Cupping – Best of Panama 2010
The 2010 Best of Panama awards were due to take place this weekend and in advance of the awards and auction on May 25th 2010 the sample coffees were sent to a number of juror’s worldwide.
This is a twist from the normal cupping / grading and auction process where jurys are traditionally flown to origin to taste and evaluate the coffee before the awards are given and the top coffees announced for the year and then made available for auction.
A number of UK and European Coffee Roasters have taken the concept a step further and invited the public to taste some of the coffee on offer for this years auction.
24 samples were sent out and the cuppers/roasters who formed part of the jury roasted and cupped each sample before submitting their scores to the organising body.
I was fortunate to book a space at the Square Mile Coffee public cupping event on Saturday and shared the experience with the SQM staff and 11 other coffee enthusiasts and industry professionals. For many attendees it was their first cupping experience and we were treated to wildly differing tastes in the cup from all 8 of the coffees we tasted.
Anette from Square Mile, a former World Cupping Champion, did a fantastic job of clearly identifying what attributes to look out for and walked everyone through the Cupping Scoresheet which we all had the chance to fill in and use for reference when discussing the coffee towards the end.
Firstly the dry, ground coffee was evaluated for aroma and to pick up the nuances of each cup, before hot water was added and the cup allowed to steep, before the crust was broken and the cups re-evaluated. The process lasted for approx an hour with each cup being evaluated across the full temperature range to see how it reacted and changed over time as it cooled.
The final step was a comparison, with each cupper able to feedback their thoughts on each cup, compare notes and discuss the merits of each coffee.
The farm, varietal and processing method for each coffee is kept a secret, even from the jurors so as not to influence their scoring, and only Lot numbers for each coffee are known.
I’ll be following the auction process with interest to see how each lot number fares and whether international jurors scored the coffees as I did.
Interestingly, nearly all cuppers present scored 1 particular coffee above all others, and I am expecting that this lot, if scored well by other jurors around the world too, will fetch a high price per pound.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend Bank Holiday Saturday and thanks to the Square Mile team for giving up their time to share the experience with others.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment