That Time I Attempted A Guinness World Record
Jonathan Pascual
Photos by Willis Norman.
It was random. A little ambitious. A little goofy. And for some reason, nobody was surprised.
On 2019 Guinness World Records Day last week, I attempted to break the world record for “Most coffee beans moved with chopsticks in one minute”. Don’t ask me how that became an actual Guinness World Record - I have no idea. Some Italian “serial world record breaker” got 48 beans, back in 2017. I figured… out of all the world records out there, I had the most relevant experience in chopstick use and coffee beans, so why not try to be the new champion?
Here is a summary of guidelines from Guinness:
One hand behind your back.
You can only move one bean at a time.
There are specific dimensions for the saucer the beans start on, the coffee mug they get moved to, and how far apart the saucer is from the mug.
The chopsticks and your active hand start flat on the table.
Moving more than one bean at a time is a disqualifier.
In order to attempt the record, I had to officially apply to Guinness World Records three months ago. After weeks of waiting (I could have expedited my application for a fee, but that seemed a bit much), I got word that I was accepted as a legit world record attempter - for that specific record, on a specific day, at a specific location and time.
So I had to practice. On my first try, I used my kids’ plastic chopsticks at home and I moved 8 beans. Later, I went to Walmart and got a guidelines-conforming set of “commercially available wooden chopsticks” and set out to find the right techniques to get even remotely close to the existing world record.
Here are tiny tricks I figured out over days (and weeks) of practice:
It was easier to “scoop” a bean out of the saucer than try to pinch it with the chopsticks
It saved time to keep the chopsticks firmly next to each other the entire time, rather than separating them and moving them apart and together at all.
Moving the bean all the way to the mug took too long - it shaved off time to “toss” it a few inches away from the mug
Getting into a rhythm was key. I couldn’t waste time fishing for beans or dropping any.
And with those techniques, I got up to 47 beans in practice - one away from the record!
When it was crunch time on the big day, I got the crew from Smugs Fitness to be our official timekeepers - they went above and beyond and yanked the huge interval countdown timer off their gym wall and made it the world record clock! One of our baristas, Ras McCart, was the videographer, ready to submit slo-mo evidence to Guinness. We even set up stations at the bar where spectators could try to do the same challenge and win some prizes from East Pole Coffee Co.
I did pretty poorly the first few attempts. Even though I do a lot of public speaking and have done various competitions, something about going for a Guinness World Record gave me the serious jitters!
The crowd was great. Everyone cheered and counted enthusiastically as each bean went from saucer to mug. We turned up the music to get me in the zone. I live-streamed the whole thing on Instagram and Facebook. The highlight was a tiny fan who brought in his own homemade sign to root for me!
In the end, the challenge was too great and I maxed out at 44 beans, on my second-to-last attempt. Even though we could have kept going until the record was broken, we called it a day and wrapped up after about half an hour. We had to keep cranking out the cappuccinos, after all.
I’ve decided I can’t let the record go that easily… We’ll try it again next year!!! But here’s what we’ll do differently next time: On 2020 Guinness World Records Day, we’ll have several people attempting to break different records, we’ll take over the whole shop for several hours, and we’ll keep going at it until someone comes out on top. We’ll make it bigger and better and invite out the whole community. So go peruse the crazy list of records out there, pick one you think you can break, and let me know that you’re in. I’ll keep practicing my chopstick skills.