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87 www.baristamagazine.com But the Colombian Coffee Federation took charge and made the extra effort to identify the farms where it was occurring and help solve it. After conducting two yearly programs, the competition is now every other year for each harvest. The quality from Colombia can be stunning and farmers have enjoyed record-breaking scores. Colombian coffee has garnered more perfect scores by individual cuppers than any other country. It was an easy decision for Costa Rica to join the party in 2007. The Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica had already been conducting their own auction with micro mills turning out unusual flavor profiles, so rounding out the Central American programs with one that was already beloved by all was a no-brainer. Cup of Excellence's next stop was Rwanda. The logical final step of both the Pearl Project and Spread was to bring in a competition to showcase all of the quality improvements from the previous years. In 2008, a very distinguished jury headed to Rwanda to celebrate the culmination of their efforts. Many of these same jurors had been volunteer trainers and cuppers before COE. President Kagame awarded the first-place prize in a huge ceremony. After three years of readiness training, Burundi joined as the second East Africa country. Since Burundi was a Gourmet Project country, I was really happy to be able to bring COE to the well- deserving farmers. I knew Burundi's potential already, so I think I was not as stunned as many others at the quality. Sadly, both Rwanda and Burundi suffer from a defect that tastes like potato. Mexico is the most recent of the Cup of Excellence countries, after Amecafé, the national coffee organization, provided a means for all of the regions to work together on a national coffee program Almost everyone in the U.S.A. is familiar with Mexico's coffee, but most are not familiar with the small, extremely unique microlots that the program is just now beginning to uncover. Again, Mexico has very large mills and these present both a challenge and a huge opportunity for the country. SA: How is the organization changing? SS: Portland, Ore., is the new hot spot for ACE. Portland is really perfect for our office. It is coffee central and easy for almost everyone to get to. The wide open space will welcome everyone to join us cupping the winning coffees, putting together buyers, watching the auctions, and learning cupping skills. Along with the occasional party, a lot of work will get done. Sherri Johns; Anna Abatzoglue; Lindsay Amor, our new administrative assistant; and Chris Wade, our brand new head judge-trainer, will be in Portland. ACE plans to hire a new managing director for Cup of Excellence in the near future. Most if not all will also be located in Portland. Anyone who wants to come to Montana is welcome to visit me here. Other interesting changes coming up for Cup of Excellence in the near future have been in the works for a long time, and others are relatively new: Tweaking the cupping form has been a big one for years now and what I want to try is mathematically complicated. But as we move to digital forms, the math will be easier and we can weight certain categories to really reward attributes that are special to Cup of Excellence. We are hoping to focus on the incredible amount of data coming from the competition process and use it to better understand the changes, the new varietals, the weather, the marketplace preferences, etc. This could be an invaluable tool for countries to pinpoint specific problems and test solutions. We are hoping to have coffees from pilot projects in Burundi and Rwanda this year to analyze if there is any success in reducing potato defect. Get Your Café On The Map! www.baristamagazine.com Add your café's location, hours, coffees, brew methods, and more! Download the Free App! B o o k 4 7 - 9 2 . i n d d 8 7 Book 47-92.indd 87 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 4 7 P M 5/15/14 10:47 PM