Coffee Corps Assignment in Uganda and Ethiopia

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to accept a Coffee Corps assignment in Uganda and Ethiopia. From their web site, “Coffee Corps is a unique private-public partnership that matches experts in the industry with farmers and associations at origin seeking technical assistance. These individuals volunteer their own time in order to help growers improve their production methods, quality control processes
or marketing.”
My assignment in Uganda was to work with students who were interested in developing their cupping, roasting, and green grading skills. I was struck by the student’s dedication to becoming technically proficient in all aspects of quality control, even though many of them were already very knowledgeable. I served as head judge for the Taste of Harvest coffee competition and together with a few of the students and very experienced cuppers from Uganda, we selected the top coffees from the current harvest.
My assignment continued to serving as head judge for the Taste of Harvest competition of Ethiopia held the following week in Addis Ababa. Together with a panel of professional cuppers we cupped our way through 60 submissions to determine the winners. It is always a tremendous benefit to cup with people who know their country’s coffees intimately, and it was an honor work in that environment. The top coffees from Uganda and Ethiopia moved on to compete at the annual East Africa Fine Coffee Association conference, which was held this year in Mombasa, Kenya. The top five winning coffees from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe were all cupped together and awards were given for outstanding scores.
It is very exciting to see the increased commitment to, and understanding of, quality in coffee producing countries year after year. When coffee producers understand what the market is looking for and how to deliver it, they become more successful and we all benefit . They are able to command better prices and we are able to enjoy better coffee.
We have some very exciting East African coffee on the books, arriving soon. We look forward to sharing these coffees with you!