An Ethiopian Coffee Competition

Of all the world's beverages, perhaps the most complex and variable is coffee. More than 800 distinct molecular species contribute to the flavor and aroma of roasted coffee. While the method and style of roasting can greatly influence the cup flavor of coffee, the potential of the cup is set before the unroasted coffee reaches a roastery by the care taken in growing, picking, and processing the coffee, the environmental conditions in which the coffee was grown including soil composition and patterns of shade, rain, and temperature. Coffee grown on one side of a mountain will not taste te same as coffee grown on the other and considerable effort has gone into defining geographic regions that produce distinct coffees.

With the remarkable variety found within coffee, it may come as a surprise that most coffee is sold as a commodity. This failure within the global coffee market to capture the distinctiveness of coffees has led many to consider alternative economic models.

Some, such as Fair Trade, seek to impose a correction on the existing market by setting rules determining a minimum price for coffees grown on small cooperatives. There are some farms, such as Hacienda La Minita, that have been able to name the price they want for coffee independent of the commodity market. Several buyers have been experimenting with fixed price contracts as a means of ensuring fair compensation for farmers and the continuing availability of the high quality coffees the specialty coffee industry depends on. Another recent model is the competition auction. We were pleased to recently participate in such an auction.

A few competition auction programs exist. The best known is probably the Cup of Excellence. Other programs include the Q-Auction and The Exceptional Cup. On 30 June, 2005, the auction for the first eCafé Gold Ethiopian Cooperatives Coffee Competition & Auction was held. This auction sold the top 12 dry processed coffees from the competition and the top 14 wet processed coffees.

All of these programs operate in a similar manner. An organization puts together a competition. Growers try to produce the best coffee they can for this event. Usually a preselection process has professional cuppers select the best of the coffees submitted and these are scored by an international jury. The very best coffees are selected for an auction. Samples are then sent to interested parties. An online auction determines who will get each lot.

In this auction, most lots were 20 bags with the smallest being a 9 bag lot. Each bag weighs 60Kg. We were not in a position to buy all of any one lot so we entered a bidding group arranged by another company to obtain five bags of a 20 bag lot. The other 15 bags were split among six other companies.

All of the auction lots are shipped from Addis Abeba, Ethiopia to Rotterdam, Netherlands. Our coffee will then be shipped along with other coffees to Oakland, California where our five bags will be put on a truck with other coffees we have ordered to be delivered here.

The coffee we won is an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Hama Cooperative. This dry processed Fair Trade Certified coffee was grown at an altitude of 2100 meters and was the highest ranked Yirgacheffe in the competition. The international jury described this coffee as elegant, floral, sweet, round, balanced, and complex with notes of apricot, figs, clove, lemon, dried fruit, tobacco, and honey. Our own cupping revealed a strong, sweet aroma and intense flavor in line with the above description.

This is the finest Ethiopian coffee we have ever purchased. Watch for more information when this coffee arrives.

—Neal Wilson

Update:

The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Hama Cooperative mentioned in this article has been unavailable since the end of 2006. Hama Cooperative took first place in the next eCafé auction, which I was a judge for, and that lot was sold to a Japanese company for $10.65 per pound, the highest price bid in that auction. We placed the winning bid for the dry processed lot from Konga Cooperative. That coffee is now available.