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10th of December, 2008
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competition, I was worried about there being enough distinction between
the cups, in order to appreciate the nuances of each individual bean.
Colombia is renowned for good consistent coffee, but not a wealth of
variety. Over the first few days we kicked out over half the coffees
for various different reasons including the following:
Consistency.
Consistency was a problem not only from table to table, but from
cup to cup. This resulted in a wide variety of opinion from the jurors.
It is quite normal to have a difference of opinions, due to each
judge’s home market, or even just personal preferences, but this was
further complicated by the array of diversity of cups on the table and
there were some big discussions. My own personal range of scores were
as low as 71 to a mega (and the highest score I've ever given a coffee)
99. In the end I think 23 coffees will make it through to the final
auction. There were 24, but one of the front runners in the top ten
(for other judges) was found to have a defect, and was disqualified.
Personally I was pleased to see it go as I'd given it rubbish scores
all competition.
Ferment
Ferment was a big problem with these coffees. When a coffee is
processed, it is sometimes left in water to ferment the bean a little,
in order to add to the profile of the coffee (as well as some other
reasons which I'm not going to into now, as otherwise I'll be here for
ever!). Leave it too long, or fail to remove all of the previous beans
in a fermentation tank, and the cup will leave behind its developed
acidity and give you an overly sour taste. Now this can effect one cup
or many cups. For instance, my highest scoring coffee attained only 71
on the first table, but 95 and 99 on subsequent tables. When I looked
through my notes I gave it the biggest kicking due to ferment as well
as the next critical point.
Phenolic
Phenolic is a problem with coffee at origin. People outside of the
business (and me before going out to producing countries) rarely find
it, and if we do, we don't know what it is. It’s a taint to the cup
that’s dirty, earthy, sour, overly acidic, rancid almost, and occurs to
different degrees. There's no way of saying for sure when it is
present, as it most commonly occurs in only a few beans. So you rely on
cuppings to pick it up, and then the group reaching a concensus. It’s
not known why or how it occurs, although there is a lot of research
being undertaken as to why. All I can say is, once you’ve tasted it,
you know what it is. One cupper, who found it on my table by smelling
the crust, was spot on in finding Phenol.
For my number one coffee, I know I didn't like the first cup, but
don't think I really picked up why that was (one of the opening
cuppings) and I killed it. I got ferment and I got this dirty, earthy
taste. In my opinion, had it occurred later, once my pallet was keyed
in, I may have asked for a Phenolic ruling on it. Would I take the risk
of bidding for a coffee with phenolic? Probably not, even though it was
so good, and it made me realize how important cupping coffee is.
It became clear to me during the competition that there was quite a
mixture here. You take a risk with any coffee you buy, but for the Cup
of Excellence, it’s an instant disqualification if it’s found.
Consistency in the cup is a major factor in picking a coffee, and any
defect like this could come back to bite you, no matter how good it is.
The Hotel
The hotel was pleasant, clean and the food excellent. My room was
on the 9th floor with some of the finest views I've ever seen. The
hotel’s wireless network didn't work in my room and the shower was a
little aggressive (this was the best complaint I could come up with).
So I didn't shower, and sat on the stairs to get my broadband :) . The
facilities were great, with a sauna/steam room, pool and lots of other
stuff. As a CoE judge you are looked after so well, it’s great, but you
do start to wish they would relax a little. I don’t mean this in an
ungrateful way, as I would never want to offend a producer, farmer or
organiser, but as judges we are privileged enough just to be there.
The Jury
Being an old hand at the CoE stuff now, I knew so many of the
people. Our lovely Annette was present for her first competition, there
was Norm Killman of The Roasterie in the US on his third competition,
the same as me. My big buddy Joel Pollock from Stumptown Roasters also
in the US. Joel’s the roaster there, and a guy I have loads of love
for. Such fun and so knowledgeable, he's nearly as cool as me :). Paul
Songer (Head Judge) had to put up with me for the second time. A friend
of mine pointed out to me the other day that Paul's biggest problem is
trying to make everything he knows simple enough for the rest of us! He
know so much that there’s no way he can explain everything. An hour
with this guy is better than weeks with books and articles. Shout out
for (party man) Andrew Vournas from the USA, a green importer who is a
very bad influence on me, my second competition with Andrew, and just
as much fun! Also cupping with me for the second time was Ruben
Sagastume, my personal guide to getting home through Bogatar and Miami.
Ruben is a roaster in the States who originates from El Salvador and
speaks English as his second language (although you wouldn't know it).
Then there was the beautiful Synøve Pedersen of Norway, a joy to cup
with; my favorite kind of cupper, one with opinions. Not always in
agreement with mine, but that just makes things more interesting. Not
forgetting the Japanese guys. Special love for Kentaro, Yoshi and Yuko
who have also been on every competition, great fun to cup with. But
also Hirokazu Hamazaki, Keizo Sato, Masahisa Asano, all of these guys
know how to cup coffee on a different level, intense cuppers!
Now for the guys I met for the first time. Damian Blackburn from
Bolling Coffee, which proved I don’t know everyone in the UK industry.
A great guy even though all the ladies flocked around him :). Inacio
Taixeira from Germany was another babe magnet, and has the most unusual
cupping slurp I've heard, but boy can he cup coffee! Ricardo Oteros
from Spain dances like a dance machine and puts my poor language skills
(and my dancing) to shame. It was also great to meet Scott Brant from
the US for the first time. I loved talking to him as he had a
completely different take on the whole market, as he is very trade
based. Top coffee guy with a great pallet. And last but not least
Arnold Paz from Honduras. He organises the competition in Honduras and
is a big guy. The only person to out party me, he won I lost.
Then there were the guys of the national jury: Sandra was fantastic
to cup with, great fun as she also socialized with the international
jury too, which was very cool. Then there was Jose, who I found myself
agreeing with all the time! And last, but not least, Susie who runs the
whole show and is a lovely person too.
Julian the auditor gave us the guided tour of Colombia and is now
banned from lots of bars, sorry man :) . And Juan Carlos the
coordinator. All I can say about this man is he has patience of a
saint, and the drive of a top golfer. The perfect host, as our trip was
planned down to the finest point and the whole experience was
fantastic. I'm sure we’ll have taken a few years off his life and he’ll
be sitting in a corner rocking now we have gone, but he was and is a
super star. He made the trip so special.
If I forgot anyone sorry :( lots of people lots of work.)
The Place
The head of the Colombian coffee federation mentioned twice in his
speeches how much he appreciated us coming to Colombia, as it’s not the
safest place for Americans and Europeans (in fact for anyone not from
latin America). However, even though some parts of Colombia have
warnings not to visit, I must admit, I felt far safer walking around
there, than I do in London. Aremnia is relatively safe, and very very
beautiful.
Out of the three South American countries I've visited to date,
Colombia is the most developed and affluent. There was some poverty,
but no more than a trip to London, or any other big city, like New
York.
You get a real feeling that the people and the coffee industry have
their game together. This does not mean that the CoE shouldn’t be
rewarding them with more money, and as with every farmer I've ever met,
they don’t understand why the ordinary market doesn’t. I try to explain
that the CoE does pay a good price and that’s why we are in the Jury
for the cup of excellence, and explain the whole big market thing or
the big five roasters paying little. I normally manage to get my point
across!
Conclusion.
Great place, great coffee, great people. Every time I go to origin,
I fall in love with the country, at some point the previous trip has
got to be better than the current, but so far that hasn’t happened.
Best trip so far, most interesting and most challenging to judge. Viva
la Colombia !
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