Good Food Awards photo.
Fifteen coffee roasters in the United States have won Good Food Awards, which were presented this past weekend in San Francisco.
The awards program prizes not just quality, but also companies’ efforts to create a better food system in the U.S. through responsible and sustainable sourcing and operations. Coffee was one of sixteen food categories for this year’s Good Food Awards, alongside other comestibles such as pickles, charcuterie, spirits, chocolate, cider, fish and oils.
Coffee remains one of the only categories in the competition in which the primary ingredient or food element is sourced from outside the country, presented challenges regarding traceability, seasonality and verification of sustainability claims.
In recent years, coffees sourced from Ethiopia have dominated the winners list. All 15 of last year’s winning roasters put forth Ethiopian coffees, highlighting the importance of sourcing rather than roasting in regards to the competition’s quality component.
This year, however, some coffees not from Ethiopia were used by winning roasters. Those included: a Carmen Estate (Panama) coffee from Denver’s Commonwealth Coffee; a gesha from San Diego’s Bird Rock Coffee Roasters; an organic coffee from Finca La Mirella in Costa Rica roasted by Bard Coffee in Portland, Maine; a Colombia Granja La Esperanza from Arkansas’ Onyx Coffee Lab; and an espresso blend from Thanksgiving Coffee in Fort Bragg, California.
Here are all the 2019 Good Food Awards Winners for coffee:
- Organic Costa Rica La Mirella, Bard Coffee, Portland, Maine
- Geisha XO, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, San Diego, California
- Special Prep Ethiopia Natural Bombe, Bensa Sidama, Broadsheet Coffee Roasters, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Ethiopia Limu Organic, Caffe Ladro, Seattle, Washington
- Carmen Estate, Commonwealth Coffee Company, Denver, Colorado
- Ethiopia Guji Hambela Wamena, DRINK COFFEE DO STUFF, Truckee, California
- House Bean – Ethiopia Guji, Folly Coffee Roasters, Silver Lake, Minnesota
- Ethiopian ‘Buku Sayisa’, Noble Coffee Roasting, Ashland, Oregon
- Girma Eshetu, Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, Dallas, Texas
- Colombia Granja La Esperanza, Onyx Coffee Lab, Springdale, Arkansas
- Kayon Mountain, Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Floyd, Virginia
- Ethiopia Kayon Mountin Taarroo, Royal Mile Coffee, Haddon Township, New Jersey
- Duromina, Spyhouse Coffee Roasting Co, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Ethiopia Shantawene, Still Vibrato, Bend, Oregon
- Upsetter Espresso, Thanksgiving Coffee Company, Fort Bragg, California
Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
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As usual I thank you for updates and educational thoughts. Sometimes I am most impressed that coffee is following the shtick of microbrewers and craft brewers, which I was a part of. The recession did to coffee what prohibition did to good beer, and both have recovered and are recovering. Never ceases to amaze me how long Americans require to wake up and smell the coffee.