of Michael Powell 

5) If you could have any coffee superpower, what would it be?
To perfectly dial in a coffee in one go 

6) What coffee producing country would you most like to visit and why?Ethiopia because I love South African coffee.

7) Whats the best coffee experience you’ve had to date?
Cupping coffee in bonanza coffee roastery

8) If you were trapped on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring?
A book on how to get off desert islands my dog and some beers

9) If you weren’t working in the coffee industry, what would you be doing?
Chef 

10) Name of a song that best describes your coffee skills.
Head like a haunted house by Queens of the Stone Age

11) If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
An octopus think of all the stuff you could do on bar by yourself 

12) A fact about yourself that you’re embarrassed to admit to a room of new people.
I used to sing the wrong words to Foreigners I wanna know what love is.


Jody Evans

1) Briefly tell us about yourself.
My name is Jody and I work for Middletown  Coffee Company

2) Have you ever entered a coffee competition before?
Yeah, about 5 I think.

3) Why did you decide to enter the Brewers cup?
To have fun and it’s a day out of work! 

4) What would your autobiography be called?
Jody Evans – the Autobiography 

5) If you could have any coffee superpower, what would it be?
Refractometer Eyes

6) What coffee producing country would you most like to visit and why?
Nicaragua, it’s the safest.

7) Whats the best coffee experience you’ve had to date?
Today.

8) If you were trapped on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring?
Beer, Hummus, Flour.

9) If you weren’t working in the coffee industry, what would you be doing?
Baking Bread.

10) Name of a song that best describes your coffee skills.
MR.BIG – Juicy.

11) If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A Cheetah, Imagine a Cheetah working bar on a Saturday.

12) A fact about yourself that you’re embarrassed to admit to a room of new people.
I can’t run.

Alex Cregan

1) Briefly tell us about yourself.
I’m Alex, I work for Three Fools Coffee in Cork City! I have been working in coffee for just over 2 years.

2) Have you ever entered a coffee competition before?
Yeah a few, some went well, some not so well!

3) Why did you decide to enter the Brewers cup?
To challenge myself and to learn more about brewing coffee.

4) What would your autobiography be called?
To Be Continued.

5) If you could have any coffee superpower, what would it be?
The power to make a perfect pour over by just clicking my fingers.

6) What coffee producing country would you most like to visit and why?
Panama. I used a Geisha from Panama at the first Brewers Cup I competed in, so it’s a little sentimental to me!

7) Whats the best coffee experience you’ve had to date?
London Coffee Festival I’d say, it was great be at an event with so many like minded people, and get to meet baristas and roasters from around Europe. It was cool to have the World Barista Champion at the Time, Dale Harris serving the coffee he used at the competition and chat for 10-15 minutes in the Has Bean pop up!

8) If you were trapped on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring?
Coffee, Coffee Grinder and Endless Flares.

9) If you weren’t working in the coffee industry, what would you be doing?
Probably doing something in the food service industry.

10) Name of a song that best describes your coffee skills.
Strange Brew – Cream

11) If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
I took one of those online quizzes to answer this. I thought I’d turn out to be something cool like an Eagle or Grizzly Bear or a Lion. But no, apparently I’d be a Meerkat. Sigh…

12) A fact about yourself that you’re embarrassed to admit to a room of new people.
A bee stung me on the tongue years ago. Some craic!