Five Senses Coffee Blog

Rwandan COE winners announced

Wow, what an awesome awards ceremony! I took a brief video of the hundreds of farmers singing in union to ‘welcome’ the ceremony. It was an exciting and memorable moment in my coffee career as we sat in the front row and heard our names called out individually to be recognised for our contribution to the competition, in front of a sea of Rwandan farmers. We have arguably the easiest job and I’m sure every jury member saw it as a privilege and an opportunity to connect with the growers.

Rwanda is made up of small lots of farmers, some growing tiny amounts of coffee, which makes the COE competition here unique and, in some ways, a little more challenging. It’s up to the farmers, co-ops or washing stations to combine and submit their lots, with the challenge being to ensure consistency. The samples are cupped so many times that inconsistent lots often don’t make it to the top. Winning lots can come from as few as 10 farmers or as many as 100. What this means is that some winners may not strike it rich, but they will certainly have some extra disposable income which will allow them to make some small choices that will benefit their livelihood. Maybe a goat, maybe a cow … in some ways, it seems like the COE in Rwanda will be very far reaching for that exact reason.

Winners can be seen here.

I’ve made my way to Tanzania and am currently in the small town of Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro. I’ve spent the last two days at Let’s Talk Coffee Africa. There’s a large representation of farmers from East Africa and it’s been very interesting listening to them voicing their concerns and discussing important issues that affect their livelihood as producers in developing countries. I am sitting tight, listening and learning, while sipping on an espresso prepared by Ishan (South African Barista Champ) and Soren (Danish Barista Champ and number five in the world).  Tomorrow we head to the farms … and then I fly home in the evening.

Back in Kigali

We are back in Kigali and getting ready for the awards ceremony with the farmers this afternoon. Now that the ‘technical’ part of the competition is over, I have to say that I am incredibly impressed at how well organised the whole event has been. It’s very easy to recognise that an incredible amount of work has gone on behind the scenes for months to make everything happen. I feel quite spoiled as a judge, with our only job being to taste great coffees, stay focused and judge honestly and accurately, all while attending events that have been planned for us. Susie Spindler, Paul Songer, OCIR Cafe, Techno Serve, Spread, the national and international jurors as well as all the volunteers have all come together so beautifully and done a phenomenal job, I cannot thank them enough for the experience.

Yesterday afternoon we visited the genocide museum, a powerful memorial on so many levels. Our guided tour gave us a much clearer picture of life in Rwanda before, during and after the genocide. Touching, disturbing and significant as Rwandans try to look forward, learn from the past and educate their children.

We finished the evening at an elaborate banquet with all the organisers at the Hotel des Mille Collines (Hotel of a Thousand Hills) which was made famous in the movie Hotel Rwanda, which depicted some of the events that took place in 1994.

Kigali

The best job so far

The last big day of cupping is over and if everything goes to plan we will have 24 Rwandan COE coffees going to international auction this October. We had a small party last night to celebrate, with a DJ busting out some tunes and we got our groove on — some of us feeling really awkward compared with the natural rhythm of the national jurors — all in good fun!

Today we have the best job so far, we get to re-cup the top 10 to give them their final score and ranking. These coffees have now been cupped and scored three times by us and numerous times by the national jury. We’ll finish up around lunch time and make our way back to Kigali where we’ll have a small tour of the genocide museum and memorials.

Tomorrow is the awards ceremony and then Sunday off to Tanzania.

The top 10

Half way there…

Day two of serious cupping is over.  We have now officially cupped all the national winners and we will know tomorrow which ones made it through the first round. Day three is the big day, where we re-cup all of the coffees that scored 84 and above. It may very well end up being 4-5 rounds for each coffee … I must force myself to stay focused!

It’s been great fun connecting with what feels like a little COE family from all around the world.   Everyone works with coffee in some capacity and it’ a good mix of importers, cafe retailers, wholesale roasters and quality control experts.

It’s also a great experience to get a chance to connect with other girls in coffee. Nothing against the boys, I swear! The industry sometimes feels very male dominated, so it’s nice to see how women across the globe fit into the specialty picture. There’s the lovely Annette, head roaster and joint owner of Square Mile; Sunalini, the voice of reason and Indian green bean expert, who has reinvigorated my interest in Indian coffees; Marilyn, a bubbly, sweet and smart owner of T.A.N Coffee in Toronto; Addy, a passionate wholesale roaster and owner of Kaffitar in Iceland; Yuko from Japan; Lori from Techno Serve, based in Rwanda; Leatitia from the National Rwandan jury and, of course, Susie Spindler, who is the executive director of ACE (Alliance for Coffee Excellence).

At the end of a long day, while chowing down on yet another meal of potatoes, rice, plantains, pasta and buns (that’s right … carbing up) we catch a glimpse of the COE commercial on the local Rwandan channel.  We watch as images of cuppers, cherries, trees, farms and then … wait for it … a huge pile of CASH flash on the screen.  We had to laugh at the ad, but it is true in a way, a huge amount of money can be paid for the top coffees.

Big day tomorrow — a short safari in the morning, then we finalise the top 10 positions in the afternoon … no complaints here!

The girls of COE

Cocktail party in Rwanda

The night before the competition starts, the organisers host an outdoor cocktail party to give the national jurors, volunteers, organisers and international jury a chance to mingle. You wouldn’t know it, but for many Rwandans, English is their third language, making communication easy and my French (their second language) handy to have. During the brief speeches, we hear what an impact the previous 2008 COE had on Rwanda, with approximately USD$450,000 paid for 25,000 lbs of coffee. There’s definitely a sense of excitement in the air.

The next day we get stuck into the first real competition cupping and we can’t wait to see what’s on the table. All the Rwandan volunteers, many from the national jury, are doing an excellent job coordinating a large number of cupping tables to make sure they are all set up perfectly and that hot water is available as soon as it’s needed.

Lots of interesting coffees and very few potato defects (a bacterial infection found specifically in Rwandan coffees). As of now, only two coffees have been disqualified because of the infection. Some of us are betting that the very first coffee we tasted will make it all the way to number 1, as a number of us scored it over 90 on the first round.

There are lots of kids around, all of whom are interested in the bus load of internationals driving around their small town.  The kids love getting their picture taken and after a while the guards shoo us off — nicely! Kids are great as their photos tend to connect with people around the world. They are happy, playful and inquisitive little beauties.

We are now getting ready for day two … cupping in the morning and visiting washing stations in the afternoon.

More to come …

Kids of Rwanda

Let the cupping begin!

We’ve settled into our new home in Rwamagana and have the first day of calibration under our belts as well as our first sneak peak at some of the samples. In between cupping, palate training exercises, and score sheet discussions we have a chance to get acquainted with some of the 30 odd judges from around the world.  The brand spanking new cupping lab is a short 15 min drive away and is one of four proposed to be built in select coffee regions around Rwanda.

On the jury we have two talented Rwandan cuppers from the national jury (both girls ) and also two from Burundi.  Burundi borders Rwanda and is on track to have their first COE competition in 2012. The national jury recently had the gruelling job of narrowing down 150 samples to the 45 samples we are now left with, which we will narrow down to this year’s auction lots.

Our first real day of work starts tomorrow. It’s actually exhausting and challenging to cup so many samples that are very, very similar. It’s not as easy as identifying the great ones and bad ones. They are all great; it’s about dissecting them on a much deeper, less superficial level. Can’t wait!

COE Cupping

Africa gets in your blood

Wow, I never realised how disorientating international travel is. Flying through the clouds on a typical plane, with familiar food, seating and inflight entertainment makes you feel like you could be anywhere. It was only in the last five minutes of descent that it started to sink in — I’m far, far away and as soon as I hop off the comfortable Boeing shell, nothing would be familiar.

I touched down in Rwanda late last night and stepping onto African soil for the first time felt quite significant. They say Africa gets in your blood and I’m keen to see what sort of effect it has on me. I met my first Rwandan friend, Diede, on my last flight. He briefly mentioned the genocide which he realises his country is internationally known for, but only to compare it to today’s peace. He explained with pride how far Rwanda has come and what kind of country is has become post genocide. We chatted for the last hour and I’m already thinking about coming back on holidays and spending more time here. I explained I was here for the coffee competition and his eyes lit up, he knew all about it, he said it had been advertised on their national TV channel and radio stations. I asked what they are saying and he replied something about it being a good opportunity for the farmers and Rwandan coffee. All he knew was it was a big deal and we chatted a little about what it was all about.

We drove to the hotel and the air was warm, the speed of the traffic was calm and relaxed and I caught my first glimpse of the reason Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills. The plan is to look around Kigali tomorrow then head to Rwamagana to set up base for the week of cupping. I’ve already seen a lot of familiar faces from Canada, the UK and the USA and met lots of new people from Japan and Korea. So far, so good … that’s all for now.

Pic from Jen's hotel room in Rwanda

Indiana Jen heads to Rwanda!

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Cup of Excellence programme is like the AFL grand final and Boxing Day test match all rolled into one! So it goes without saying that we were pretty proud when our very own Jen Murray was the only Australian selected to serve on the judging panel for the 2010 Cup of Excellence event in Rwanda.

Jen has endured a heavy duty barrage of shots and inoculations to get her ready for the trip, which has left her immune system a bit shaken up. Not exactly the perfect preparation for a trip to Africa but I’m sure Jen’s ‘never say die’ attitude and bottomless supply of chutzpah will get her through.

The judging panel represents the specialty coffee world’s dream team, with Tom Owens from Sweet Maria’s, Annette Moldavaer from Square Mile and Indian legend Sunalini Menon all suiting up.

Jen assures us that she will diligently blog her escapades so watch this space as Jen slurps and sips her way through Rwanda’s best coffees. That’s every day, right Jen?!

Indiana Jen

We’ve got worms!

The worms have finally arrived at Ulian Murni! After some particularly dirty work to get the worm farm established (you’d really need a scratch and sniff computer monitor to get the full experience) we now have some worms actively breaking down the discarded coffee pulp. It’ll take a while for the worm population to build to the levels where they’re getting through large volumes of pulp. Worms eat about half their weight in food every day and their digestive tracts enrich the compost with elevated levels of nutrients. The resultant compost will be spread back under the coffee trees and is set to be one of the key factors in our initiative to assist the farmers to return to fully organic agriculture.

We've got worms!

Bali baristas step it up

There has been a lot of emphasis in recent years in improving the skill sets of baristas working in origin countries. The biggest manifestation of this is the recent breakthrough effort of Raul Rodas of Guatemala, coming second at the recent World Barista Championships in London.

We’ve been doing our bit with the barista crew in Bali and on our recent trip there we were rewarded with some really impressive coffee from Komang Budiana at Casa Luna. (Komang was one of the two Balinese baristas we brought to Perth in November 2009)

Despite some pretty ordinary equipment Komang whipped out some great coffee with impressive art. He is one of the most naturally gifted baristas I’ve seen and could easily hold his own in Australia’s best espresso bars with a little more experience. If you’re  ever in Ubud drop through and grab a coffee, tell him we sent you!

Trained by Five Senses, Komang is producing wonderful latte art back in Bali