Coffee awards and competitions

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.