The 7th Annual Força Café Coffee Championship is underway, despite the countless challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the global coffee community.
Traditionally, judging takes place over several days on Fazenda da Lagoa, the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) farm in Minas Gerais, Brazil. On the evening of the final judging day, the farm hosts an outdoor celebration, where the finalists and winners are announced and presented certificates. Over the last six years, the evening has been a moment for producers to relax with their families, socialize with their community and exhale, knowing the harvest is complete and they’ll be securing a good (if not excellent) price.
From hundreds of participants, the top 12 Natural submissions (the best 4 from 3 regions) and top 10 Semi-washed are determined; these lots are then auctioned live online over three days. NKG export company Stockler purchases all submitted lots; whatever additional amount the winning lots garner in the auction is 100 percent paid back to the producer, as a premium.
Buyers further have the option to add a 10-cent/pound donation for Casa da Crinaça (House of Children), a community center that offers arts, sports, and professional classes to children from the poorest communities in Santo Antônio do Amparo. It is not hyperbole to say: It's a life-changing organization.
Casa da Criança's after-school taekwondo program has placed three athletes on Brazil's national team and one may compete at the next Olympic games. (InterAmerican Europe donated the mats for the practice space.)
Judging Força Café is an enormous amount of work that’s balanced by the pleasure of being generously hosted on an incredible farm, meeting fellow judges from around the world and getting to celebrate with the producers. So, we’re especially grateful to this year’s judges, who agreed to cup from their businesses, while juggling pandemic closures and precautions, as well as holiday lead-up adventures.
This contest is incredibly important to Brazil’s small-scale producers, who are far from a focus in a country celebrated for the size and scale and of its farms. Particularly during the pandemic, the assurance of fair prices, if not also an excellent premium, is enormously welcome.
We offer our biggest thanks to the coffee nonprofit Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung, for working with the producers all year and helping them prepare; to our colleagues at Stockler for reimagining the competition for this unprecedented moment; to Gloria Pedroza, Quality Manager at NKG, for creating an online app for recording cupping notes and scores; to InterAmerican QC professionals Daniela Altamirano and Araceli Mendoza for narrowing down the initial offerings, developing a roast profile, roasting and shipping the finalists, and judging all the semi-washed entries (!); and to trader Gerra Harrigan for judging and rallying a top-notch judging team around her.
Finally, our very heartiest and most sincere thanks to the judges, for making time during the craziest of times: David Conboy, with Karma Coffee; Emma Stratigos, with Salt City Coffee; Jay Kling, with Irving Farm; Jeff Chean, with Groundwork Coffee; Jim Osborn, with Dispatch Coffee; Neil Balkcom, with M.E. Swings; and Pete Femino, with Aero Coffee. Their contribution to the contest is enormously meaningful to hundreds of coffee families—and of course to us.
The generosity of spirit showed by all involved is so in-keeping with the holiday seasons we’re headed into. Truly, to everyone above we say thank you for, again and again, proving to be a community, in the truest sense.
Live Online Auction
The winners of the 7th Annual Força Café Coffee Championship will be announced during a live, online awards ceremony Nov. 30, at 10 a.m. ET. We’ll be sharing a link soon, for anyone wanting to watch and participate.
Of course, as these coffees begin to ship in December, we hope you’ll participate in the most important way of all: By purchasing them, enjoying them and sharing their stories!
From Dec. 1–3, they'll be auctioned online — we'll share details about that as well.
Without further ado, it's our great pleasure to announce that the 12 finalists in the Natural Process category are:
Arnon Augusto Felisberto Pereira Gomes
Deivison Welques Pereira
Henrique Valerio Ferreira de Carvalho
Luiz Matins Borges
Marcones Wender Pereira
Nivaldo Soares
Ranulfo Tobias
Robson Rodrigo Rhodes de Souza
Savio do Reis Borges
Valdir Batista Borges
Valdemir Oliveira dos Reis
Zelia Aparecida de Oliveira
We’ll pass along cupping notes and bag quantities soon — and, of course, we look forward to announcing the winners! •
Top: Gerra Harrigan, Araceli Mendoza and Daniela Altamirano, cup coffees to help determine the Forca Cafe Championship finalists.
