Coffee awards and competitions

Roast Magazine has announced their Roaster of the Year winners. One of the major criteria for the award is showing a commitment to sustainability. As in past years, I’ll give a recap of the winners, focusing on their sustainability initiatives.

In the large (macro) roaster category, Equator Estate Coffees and Teas of San Rafael, California came out on top among 40 competitors. Founded in 1995 by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell, Equator has a focus on sustainability, with over half of their coffees being certified Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, or some combination of all three. On their excellent web site, you can read more about their eco-philosophy and social responsibility initiatives. Among them are these accomplishments that helped Equator win this honor:

• Use of biofuel and hybrid vehicles for all deliveries.
• Composting all of its coffee chaff and burlap bags.
• Providing micro-loans to coffee partners around the world.
• Purchasing its own farm in Panama, where they are in the process of growing
  sustainable coffee alongside a team of Panamanians.

Kickapoo Coffee took the award in the micro-roaster category (roasting less than 100,000 lbs of coffee per year) out of a field of thirty. Located in Viroqua, Wisconsin (in western Wisconsin, southeast of La Crosse), and founded only four years ago, Kickapoo buys about 80% of its coffee through direct relationships with small producers, aided in these efforts through its membership in Cooperative Coffees, a green coffee buying cooperative.

Kickapoo is one of the few roasters that uses distinctive reusable and recyclable cans, made from 80% post-consumer recycled steel. They also use sustainable materials in their larger coffee packaging, and have eliminated most plastic from their operations. Their roastery is located in an historic train depot, and was restored and is operated using sustainable practices — the roaster even has handmade belts supplied by local Amish craftsmen.

Oh, and Kickapoo roasts some kick-ass coffee.

Two coffee competitions took place at the Specialty Coffee Association of America expo in association with The Roasters Guild: the Roaster’s Choice Tasting Award and the Coffee of the Year.

The ten Roaster’s Choice coffees were available for tasting during the expo and everybody was able to cast a vote for their favorite. We had a lot of fun with this last year. The competition was held in a more convenient location then, so we were able to go back more frequently to taste the coffees. Still, it was worthwhile to taste so many flavors in an array of coffees.

The results were interesting: half the winners Ethiopian, including the top three — two of which were from the same cooperative. Last year the number one coffee was an Ethiopian. The winners are below; I have more info on the top three because they were displayed at the expo. The rest are from a release from the SCAA that only lists the roaster and country of origin (see my comments at the end of the post). Update: I’ve added additional information received in the comments.

1. Equator Estate Coffee & Teas — Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley — roasted by David Pohl.
2. Caffe Pronto — Ethiopia Wondo Worka, Yirgacheffe — roasted by Andy Sprenger (Andy also came in 2nd out of 22 in the first U.S. Cup Tasters Competition, where folks compete to identify coffees in the shortest time in triangulation rounds). This coffee also received a 92 from Coffee Review. Talk about potently floral — wow.
3. Berres Brothers Coffee — Ethiopia Wondo Worka, Yirgacheffe — roasted by John Johnson. This was the only one of the top three that also made my top three. Also distinctly floral, but I like my Ethiopian’s a little more subtle.
4. Flying Goat Coffee — Costa Rica, Cafetin de San Martin micro mill, Terrazu, 2009 crop.
5. Barefoot Coffee Roasters — Ethiopi, Oromiya, Yirgacheffe, Dominion Trading Co. Certified organic. Reviewed at Coffee Review.
6. Tony’s Coffee and Teas — Sulawesi Toraja Peaberry Toarco.
7. Intelligentsia — Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, I presume their Direct Trade Kurimi.
8. Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting — Burundi Kinyovu.
9. Coffeesnobs.com.au — Bolivia Flor de Cafe San Ignacio.
10. Aroma Trading Co. — R&A Javar farms, milled by Pavaraga, Hawaii — roasted by Dan Tang. Exclusive rights on U.S. mainland to Kean Coffee.

Single origin coffees in the Coffee of the Year competition were evaluated by industry cupping professionals in several rounds over the weekend. There were 135 coffees entered. Here are the top ten, with the silly misspellings from the official SCAA press release corrected:

1. Colombia — C.I. Virmax Colombia S.A, Los Naranjos, San Agustin, Huila (88.66).
2. Panama — Hacienda La Esmeralda, Boquete (87.69). After winning first place in 2005-2007, this also came in second to a Colombian last year.
3. Ethiopia — Ninety Plus Coffee, Aricha Micro Selection 14, Yirgacheffe (87.03)
4. Colombia — C.I. Racafe & CIA S.C.A., Santa Maria, Huila (85.78). Racafe came in first place last year.
5. Kenya — Royal Coffee, NY, Gethumbwini Estate, Aberdare Ranges (85.72)
6. Guatemala — El Injerto, S.A., La Libertad, Huehuetenango (85.59). Rainforest Alliance certified; shade is rather low on native diversity, but there is forest reserve on the property as well.
7. Hawaii — Kailiawa Coffee Farm (sponsored by Ka’u Farm and Ranch Company LLC, milled by Pavaraga), District of Ka’u on the Big Island if Hawaii (85.05)
8. Colombia — C.I. Virmax Colombia S.A., La Piramide (Inza, Cauca) (85.00)
9. El Salvador — Exportadora El Volcan S.A. de C.V., Finca Shangrila, Apaneca/Ilamatepec Mountain Range (84.89)
10. Guatemala — San Diego Buena Vista, Acatenango (84.86). Rainforest Alliance certified, came in third out of the Guatemalan coffees in the Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality awards, where it scored 83.75.

Sorry, but I’m disappointed in the Roasters Guild and SCAA for the way they publicized the results of these competitions. It took a week for me to dig up the list of winners for the Roasters Choice awards; they didn’t even send a press released to registered media. As I noted, just a list of the roaster and country of origin. There were no other details on the coffee, nor did they give the numbers they were assigned in the blind tasting, so I can’t even tell you which one I liked the best. The press release for the Coffee of the Year was more prompt, but had several misspellings, which I corrected above. Really, it’s embarrassing for the SCAA not to correctly spell “Yirgacheffe.”

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) presented its annual awards last night. One is the Sustainability Award, which honors individuals, businesses, or organizations in the coffee industry that have created projects which expand and promote sustainability. Criteria include projects that are innovative and have social, economic and environmental aspects, that can be replicated at different scales, and are inspirational. This year’s award winning project certainly fits the bill.

The 2009 award goes to the ZERI Foundation’s coffee-pulp-to-mushrooms project.  Every coffee farm produces tons of coffee pulp — the final consumable portion of a coffee cherry is less than one percent, so most of the fruit is waste. Something has to be done with it, because it has the potential to pollute waterways if left to ferment and leach into streams. Usually, it is composted and then used as mulch and low-quality fertilizer.

ZERI’s project promotes the use of the pulp to grow mushrooms, which provide a protein-rich food for the community and generate income and jobs when marketed to grocery stores. After the mushrooms are harvested, the used pulp substrate can then be fed to goats, chickens, pigs, or other livestock, which in turn provide additional food as well as manure (to enhance compost).

The ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives) is a “global network of creative minds seeking solutions to world challenges.” The mushroom project was has a rather long an interesting history, which ZERI director Gunter Pauli outlined, along with two women instrumental in working on the project: Carmenza Jaramillo of Colombia and Chido Govero of Zimbabwe. Give it a read, because it is quite exceptional and demonstrates the potential of this project to greatly improve the quality of life in coffee communities — and beyond.

I have a summary of the 2008 winners here, which includes a list of past recipients.

I’m in the habit of mentioning Roast Magazine‘s annual Roaster of the Year awards, and I’m a bit tardy in posting the 2008 results.

This year, the macro Roaster of the Year goes to Topeka’s PT’s Coffee Company. Over 95% of the 225,000 pounds PT’s roasted last year came from small lots. Thus PT’s is a great source of very special single origin coffees, many of them sourced under their direct trade model, which includes healthy environmental practices.

It’s been awhile since I have had any of PT’s coffees, so in honor of their honor, I placed an order. I was especially keen to try their Finca Kilimanjaro, from one of Aida Batlle’s El Salvador farms. I’m a big fan of her coffee; you can read our reviews of several of her coffees from Counter Culture here. Aida received organic certification on all three of her farms earlier this year (Mauritania, Kilimanjaro, Los Alpes). The Finca Kilimanjaro is grown at 1650 m on the slopes of the Santa Ana volcano under diverse shade. There are 30 ha in coffee.

This coffee recently scored 95 from Coffee Review. PT’s has already sold out of this coffee, so I won’t do a full review. Let me just say this coffee deserved that 95, and is another stellar example of Aida’s commitment to exceptional sustainable coffee. She grows the Kenyan SL28 variety at Finca Kilimanjaro, and it’s wine-like acidity shines through. This coffee is juicy, very floral — it reminded me a lot of the famous Hacienda La Esmeralda — with a truly room-filling aroma. It was easily one of best coffees I’ve had all year, and had we been doing a review, I would have given it 4.25 motmots.

Moving on, Roast’s micro Roaster of the Year is Coffee Klatch of California, whose coffees are frequently high scorers at Coffee Review. Even roasting less than 100,000 pounds a year and with only four employees, owner Mike Perry still makes several trips to origin a year. He also pursues a direct trade model, and in fact often travels and buys lots with PT’s Jeff Taylor. About a third of Coffee Klatch’s coffees are direct trade, but they also carry Fair Trade selections, as well as a variety of organic coffees. They note that a few of their organics such as the Peru and Mexico are “also shade grown and therefore considered ‘Bird Friendly.'” However, there is no mention of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (the certifier that trademarks “Bird Friendly” coffee) and not enough information in the item descriptions for me to figure out if these are SMBC-certified farms.

Here are my posts on the 2005, 2006, and 2007 winners.

My husband and I attended the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Coffee Breakfast this morning, at which the winners of the fifth annual “Cupping for Quality” event were announced. These awards recognizes Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified coffee farmers dedicated to growing top quality beans, while protecting the environment and the rights of workers.

The first year of the competition, eight countries participated submitted 40 coffees to be judged. This year, 90 RA certified farms in 11 countries participated; judging was held last month in New York and Long Beach, CA. Coffee from 94 percent of the participating farms received scores of 80 or above.

The top scoring farms that received scores of 85 or above are listed below. I’ve provided links or additional information if available.

• Hacienda La Esmeralda (Panama) — 89.93. This is not the famous geisha Jaramillo Especial coffee which I wrote about here, but I did discuss their sustainability initiatives. Although the sustainability section of their web site has not been substantially updated recently, I have read more about the work of the Peterson’s (owners of
  Hacienda La Esmeralda) and think they are doing a good job.
• COMISAJUL (Cooperativa Mixta San Juancito Limitada) La Montana (Honduras) — 87.22
• Daterra — Boa Vista (Brazil) — 86.58.  I wrote about Daterra here.
• Grupo Yariguies (Colombia) — 86.32. I believe these producers are in Santander province, in the region where the Cerulean Warbler preserve is located. Terrific!
• Aguadas (Caldas, Colombia) — 86.08
• Victoria (El Salvador) –– 85.98
• Carmen Estate (Panama) — 85.55. I wrote about Carmen Estate in a review here. This is one of only five farms that have participated in this competition every year so far.
• Coagro Brisas (Colombia) — 85.50
• Finca Arroyo Negro (Chipas, Mexico) — 85.46. More info here.
• La Merced (Colombia) — 85.25
• Finca San Luis (Colombia) –– 85.13
• Santa Rita (Jinotega, Nicaragua) — 85.00. I think this is the same producer that is also Utz Certified.

Below, I’ve listed the top three scorers (fewer means there were fewer than three farms competing) from each country.

Panama: Hacienda Esmeralda (89.93), Carmen Estate (85.55), La Fortuna (81.00)
Guatemala: La Retiro (84.93), San Diego Buena Vista (84.64), La Pampa (84.63)
Peru: Pronatur — Monterrico (84.81)
Costa Rica: Coopronaranjo R.L. (84.82), Cooperativa de Caficultores de Dota R.L. (83.31)
El Salvador: Lictoria (85.98), La Mecca (84.48), Santa Isabel (84.42)
Honduras: Comisajul La Montana (87.22), Cohorsil (83.67), Café Tierra (80.72)
Colombia (39 farms participating!): Grupo Yariguies (86.32), Aguadas (86.08), Coagro Brisas (85.50)
Tanzania: Uru Estate (83.48), Machare Estate (83.12)
Nicaragua: Santa Rita (85.00), La Bastilla (83.27), Momimboo (83.13)
Brazil: Daterra — Boa Vista (86.58), Fazenda Lambari (84.75), Fazenda Sete Cachoeiras Estate Coffee (84.35)
Mexico: Finca Arroyo Negro (85.46), Finca Santa Elena (81.35), Espana (80.25)

I made this comment on my post about Counter Culture’s “Source” initiative:

Fair Trade is such a darling of the green set, but it’s certification is restricted to cooperatives, and does little to address quality.

It’s come to my attention that there is a more profound disconnect between price, quality and sustainability by the public than I first suspected. Although I’ve tried to address these issues here at C&C, perhaps I should be more explicit.

First, the connection between price and quality should be self-evident: you get what you pay for. Cheap (= grocery store, mass-marketed) coffee is never going to be great coffee. Coffee is a living crop; it responds to many environmental variables, not the least of which are altitude (generally, the higher it’s grown, the harder and better the bean) and shade (older varieties will only grow well under shade, and shade coffee matures more slowly, which is believed to intensify flavors in the cup). Coffee is also not a direct plant-to-table crop, and the best coffees are hand-picked and initially processed in a labor-intensive manner. Hence, there is no way to efficiently mass-produce coffee in a mountainous terrain with lots of various shade trees “in the way” by using machinery.

Second, high quality coffee promotes environmental sustainability. No farmer receiving premium prices for his coffee — nor any roaster — wants to see the land depleted and crop quality decline. Coffee grown under sun requires high inputs of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, and land is subject to erosion and soil loss. Coffee grown in the shade gets nutrients from fallen canopy leaves, has fewer weeds, attracts birds and other wildlife that reduce pests, and maintains soil integrity. Obviously, it also maintains biodiversity. Coffee farmers who care about their land invariably grow coffee in ways that echo natural ecosystems.

Coffee farmers who receive a higher price for their quality coffee are also less likely to exploit their land for other purposes — whether it is turning to less environmentally-friendly but higher paying crops (including drugs), logging, or pasture.

Finally, there is little incentive to producers to grow high quality coffee except price. Let’s see how our buying practices influence prices, and therefore quality, and ultimately sustainability.

• If you are buying coffee at a grocery store at around US$6/lb., it was purchased as green beans from producers at between US$0.80 to $1.12/lb [1] on the commodity market. These prices are often lower than the cost of production, a sure path to poverty for farmers. Also, it tastes like crap.
• If you buy Fair Trade coffee, the producers (which are cooperatives, NOT single farmers or estates, which do not qualify for Fair Trade certification) receive US$1.26/lb. The cooperative decides how the money is distributed to member farmers (or if; it may be reinvested in the capital of the co-op, or community projects). Quality and taste will vary. This price is not a hell of a lot higher than the current commodity price [2], and no matter how brilliant the quality, there is no mechanism built into the Fair Trade model that rewards a farmer for it. Great quality Fair Trade coffee is great not because of Fair Trade, but in spite of it.
• If you are buying a Cup of Excellence or another award winning coffee, farmers are typically getting over US$5.00/lb. Examples of average prices for the top ten coffees received per pound by farmers or cooperatives from recent CoE auctions are $7.40 for the top El Salvadors, and $9.64 for the top Guatemalans. You’ll pay about $15.00/lb for these carefully-grown, artisan-roasted beans — that’s still less than $0.70 per 6 ounce cup! You can often find beans from the same winning farms that were not part of the CoE auction lot which are usually just as good and cost far less.

The connections between price, quality, and sustainability are much more deep and complex than this (or at 200+ posts I wouldn’t still be at the “scratch the surface” level of this blog). But if you are buying Fair Trade coffee because you believe it is the best mechanism to insure that farmers are paid a fair price or even a living wage, you may want to consider a broader picture, do some research, and try buying the best quality coffee you can afford.

[1] Cost pass-through in the U.S. coffee industry/ERR 38. Economic Research Service, USDA. (PDF).

[2] The day I wrote this in early July 2007, the composite indicator price on the New York Board of Exchange for green commodity coffee was US$1.06.

The C&C tasting panel’s favorite coffee, among tough competition, is still Paradise Roasters’ Calama Marka Bolivia Cup of Excellence, which is now, sadly, sold out. In that review, I discussed the cancellation of the 2006 Bolivian Cup of Excellence, due to political foolishness. Gary Howe of Traverse City, MI was kind enough to leave a comment on a follow-up post, pointing me to his blog, where he talks about his recent trip to Bolivia to attend the Cup of Fair Trade event.  He includes a slide-show clip describing the event, featuring his really outstanding photography (wow!).

Gary went to Bolivia with Chris Treter, of Higher Grounds Trading Co., a northern Michigan roaster.  Their web site looks completely unfamiliar to me, yet I know their name well. I swear the last I checked their site, they did not offer online ordering, so they did not end up in my righteous roaster list.  Whether I’m right and things have been updated, or if I just completely missed the boat, they have now been added to the sidebar and interactive roaster map, and are on my “to try” list.

Thanks to Gary for bringing both Higher Grounds and the Cup of Fair Trade event to my attention.  I really would love a report on the winning farms!