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86 barista magazine thought we were crazy and so would not hold the lots unless the project bought them first. The ICO loaned us the money to buy the coffees. The coffees were sold at a three-day auction, the loan was paid back, and the extra premium was paid to the farmers directly. The first-place coffee, sold to Martin Diedrich, broke the Brazil record at the time. It was thrilling. But then, just like that, the donor funding went away. No more outside funding, no extension of the project for being successful, no taking this to other countries—seriously nada! The second competition, funded by BSCA with help from the Brazil government, can be summarized by Marcelo Vieira saying, "Let's see where we can take this." George and I came back on board as consultants, we worked with Silvio, Don Holly, Mr. Hayashi, and the SCAA, and the farmers sent in samples that changed everything. SA: How did it grow over the years? SS: In early 2001, Anacafé signed on. George and I would act once again as consultants. He served as head judge, and I coordinated the program, rules, and auction. Bringing Guatemala onboard was huge, not just because it was Guatemala [which was] a known specialty producer, but because the first competition discovered so many coffees that to this day without COE may have been blended away. In 2002, Nicaragua came on board. I am really simplifying the process as I recall spending hours discussing whether focusing on quality programs was a better option than organic, Fair Trade programs No one outside of a producing country understands how difficult it is to create the infrastructure needed to execute Cup of Excellence, and if it were up to me, countries that have COE should just automatically be given a premium. It takes so many people working together to take care of the incredible demands of Cup of Excellence. It was in 2002 that several supporters decided the program needed to change from being the "George and Susie Show" and have a structured organization with a set of global advisors. The goal was to make sure the program rules were exactly the same everywhere, that selection protocol was executed properly, that famers were being paid, and that the buyers were assured that the COE logo meant the same on every coffee. I filed the requisite paperwork—The Alliance for Coffee Excellence became a Montana nonprofit organization and the new owner of the Cup of Excellence. Ted Lingle, who was on the first board, laughingly threw me a dollar and said, "OK, you're the new executive director!" Little did I know that dollar would need to stretch a long way if Cup of Excellence were to survive those first years. Late in 2002 George left the program to develop his other interests. In early 2003, it became apparent that ACE would need to build its own auction platform and website. Having no extra capital, we decided to raise funds through memberships. The first lifetime membership from Solberg & Hansen [Oslo, Norway] went to building the new website and auction platform. The rest of 2003 was spent relishing the incredible coffees that El Salvador brought to auction. Few believed El Salvador with its large mills could actually separate small lots. But with the same enthusiasm that he did everything, Ricardo Espitia, then director of the Consejo [El Salvador's specialty-coffee association] made this happen, and roasters all over the globe have cheered ever since. 2004 brought Honduras and also Bolivia on board eager to showcase coffees that had languishing undiscovered. Both were true diamonds in the rough and a huge challenge, especially since we had never brought on two countries in the same year. In 2005, Colombia took the risky road of supporting a Brazilian— Silvio Leite—to lead its first international jury. That first program uncovered so much phenol that I expected a one-time program. Kansas City // May 31 - June 1 Twin Cities // June 14 Boulder & Ft. Collins // August 9 - 10 caffeinecrawl.com Facebook = /caffeinecrawl Twitter = @caffeinecrawl B o o k 4 7 - 9 2 . i n d d 8 6 Book 47-92.indd 86 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 4 7 P M 5/15/14 10:47 PM