More Coffee Diversity in the List of 2020 Good Food Awards Finalists

File photo.

Twenty seven coffee roasting companies from all over the United States have been named finalists for the 2020 Good Food Awards.

The awards program, now in its 10th year, celebrates food products and their makers in numerous specialty food categories not merely for quality, but for sustainable sourcing and social impact. Coffee is the only product category in which the ingredients do not need to be sourced from United States soil, making it one of the awards program’s most difficult categories to evaluate in terms of traceability and verification.

In recent years, coffees from Ethiopia have tended to dominate the lists of GFA finalists and winners, although the group’s coffee committee this year noted a concerted effort within the submission criteria to “accommodate the enormous cultural diversity of coffee production.”

All coffees for the competition are judged on flavor, with judges seeking “sweet, clean, well-developed body, balanced acidity and phenomenal aromatics.” Yet roasters must also provide evidence that submissions must meet or exceed the Fairtrade premiums price paid; that the producers behind each coffee demonstrated sustainable practices; and that the roaster itself provides a positive and safe work environment while meeting numerous other baseline sustainability marks. More on the submission criteria can be found here.

While still highly favoring Ethiopian selections and/or Gesha varieties, this year’s list of GFA finalists shows notably more diversity as it relates to coffee locations of origin. Specifically, the 2020 list includes far more representation in Latin America, with selections coming from farmers or producer groups in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador and Colombia.

Despite the persistent bias in the specialty coffee community towards the West Coast, most all U.S. regions are well represented, although five of the 27 finalists do hail from California.

Here are the 2020 Good Food Awards Finalists for Coffee

1000 Faces Coffee, Luis Ordoñez, Georgia

Barrington Coffee Roasting Company, Gera, Massachusetts

Beanstock Coffee Roasters, Ethiopian Shakiso Kayon Mountain Organic, Massachussetts

Bonlife Coffee Roasters, Kiambu Muiri, Tennessee

Caffe Ladro, Guatemala Juan Alva Tello, Washington

Case Coffee Roasters, Ethiopia Dimtu and Kenya Kainamui, Oregon

Coffea Roasterie, Ethiopia Dimtu Tero, South Dakota

Confident Coffee Roasters, Guatemala – Gaspar Perez Domingo, Arkansas

Craft & Mason Coffee, Ethiopia Yabitu Koba, Michigan

Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea, Kossa Kebena, Ohio

Equator Coffees & Teas, Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Gesha, California

H+S Coffee Roasters, Kenya Chwele, Wyoming

JBC Coffee Roasters, Janson Geisha Lot #109, Wisconsin

Klatch Coffee, Colombia Finca La Maria Geisha Natural, California

Linea, Guatemala El Injerto Reserve, California

Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, Moras Negras, Mi Finquita Coffee Farm, Virginia

Noble Coffee Roasting, Ethiopian ‘Bedhatu Jjibicho’, Oregon

Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, Carmen Geisha, Texas

Olympia Coffee Roasting, Big Truck Organic, Washington

Penstock Coffee, Taaroo Mill, Ethiopia, New Jersey

PT’s Coffee Roasting Co., Hacienda La Esmeralda Mario Natural, Kansas

Rothrock Coffee, El Salvador – Loma La Gloria “Friendship,” Pennsylvania

Sightglass Coffee, Ethiopia, Benti Nenkka, Hambela, California

Speckled Ax Wood Roasted Coffee, Ethiopia Jabicho, Maine

Spyhouse Coffee Roasting Co, Juan Domingo / Guatemala, Minnesota

Steady State Roasting, La Pradera Mokka, California

Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, Mario Alarcon, Colorado