Awards Ceremony Part 2

Once the announcement of the finalists began the atmosphere inside the auditorium became electric. As each winner took the stage their friends and families erupted in cheers and applause. The pride each of the producers' eyes was wonderful. Each producer was greeted on stage by the buyer of their lot, Silvio Leite, representatives of Pinhalense Agriculture Equipment, Cafe Bom Dia, and SEBRAE. The top three spots in each category also received cash prizes. After the awards ceremony, everyone headed upstairs for the reception where delicious Brazilian salgados, doces, and batidos were served. The judges had a chance to meet and talk with the finalists and discuss their coffees more in depth. The buyers also talked about how they would be selling the coffees in the USA and how the marketing materials would include information about the farmers themselves.


TransFair USA's Miguel Zamora congratulates Luiz Adalto de Oliveira of COOPFAM for taking 1rst place in the Naturals category
Photo: All rights Clay Enos


Francisco Braga who took 1rst place in the Semi-washed category is carried on stage by his fellow Pronova co-op members.
Photo: All Rights Clay Enos


Oscar Gonzales of Sustainable Harvest Inc. with members of COOPERVITAE from Nova Rezende.
Photo: All Rights Clay Enos


Darrin Daniel of Allegro Coffee, Beat Grueninger, and Andrew Miller of Cafe Imports pose with Jose Carlos de Paiva and his wife, who was very important to the drying and raking of the 3rd place natural coffee from COOPFAM.
Photo: All Rights Clay Enos

More pictures to come! Stay tuned.

2008 Fair Trade Certified Cupping Competition Results

Results for the 2008 Fair Trade Certified Cupping Competition, Brazil

Naturally Processed Coffees

Place	Name	Co-op	Score
1	Luiz Adalto de Oliveira	COOPFAM	87.69
2	Juares Carlos Pereira	COOCAMINAS	85.11
3	Jose Carlos de Paiva	COOPFAM	84.63
4	Paulo Cesar Afonso	COORPOL	84.59
5	Geraldo Valdecir de Oliveira	COOCAMINAS	84.56
6	Rodrigo Reghim	UNIPCAFEM	84.43
7	Jair Reguim	UNIPCAFEM	83.82
8	Andre Luiz Reis	Assoc. Dos Costas	83.63
9	Euduardo Reghim	UNICAPFEM	83.62
1o	Joao Evangelista Alves	COOCAMINAS	82.97

Semi-Washed Coffees

Place	Name	Co-op	Score
1	Francisco Braga	Pronova	85.00
2	Evandro Cisconeti	Pronova	84.94
3	Carlos Alberto Attos	Pronova	84.83
4	Youssef Nicolas Nasr	Pronova	84.74
5	Joao Luiz Spavier	Pronova	84.35
6	Valdeir Jose Pena Cesati	Pronova	84.31
7	Angelin Cisconetto	Pronova	84.01
8	Francisco Turra Nunes	Pronova	83.76
9	Marcos Antonio Nali	Pronova	83.29
10	Joao Turra Nunes	Pronova	82.59

All of the top ten lots in each category were bid on by international and domestic buyers. The top bids for naturals was $7.20/lb. for Luiz Adalto de Oliveira's lot and $3.00/lb. for Francisco Braga's lot. Purchasers for some of the lots included Tony's Coffee & Teas, Cafe Imports, The Roasterie, Cafe Bom Dia, and Allegro Coffee. The auction was a combination of closed envelop and open bidding.

The Awards Ceremony Pt 1

After the the auction and a short lunch, the awards ceremony was set to begin inside SEBRAE's large auditorium. The finalists in each category were invited to attend with their families and fellow co-op members. Buses had come from Nova Rezende, Boa Esperança, Poço Fundo, and as far away as Espirito Santo state.

Before the winners were announced the various partners in the project each took turns talking about the successes of the Responsible Sourcing Parnership, including TransFair USA's own Julia Delafield.





Pedro Carneiro of the Pronova co-op and Andre Luis Reis of Assoc. Das Costas talked about their co-ops participation in the cupping competition process. Both noted the value of the cupping training for their co-ops and how this will enable them to improve quality and learn how to better market their coffees.

All of the international panel judges were brought on staged and thanked for their participation.



David Hermann of the Roasterie, Kansas City and Beat Grueninger shake hands.

More on the awards ceremony later!

The Finals Part 2

The final scores for the competition and are being calculated by Silvio Leite's team and descriptions of the lots are being written for tomorrow night's auction. Members of the panel are catching up on work from home, watching the Rwanda Cup of Excellence online auction, or enjoying a pleasant post-almoço siesta.


More delicious food at the Centro do Excellencia.


Wendy de Jong of Tony's Coffee & Teas deliberating her scores.



The international panel, TransFair USA staff, and the volunteers at the Centro do Excellencia who made it all happen.

Finals Feedback and Farmers

Once judges were finished with each round of cupping they met in a conference room with head judge Silvio Leite to give their scores and talk about the coffees. Often, when the discussion about a particular aroma or flavor becomes animated, Silvio has provided insight into why the trait exists. In some cases it's related to post-harvest techniques-when the cherries are picked, how much fermentation if any, how the cherries are dried if they're naturals, etc. While discussing a high scoring natural coffee, Silvio noted that the coffee could score even higher with a few changes in production techniques.

And this is the crux of the Fair Trade Certified Cupping Competition. By looking at how the coffees scored and relating that back to how they were produced will enable the Responsible Sourcing Project lift up the level of Brazilian Fair Trade Certified coffees. Feedback on individual farmers' coffees provided be expert roasters, green buyers, and academics enables the technical trainings to become more fine-tuned.

On to Belo Horizonte for the awards ceremony and auction. Stay tuned!


Silvio Leite leading the charge for Brazilian Fair Trade Certified coffees.

The Finals

Silvio Leite and Wendy de Jong in full cupping mode.

This morning our crew of judges and TransFair USA staff left the Colinas Hotel and headed out to the Centro de Excellencia for the final two rounds of cupping

The morning will feature ten of the top natural coffees from Tuesday's session and eleven of the semi-washed/washed coffees from yesterday (the eleventh coffee is due to a tie, not any Spinal Tap references.) The international panel is really looking forward to this final session for several reasons. These coffees are all ones that the judges want to see again. For Darrin Daniel the final round "gives you a chance to really wrap your arms around the coffees and get very descriptive." The Allegro green buyer also said that "when you recognize a coffee you like from the first round it resonates with you and proves its quality."



John Cossette, Andrew Miller, and David Hermann calculate their final scores.



Stay tuned for more!

Poço Fundo Part 2

After the visit at COOPFAM's new dry mill and cupping room, we all piled into the van and set off to visit a member's farm. The journey was worthy of an Indiana Jones movie. We were told that the carpets of giant red ants we'd pass on the road were signs of coming rain (not eminent doom.) One collapsed bridge forced a long detour around to another bridge which looked like it was about to collapse. Bets were taken on how the van would fall into the river. The scenery, as it is in most coffee lands, was beautiful-tall rolling hills dotted with small farms, dense lush foliage contrasted with deep red soil, plenty of free-range grass-fed hormone-free cows, and plenty of coffee trees.

We finally arrived at the farm of Sebastião Oliveira Silva after having to shoo a few languid cows off the road. In front of his his family's home was a beautiful new drying patio funded through a rotating grant from the Responsible Sourcing Partnership. Eleven Fair Trade Certified producer groups applied for the grant and after deliberations that included coffee industry experts, five groups we given the loans to disburse among their members. The co-ops are responsible for tracking and reporting the use of the fund on a monthly basis. The co-ops will also pay back into the funds to that other members can benefit on a rotating basis.



Our group was welcomed into thier home and served delicious bolo de banana (banana bread), queijo caseiro (home-made cheese made from those lazy cow's milk), and coffee from Sebastiao's farm. Treats were made by Sebastiao's wife Vania Lucia Pereira Silva with help from their children Camila, Gabriel, and Daniel. Oscar Gonzales found the bolo de banana particularly enjoyable and sat himself down next to the plate.

While the rest of us headed off on a short hike to see Sebastiao's plants, Oscar took a short siesta digestiva on the hammock.



Sebastiao has about 12 hectares of coffee trees, all organic. Like the other flora and fauna in this part of Brazil, the plants were tall and healthy. The harvest was almost a month late this year due to rains and Sebastiao had just finished a few weeks ago. Many of the plants were already undergoing some beautiful flowering, hinting at a strong harvest next year.



We thanked Sebastiao and his family for their wonderful hospitality and headed back down he red road.