JulieCraves

Coffee awards and competitions

SCAA Coffee of the Year

Let’s take a look at the winners of the annual Coffee of the Year competition for single origin coffees, announced at the Specialty Coffee Association
of America (SCAA) event. There were around 140 coffees competing this year.

This year the COTY coffees were available for tasting as pour-overs in a spacious tasting area where information on each coffee (including score) was available. People could taste them all and submit a ballot indicating their single favorite coffee. In past years, the open tasting was from airpots, blind, and we submitted our top three favorites. I liked this format, in particular that the data given on each coffee included region, varietal, and farm certifications.

If anybody knows the outcome of the expo participant voting, or the roaster/availability to consumers of any of the winners, please let everybody know in the comments.

The overall point leader with a score of 90.5 was — as it was last year — from Colombia (San Agustin, Huila): Finca Buenavista. This was a microlot from the farm of Carlos Imbachi submitted by Sweet Maria’s (right now the notes are in Thom’s Colombia offering archives), imported by Virmax. The 7-ha farm is Rainforest Alliance certified.

Here are the rest of the winners, in descending-score order. I’ve put the certifications, if any, in italics below.

  • Best of origin, Guatemala: Puerta Verde (Antigua, Sacatepequez). Score
    89.625. Placed 7th in the 2009 Cup of Excellence competition, and certified under Starbucks CAFE practices.
  • Best of origin, Honduras: La Isabela (Mogola/Marcala/La Paz). Score
    89.313
  • Best of origin, Kenya: Gichathaini (Nyeri). Score 89.222. Fair Trade certified.
  • Best of origin, Peru: Tunki (Puno). Score 89.2. Fair Trade, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance certified, also a winner in this year’s Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality competition, where you can read more about it. This was our personal favorite, and was getting very favorable comments from people. It was really nice, very distinctive and bright. I would not have guessed it for a Peru. (Update: here’s an interview with the farmer. He has a quality tip: no sweaty mules.)
  • Best of origin, Panama: Hacienda La Esmeralda (Boquete). Score 89.125. Rainforest Alliance certified.
  • Best of origin, USA/Hawaii: The Rising Sun (Ka’u). Score 87.563. Nice article here.
  • Best of origin, El Salvador: El Recuerdo (Apaneca/Ilamatapeq). Score
    87.375. A participant in the 2008 Cup of Excellence competition.
  • Best of origin, Nicaragua: Un Regalo de Dios (Mozonte/Nueve Segovia). Score 85.558. Starbucks CAFE practices.

That’s an average of 89.22.

Coffee & Conservation covered previous versions of this competition in 2009 and 2008.

Coffee awards and competitions

SCAA 2010 Sustainability Award

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has awarded its 2010 Sustainability Award to Coffee Lifeline. This project uses the wind-up, solar-powered Lifeline radios of the Freeplay Foundation to provide vital information on agronomy, timely market conditions, weather bulletins, technical expertise, and other coffee news.

Coffee-growing communities are often remote, with isolated farmers having limited or no access to cell phone or Internet coverage. The lack of basic weather and climate forecasts hinders optimum scheduling and care of their coffee crops. Farmers don’t know what coffee characteristics are in demand in the marketplace. And without knowledge of current market prices, farmers cannot evaluate the value of their coffee, or negotiate a fair price. Traditional means of farmer assistance — through community workshops or visits, usually by NGOs or governmental agencies — can be costly, impractical, or too infrequent.

The possession of these simple, hand-powered, rugged radios changes all of that. Special coffee-related programming, developed and broadcast by UNESCO-sponsored Radio Salus at the National University of Rwanda, brings farmers specific and important information. The radios are AM/FM/shortwave capable, so plenty of other information is available as well.

Coffee Lifeline began operating in Rwanda in 2005, conceived by American coffee importer Peter Kettler and supported by InterAmerican Coffee, Ancora Coffee Roasters, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the actor Tom Hanks, and others. Nearly 500 radios have been distributed to farmers, but their reach is multiplied many times because groups of up to 100 farmers listen to programming together.

Coffee Lifeline is just one of the Freeplay Foundation’s humanitarian projects utilizing Lifeline radios across Africa and Asia. Access to information has been life-changing to a broad spectrum of participants. It’s easy for us to take something as simple as basic broadcast communications for granted, so learning about projects like this helps us remember that knowledge is truly empowering, and we don’t have to spend a lot of money or reinvent the wheel to bring about transformation.

In 2003, the Sustainability Council of the SCAA created the Sustainability Award to promote, encourage and honor the efforts of those serving as role models in the fields of sustainability. Coffee & Conservation also covered the 2008 and 2009 awards.

Certifications / Coffee awards and competitions / Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality 2010 winners

The first set of 2010 winners of the Cupping for Quality competition, featuring Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees, was just announced at the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) meeting. RA now certifies 2% of world coffee exports.

This year, there will be two rounds of awards in order to better accommodate coffees from around the world, since coffee is a seasonal crop. The results below are from a cupping held in December, which included submissions from Brazil (11 samples), Peru (10), Hawaii (2, first time for this origin), Indonesia (6), Kenya (4, first time), and Tanzania, Uganda (first time) and Zambia (first time) with one sample each.

Here are the top ten coffees, with their scores, variety of coffee grown, farm size, altitude, processing method, and any details I’ve uncovered. The average score for the top ten coffees was 84.26.

  1. Kigutha Estate — Kenya. 86.54. Growing the bourbon (“French mission”) variety on 122.76 ha at 1700 m. Washed. Kigutha is in the Kiambu region, an area dominated by large privately-owned estates and plantations. It’s managed by Tropical Farm Management, part of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe. TFM manages over 40 coffee estates and operates coffee projects for over 30,000 smallholder farmers. Many of their worldwide operations also have Rainforest Alliance certification.Environmental-related initiatives at Kigutha include integrated pest management, water conservation (including a dam that provides habitat for hippos), and soil erosion management. One of the bigger challenges for the farm was how to incorporate shade, since most coffee in Kenya is typically grown in the sun. The farm nursery is now cultivating 12 native tree species for use on the property, and they are aiming for 30% shade cover.
  2. Tunki — Peru (Puno, Tunkimayo sector). 86.00. Typica and bourbon on 3 ha at 1650 m. Washed. This coffee comes from members of CECOVASA (Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras de los Valles de. Sandia), a group of Fair Trade cooperatives totaling nearly 5000 members. CECOVASA has also been working with Conservation International. CECOVASA has won coffee quality awards before, as well as an award for their work preserving biodiversity.  Tunki is one of the eight cooperatives/brands (two others also placed in the top ten — see 5 and 6 below), and is also organic. “Tunki” is the local name for the national bird of Peru, the spectacular Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Equal Exchange has a good article on a visit to CECOVASA. (Update: here’s an interview with the farmer. He has a quality tip: no sweaty mules.)
  3. Machare / Uru Estates — Tanzania (on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro). 85.71. KP and N39 on 300 ha at 1400 m. Washed. There are shade trees on the farm (many photos on the estate web site indicate something of a shade monoculture), and 30% has been left uncultivated. There is a nursery of indigenous trees used to plant in the protected area. The farm uses integrated pest management. The owners are involved in much community work, including coordinating hydro-electric generators to provide power and irrigation for nearby villages. Marchare was the first Utz Certified farm in Tanzania.
  4. Ipanema Coffees — Brazil (Alfenas – Sul de Minas). 84.50. Bourbon, catuai, and Mundo Novo on 2800 ha at 1000 m. Semi-washed.
  5. Quechua — Peru (Puno, Alfonso Ugarte sector). 84.06. Typica and caturra on 2 ha at 1700 m. Washed. Another coffee from CECOVASA members (see #2).
  6. Tambopata — Peru (Puno, Belen sector). 83.46. Typica and caturra on 2 ha at 1500 m. Washed. Another coffee from CECOVASA members (see #2).
  7. PT Olam Indonesia — Indonesia (North Sumatra). 83.4. Crowned Garuda Mandheling Grade 1 on 127.9 ha at 1000 m. Semi-washed. Small farmer group.
  8. Terranova Estate — Zambia. 83.33. SL28 and bourbon on 1000 ha at 1250 m. Dry process. I wrote about Terranova when it was one of Starbucks Black Apron coffees, and it includes a lengthy comment from the owners.
  9. Mirante da Boa Vista — Brazil (Minas Gerais, cerrado region). 82.79 (tie). Bourbon, Catuai, and Mundo Novo on 190 ha at 1000 m. Semi-washed.
  10. Nchengo Estate — Kenya  (Central Province). 82.79 (tie). SL28 on 135 ha at 1550 m. Washed.

The next round of cuppings will take place May in New York City. It will include primarily Central American origins, along with Colombia, Ethiopia, and India.

Coffee & Conservation covered previous Cupping for Quality winners in 2008 and 2009.

Certifications / Smithsonian Bird-Friendly

Bird-Friendly certified coffee at more Smithsonian units

In December, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo began serving Bird-Friendly certified coffee. The certification standards for this coffee were, of course, developed by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, making this an obvious move. Now more Smithsonian locations — the Natural History Museum, the National Museum of the
American Indian, the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian
Castle, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Portrait
Gallery — will serve Bird-Friendly coffee.

This amounts to around 1,200 pounds of coffee brewed each month. An equal amount has been served each month in
the House of Representatives’ cafeterias since January.

The National Zoo coffee is roasted by Golden Valley Farms Coffee Roasters, which also offers retail sales online to consumers. The coffee provided in the other Smithsonian locations is roasted by S&D Coffee [now Westrock Coffee], one of the suppliers of coffee to McDonald’s.