Collaboration and Education at Second Le Carnaval du Café in Paris

Photo from Le Carnaval 2012 courtesy of Collaborative Coffee Source.

After a November postponement, Oslo, Norway-based green coffee importer The Collaborative Coffee Source is readying the return of Le Carnaval du Café to Paris January 25-27. For real this time.

The company created the inaugural event in 2012, hoping to promote collaboration among professionals working in what it calls the high end of the specialty coffee ladder. Says CCS:

We are reaching out to coffee professionals: ambitious coffee roasters, green coffee buyers, farmers, millers, exporters, importers — quite generally to colleagues in the trade — and all knowledgeable people that want to learn as well as contributing with their own experiences.

One of the most intriguing collaborations planned for this year’s event is between Collaborative Coffee Source itself and roasters in the creation of the “Collaborative Brew Bar,” a popup bar that will serve event-goers with coffees sourced by Collaborative Coffee Source, roasted by select partners and served by select Parisian baristas. Says Collaborative Coffee Source:

The Brew Bar is a space at the event where the attendees meet with other attendees over great coffee brewed by local Parisian baristi. It’s not often that coffee colleagues-producers, exporters, roasters-have the chance to drink and compare their work with one another in this type of setting.

The bar will provide a social setting and mind fuel for the otherwise education-focused Carnaval. The program is heavily focused on economic issues and progressive strategies among some of the world’s most renowned coffee producing countries.

The Monday, Jan. 26 program is largely focused on coffees, research and political issues in Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia, while the following day the focus shifts to trading, farming and processing practices in Central and South American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Honduras.

The impressive list of speakers includes Philippe Lashermes, Paul Songer, Oliver Strand, Lauren Rosenberg, Heleanna Georgalis, Flavio M Borém, Carlos Arévalo, Benjamin Paz and Miguel Moreno.

For a complete schedule, including information on how to become a partner roaster for the Collaborative Brew Bar, check out the Carnaval site.