Coffee awards and competitions

The Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality recognizes Rainforest Alliance certified coffees, highlighting the linkage between sustainable farm management practices and cup quality. There are two annual cuppings and awards, divided by geography. In December, coffees from the southern hemisphere compete. The April cupping covers countries in Latin America, as well as Ethiopia and India.  The following results were announced last week at the annual Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Coffee Breakfast at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual event.

This spring’s cupping included 77 coffees from 12 countries. The top scorers were:

1. Hacienda La Esmeralda (Panama ) – 89.94. This farm is famously known for its “discovery” (or at least popularization) of the Geisha variety, and it used to sweep all awards where it was entered. The last time it was in this competition was in 2009, when it took first place with a score of 88.99.
2. Banko Gotiti (Ethiopia) – 89.69. This farm that is part of Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), which currently represents over 43,794 farmers belonging to more than 300,000 families.
3. Inambari (Peru) – 87.38. Inambari  is one of the organic cooperatives that is part 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, with members winning Cupping for Quality awards the past several years, as well as an award for their work preserving biodiversity. The Inambari logo is a stylized hummingbird.
4. Moredocofe (Ethiopia) – 87.06. Family-owned, also organic and UTZ Certified. Their logo features a Northern Carmine Bee Eater (Merops nubicus).
5. Teppi Green Coffee Estate (Ethiopia) – 86.84. A very large (10,000 ha) farm managed by Green Coffee Agro Industry. Despite its large size, a portion of the coffee is still grown in fairly rustic conditions, as the company is a major exporter of “forest coffee” in the country.
6. Ururi (Peru) – 86.05. Another CECOVSA branded coffee.
7. Manantiales del Frontino (Colombia) – 86.13. Growing 10 varieties (including a Geisha which won the SCAA’s Coffee of the Year in 2011) at 1500-2000 meters; the farm includes 170 ha of forested area. Scored 84.48 in last April’s competition.
8. Biloya (Ethiopia) – 85.94. Another member of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU).
9. Los Cedros (Colombia) – 85.84.
10. Finca Kassandra (Mexico) – 85.81. In central Veracruz, at 1200 to 1500 m. Scored 85.46 in 2011 competition. Their logo has a stylized bird, perhaps a motmot.

The average score of the 9 past winners from the last 6 years is 87.95, so the winner this spring is above average. The average score of the top ten from the past 6 years is 85.20, while this year it was 87.11.

Previous results are available here in the archives in the Coffee Awards and Competitions category.

The Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality award is designed to recognize coffees carrying the Rainforest Alliance seal and to highlight the linkage between sustainable farm management practices and cup quality. There are now two annual cuppings and awards, divided by geography. In December, coffees from the southern hemisphere compete. The April cupping covers countries in Latin America, as well as Ethiopia and India.  The following results were announced this morning at the annual Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Coffee Breakfast at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual event in Portland, Oregon.

This year, the April cupping evaluated 90 coffee samples (highest yet!) from 9 origins. Here are the top ten:

1. Idido (Yirgacheffe) Ethiopia — 86.13
2. Wottona Buituma (Sidama), Ethiopia — 84.88.  This co-op is one of the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. Also certified organic.
3. Grupo Supia Zona La Quiebra, Colombia — 84.85
4. Gidibona Sheicha, Ethiopia — 84.83. Another member of the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. Also certified organic.
5. Green Coffee Agro Industry, Ethiopia — 84.75
6. Grupo Aguadas Zona Viboral, Colombia — 84.70
7. Manantiales del Frontino, Colombia — 84.48. Part of the Colombian Mountain Coffee group, with 138 ha in the Valle de Cauca that includes a number of varietals, including Geisha/Gesha.
8. El Injerto, Guatemala — 84.45
9. Adame Gorbota, Ethiopia — 84.18
10. Las Mercedes, El Salvador — 84.13

That’s a pretty tight pack, with an average score of 84.74. Weird weather made it kind of a tough year in Central America, which may account for the fact that the winning score and the top ten average were both lower than the previous five-year averages (88.28 and 85.20).  The winning scores for each country except the Dominican Republic (see the rest below) were also below average.

The top scorers from the other countries represented were:

• Nicaragua — La Laguna, 83.65
• Mexico — Grupo de Productores AAA, 83.35
• Costa Rica — Finca Santa Anita, 83.93
• Honduras — Platanares, 82.60
• Dominican Republic — Spirit Mountain Ecological Reserve & Organic Coffee Plantation, 82.05

Previous results are available here in the archives in the Coffee Awards and Competitions category.

The Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality award is designed to recognize exceptional coffees carrying the Rainforest Alliance seal and to highlight the linkage between sustainable farm management practices and cup quality. There are now two annual cuppings and awards, divided by geography. In December, coffees from the southern hemisphere — including Brazil, Peru, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia — compete. These are the results of the December 2011 cupping.

This year, there were 45 coffee samples from eight origins submitted.

1. Tunki, Peru (87.92). This organic, Fair Trade coffee, from the Tunkimayo sector in Puno, also won in 2009. It consists of mostly typica and bourbon grown at 1300 to 1800 m. Tunki is one of the coffees from CECOVASA (Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras de los Valles de. Sandia), a group of cooperatives totaling nearly 5000 members. CECOVASA has been working with Conservation International, and has won an award for their work preserving biodiversity. ”Tunki” is the local name for the national bird of Peru, the spectacular Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, depicted in their logo. Equal Exchange has a good article on a visit to CECOVASA.  Peru is not one of my favorite origins, but I had this coffee at a blind tasting at an SCAA event, and it was outstanding.
2. Deep River, Kwanyoka Estate, Kenya (86.06).
3. Ururi, Peru (85.25). This is another organic, Fair Trade CECOVASA coffee (see #1, above), grown at 2000 m from the Pata Inambari Valley.  As outlined in this Equal Exchange post, CECOVASA has really been working on quality. Just two years ago, Ururi only scored at 75.48 in the Cupping for Quality competition. What an improvement!
4. Mihando, Kenya (85.19).
5. Madan Coffee Plantation,  Papua New Guinea (84.56). Located in the Western Highlands of PNG, this 320 ha, privately-owned estate was acquired by Highland Arabicas in 2003.  They grow primarily Blue Mountain typica, but also Arusha and Mundo Novo.
6. Githaka, Kenya (84.50).
7. Kihuri Estate, Kenya (84.41).
8. Machure Estate, Kenya (84.33).
9. Muthaite, Kenya (84.31).
10. Parry Estate, Kona Gold Coffee Plantation, USA (Hawaii)  (84.25).  A family-owned, 354 ha estate at 610 m on Kona (not to be confused with Perry Estate, also on Kona).

I have accumulated detailed data on the Cupping for Quality competition going back to 2007. Including these current results, this consists of seven competitions because Rainforest Alliance went from one to two annual cuppings in 2009. While not all countries were represented in each competition, even within the geographically-limited events, the mix of countries changes from one year to the next. So while this isn’t a totally homogenous data set, the numbers I’ve compiled are still interesting.

The average score for the top ten in this current event was 85.08, which is slightly below the previous average of 85.22. The top score of 87.92 was also below the average of previous top scores (88.35).  So far (as this data goes), none of the scores has broken 90 points yet. I don’t think this is necessarily a reflection on the quality of Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees in general.  Not all farms compete, and some well-known certified farms don’t or haven’t competed  for some time. In fact, I suspect that some of the well-known farms don’t feel they need to, and that entrants may be biased toward up-and-comers that are striving for recognition.

Congratulations to all these farms for their commitment to sustainability and quality.

The next round will be announced in late April at the SCAA event, after which I’ll update the averages and perhaps present some additional data.