Missoula MT. (July 11, 2006)
---PRESS RELEASE---
In a hectic auction that lasted over 7 1/2 hours and saw record bidding, coffee roasters from around the world made clear their support for Guatemala's return to the Cup of Excellence program. Anacafé and The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc. joined together for the first time since 2002 to offer their exemplary coffee through the Cup of Excellence competition and auction program.

To read more click the link below:
http://www.cupofexcellence.org/NewsandCalendar/PressReleases/tabid/146/Default.aspx


Upcoming coffee events and diary dates..!


Cup of Excellence® 2006/2007

---Central American Competitions - Regional Cupping---

We are pleased to announce the following two Regional Cuppings for the forthcoming Cup of Excellence auctions. These will be held at our cupping laboratory in Kingston upon Thames (located approximately 45 minutes from London-Heathrow by taxi; 30 minutes from London Waterloo by train).

Thursday 08 June 10:00-16:00
The first combined cupping will feature the ‘Top Ten’ coffees from Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as selected other coffees from amongst the finalists. (The inclusion of the Nicaraguan coffees will be dependent upon the samples arriving in London in time for this event.)

Tuesday 27 June 10:00h-16:00h
The second combined cupping will feature the ‘Top Ten’ coffees from El Salvador and Guatemala competitions, as well as selected other coffees which will go forward to the Internet auction. (Again, the inclusion of the Guatemalan coffees will be dependent upon the samples arriving in London in time for this event.)

Places for both events are limited so if you are interested in attending, please let us know as soon as possible. Parking is available on site for the earliest arrivals!

If you would like to join one of our 'Buying Groups' for any of the auctions, please let us know in advance. We'd be happy to advise on particular lots, budget and strategy and to explain the whole auction procedure.

Please contact us at hayley@coffeehunter.com for further details or for any further assistance.


---Cup of Excellence Events calendar 2006---

Colombia First Harvest Cup of Excellence Competition

International Competition: Feb 27 to Mar 3, 2006
Regional Cupping at Mercanta: Tuesday 11 April 2006
Online Auction: April 13, 2006 

Honduras Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: May 1 to 5, 2006
Online Auction: Jun 13, 2006 

Nicaragua Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: May 8 to 12, 2006
Online Auction: Jun 20, 2006 

El Salvador Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: May 22 to 26, 2006
Online Auction: Jun 29, 2006 

Guatemala Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: May 29 to June 2, 2006
Online Auction: July 11, 2006 

Colombia Second Harvest Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: Aug 28 to Sep 1, 2006
Online Auction: Oct 12, 2006 

Bolivia Cup of Excellence Competition
---POSTPONED UNTIL 2007--- 

Brazil Cup of Excellence Competition
International Competition: Nov 5 to 9, 2006
Online Auction: Jan, 2007 (TBA) 


'Meet the Growers'

Throughout 2006...
Following the success of events with growers from Colombia, El Salvador, Australia, India, Costa Rica and Brazil, we will be inviting producers from other countries to events in 2006 at our offices in Kingston upon Thames. You will have a chance to taste a selection of coffees from these farms and have a chance to put your questions to the growers. Check this page for more details...


Training Courses

Various courses are offered at the London School of Coffee. For full details please visit: www.londonschoolofcoffee.com or contact Gayle Reed at info@londonschoolofcoffee.com or on +44 (0)20 8439 7981 and +44 (0)7769 907253.


Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE)

For details of all SCAE events, contact scaeuk@btconnect.com or visit www.scae.com 


World Barista Championships

Our congratulations to this year's UK Barista Champion, James Hoffmann! James went forward to represent the UK at the World Barista Championship Finals in Bern (Switzerland) from May 19-21 2006 together with winners from a total of 39 nations. James put in a fantastic performance in the heats to go into the final the final 6 who competed for the title on Sunday 21 May.

Our congratulations to all the competitors, finalists and, of course, to the 2006 WBC 

Champion, Klaus Thomsen!
Champion: KLAUS THOMSEN, DENMARK
2nd place: Sammy Piccolo, CANADA
3rd place: Matthew Riddle, USA
4th place: Anne Lunell, SWEDEN
5th place: James Hoffmann, UNITED KINGDOM
6th place: Ingbjorg Jona, ICELAND

Further information on this international programme is available at http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/default.htm  


International events

Already in 2006, we’ve participated in the Cup of Excellence Colombia First Harvest international competition, the 5th Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) ‘World of Coffee’ Conference in Bern (Switzerland) and the 18th Annual SCAA Conference & Exhibition in Charlotte in April. Later this year, we’ll be exhibiting at the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ) annual conference and hope to serve on Cup of Excellence juries in Brazil and Colombia.


Thursday 22 June 2006
Guatemala Cup of Excellence & Field Trip – May/June 2006
I hadn’t been to Guatemala since the last Cup of Excellence in 2001 and many coffee professional were delighted to see Guatemala return to the programme this year. The trip was also a long overdue return to visit one of our most important green coffee origins.

The 22 coffee cuppers serving on this year’s International jury were presented with a starting line-up of 48 coffees which had come through extensive cupping by the National Jury. These were then whittled down after a full week of intensive cup tasting analysis to just 25 with scores of 84 points and above and put forward into the Internet Auction which will be held on Tuesday 11 July.

During the week, we had the opportunity to visit farms in nearby Fraijanes (Finca Rabanales) and in Guatemala’s newest denominated region, Acatenango (Finca El Platanar).

On Friday 02 June, the Cup of Excellence award ceremony was held at the headquarters of the Guatemala National Coffee Association (ANACAFE). We had cupped many excellent coffees during the week and I personally had 4-5 lots which scored 90+ on my score sheet.

The exceptional Finca El Injerto I (from the famous Huehuetenango growing region) finished 1st with Finca La Merced (Chimaltenango) 2nd and Finca Asturias (Suchitepequez) in 3rd. Excellent news as one of Mercanta’s long term favourites, Finca La Perla (Quiche) followed in 4th position.

Christian Schaps of Mercanta Central America is Director of Agriculture at La Perla. Christian has represented Mercanta in Guatemala for many years. We recently held discussions with Christian to expand his role. This will entail an upgrade of our Guatemala cupping lab facilities, more visible branding as Mercanta Central America, establishment of London School of Coffee, further expansion of regional development with the increasing importance of El Salvador, and some Coffee Hunter activities in Honduras and perhaps Mexico.

Christian recently supported our exhibition and 10th Anniversary Party in Berne Switzerland and we will further integrate Mercanta Central America into our extensive sourcing and sales development programme.

Finca El Injerto, Finca La Merced, and Finca La Perla have been previous Top Ten finishers in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence competitions help in 2000 and 2001.

This seasons Guatemalan coffee production suffered from extreme weather conditions related to Hurricane Stan and an off production cycle. It is also our observation – both during Cup of excellence and with our own specialty coffee estate grade purchase – that the crop is later than normal. Locally, the producers did not seem to think so but perhaps that is because their harvest and milling finished earlier than normal on account of the smaller production at most farms. Guatemalan coffees are amongst the highest grown and densest beans and a substantial period of rest (or ‘reposado’) is required before they may be tasted at their optimum flavour.

Following the awards ceremony on Friday, we arranged a Field Trip together with some of our roaster customers to see two farms with whom we have been working for some time.

Finca El Bosque is located in Amatitlán at about 1500m. Growing Bourbon, Pache and Caturra, El Bosque produces 3-4 containers of estate grade coffee per crop. The plantation showed rich luxuriant growth, an on-going system of pruning and renewals and a wet mill facility located about 15 minutes away in the nearby valley not far from the city of Amatitlán.

The Barillas family met us after we visited Finca El Bosque. We travelled in 3 vehicles over some very steep and mountainous terrain to Finca San Francisco Tecuamburro – named after the volcano that the farm sits on. Two high altitude sulphur lakes are in proximity. I had visited San Francisco Tecuamburro on a previous Cup of Excellence trip. This excellent farm in the Fraijanes growing region is located on and around the Tecuamburro volcano at 1500-1600m. The Barillas family are the most welcoming hosts. We enjoyed drinks and a BBQ, a tour of the farm, and photos from the visit from 2001.

Both Finca El Bosque and San Francisco Tecuamburro will feature in our 2006 catalogue of specialty coffees from Guatemala.

It was a pleasure to visit Guatemala again after such a long absence (although Flori has been many times in the past 4 years). It was great to catch up with Fabio Solis from Finca Las Nubes and Roni Asencio (Santa Ana, Santa Paula, Santa Sofía) and also to meet many new growers of fine coffee from winning regions like Acatenango.

The Coffee Hunter concept is to locate, source, import and distribute fine coffees to a worldwide audience of top specialty coffee roasters. Guatemala is a key specialty coffee origin and we aim to further develop our sourcing operations in this region. We also hope that the London School of Coffee training and education business can help to develop and enhance local skills.

New crop fine coffees from Guatemala have just begun to arrive in our UK warehouse. This season, we will also begin importing these coffees to our Portland (Oregon) warehouse, with the exceptional Finca La Perla an early candidate for North America.

We also look forward to the Guatemala Cup of Excellence Internet Auction on Tuesday 11 July. We will again be bringing together specialty roasters from around the world into ‘Buying Groups’ to bid on the very pick of this year’s Guatemala crop. Coffees from the Cup of Excellence programme are becoming more well-known and widely available and coffee drinkers worldwide are now beginning to recognise the role that this unique quality discovery programme has to play.

Mercanta has already held a combined ‘Regional Cupping’ of the Top Ten and selected other finalists from Honduras & Nicaragua and we will be organising another combined event featuring the Top Ten and other finalists from El Salvador & Guatemala on Tuesday 27 June.

If you would like to join the many, many specialty roasters who are already members of Cup of Excellence, please contact us for further details of visit www.cupofexcellence.org for details on membership.


Stephen L Hurst
Wednesday 21 June 2006