October 2010
20 posts
Coffee Transporting Challenge
The fifth and final challenge of the Seed to Cup tested the baristas’ physical strength and gave them some insight into the daily rigors that a coffee farmer faces. The task: Transport 75 kilos of coffee in parchment from the small community of Belén to the village of Bella Florida. The collection station in Bella Florida is where many farmers from the area bring their dried coffee. It is graded...
El Acopio-the Coffee Collecting Challenge
For their 4th challenge this Monday, teams Sapa Inca and Blackfoot walked 1 kilometer outside of Finca la Encañada, to a small caffee-farming community of 20 houses called Belén.
The task: To act as workers for el acopio, the process of collecting coffee from each coffee farming family in the community. The families in the community had ready at their houses 35-pound bags of coffee parchment to...
Listen here to 2010 Canadian Barista Champion Kyle...
WatchThe Seed to Cup Barista Origin Adventure: Twelve World Barista Championship finalists, split into two talented teams, facing challenges in harvesting, processing, transporting and roasting their own lots of specialty coffee.
Market Day Challenge
On Sunday morning, teams Sapa Inca and Blackfoot traveled one hour on muddy, pot-holed roads away from Finca la Encañada to the weekly market in the nearby town of Rioja. There, they faced off in again in their third challenge.
The task: Set up a table at the market and brew and sell coffee for the people shopping at the markets. Selling coffee at the equivalent of 20 cents per cup, the team who...
Katie called in to give us a live update on the...
WatchBuilding drying beds for Challenge #1
Katie called us for an eyewitness update of the...
The Drying Bed Challenge
On Saturday at 2:00pm, Teams Sapa Inca and Blackfoot received their second challenge.
The task: build a functioning drying bed for coffee parchment. The first team to finish a quality, functioning drying bed wins.
Provided materials: wood, nails, and a hammer.
The judge: Fermin, Finca la Encañada’s farm manager.
As the teams set about framing and building in the sweltering midday...
Introducing Team Sapa Inca and Team Blackfoot
The baristas barely had time to settle in at Finca La Encañada before they were split into two teams. Teams Sapa Inca and Blackfoot will compete against each other in all manner of coffee farming and processing challenges in the coming week. Competition will be fierce—just look at this lineup:
Team Sapa Inca
Fabrizio Sencion -2009 Barista Champion, Mexico Haruna Murayama - 2010 World...
Day 1 on the farm!
Reporting in by cell phone, Katie told us that Friday the twelve baristas caught a 5 a.m. flight from Lima to Tarapoto, Peru. From there, they drove three hours up into the mountains, passing from rural communities through increasingly remote farms and fields of livestock, and then, eventually up into the mountainous jungle area where Finca la Encañada is located. The farm owner Dionisio Aguilar...
Sustainable Harvest’s Katie Gilmer just...
March 2010
1 post
October 2009
6 posts
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Seed to Cup: Final Challenge
For the final challenge, the two teams of champion baristas each had 10 minutes to prepare the best espressos and cappuccinos from the coffee they had roasted at Selva Negra, then an additional 10 minutes to serve as many coffee drinks as possible to the appreciative audience at Let’s Talk Coffee. The qualities of each espresso and cappuccino were evaluated by four expert sensory judges,...
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“The Michael Jordans of espresso.”
– David Griswold, Founder of Sustainable Harvest, referring to the baristas of Seed to Cup.
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Let's Talk Coffee 2009 @ Twitter →
Follow the action moment-to-moment at Let’s Talk Coffee 2009, where the champion baristas of Seed to Cup are serving drinks, conducting training workshops, and assisting with the single-origin espresso competition. Tomorrow the edited video from Seed to Cup will be shown to conference attendees shortly before the baristas’ coffee is judged in the final challenge. Meanwhile, the film...
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September 2009
16 posts
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Seed to Cup: Day Four
Challenge Six - Turning Compost: Selva Negra farm, site of the Seed to Cup Challenge, uses organic compost made from farm waste to fertilize coffee plants. The compost needs turning, and who better to do that then two teams of champion baristas? Each team was given five minutes to see who could shovel the most, and they dug into the challenge with enthusiasm. Once again, Team Ripe Cherries were...
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Seed to Cup: Day Three
Day three of the Seed to Cup Challenge. Every member of the film crew and support staff, staying at the nearby eco-resort and eating at the resort restaurant, was sick this morning. None of the baristas, staying at the seasonal laborers’ quarters and eating with the farmworkers, were sick. Go figure. As the wan crew set up for the shoot, hurrying to the bathroom in turns, the baristas...
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Seed to Cup: Day Two
Coffee Washing and Sorting: Yesterday was a busy day for the competing baristas. Picking coffee cherries. Transporting coffee seedlings. Falling over one another in panicked flight from the farm’s guard dog. Today they rose for the next set of challenges slightly the worse for wear, but still enthusiastic, a clear sign that nobody has leaked the plans for tomorrow’s challenges. ...
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Click here to read about the story of Selva Negra... →
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Seed to Cup: Day One
Challenge One - Picking: After a night in the seasonal workers’ quarters, the baristas were awakened at 4:30 in the morning to eat breakfast with the other farm laborers. On the menu were beans, rice, tortillas, and “something that tasted like badly brewed tea” (coffee, actually, but all the best beans get shipped out). The last of the baristas had arrived by van from Managua...
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Seed to Cup Champions Filter In...
Growing and harvesting great coffee is hard. Making a great espresso is hard. Few people have the opportunity to see firsthand the skill and artistry involved in creating a superb single-origin coffee from the farmers at origin to the baristas at your favorite neighborhood coffee shop, but throughout the Seed to Cup Challenge we hope to reveal to you the hard work involved in each step of the...
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Introducing the Seed to Cup Barista Challenge
The Challenge: Sustainable Harvest is proud to present the Seed to Cup Barista Challenge. For most international barista championships, competitors spend months in preparation, studying the origins of their coffee and fine-tuning every detail of their presentations to create a flawless specialty drink. A single step could cost them a trophy, or define their career. But how well do they know coffee...