For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Mel, Transcend’s ‘foreign correspondent’. I worked as a manager at Transcend for the last two years and am now studying at the University of Oslo in the Culture, Environment and Sustainability Program. I’ll be writing pieces from time to time, as interesting coffee-related topics/events occur on my side of the world.

Last week I had the pleasure of celebrating Kaffebrenneriet’s ninth annual Den Store Kaffedagen (Big Coffee Day). Kaffebrenneriet (or ‘KB’ as its affectionately referred to by those within the company) is a specialty coffee company in Oslo that owns an astounding 21 locations in a city with a population similar to Edmonton’s. Just by the sheer number of locations, one can argue that KB is the ‘Starbucks of Norway’ but this is a misnomer, as the company buys some of the best quality coffee in the world and works hard to maintain a high quality standard amongst its 200+ baristas.

The last days of COE were at once exciting, tiresome, perplexing and interesting. Politics continued to rear its pedantic head in the form of long speeches (all in Spanish) and high-profile politicians attending the awards ceremony (initially the President was scheduled to come but was replaced by the Vice-President last minute). In the end, 25 winners emerged, with Amado Fernandez of the Sánta Barbara region taking first place.

As Poul mentioned, Arturo and Benjamin of Beneficio San Vincente graciously hosted us during our visits to farms in Sánta Barbara. Benjamin acted as translator and provided invaluable information about the region, which he grew up in. Without Benjamin and Arturo, it wouldn’t have been possible to access all the farms we visited and we definitely wouldn’t have learned as much as we did about the coffee industry in Honduras. It was inspiring to see how hard the people at San Vincente work to elevate the quality of coffee in Sánta Barbara. Arturo is an agronomist, so he has a lot of knowledge about the growing of coffee in the region. On top of that, he is a cupper (he judges COE at the national level), a roaster and helps process coffee for export. I’m quite sure that if Poul hadn’t introduced himself to Arturo, we wouldn’t have had as complete an experience visiting farms as we ended up having.

Meeting and talking with farmers (through Benjamin) was humbling. Considering the challenges they face – lack of electricity; roads constructed by their own hands; limited means of communication with one another and the international market; lack of access to equipment (just to list a few) – Honduran farmers are producing fantastic coffee. While this was my first time visiting coffee farms and meeting coffee farmers (admittedly giving me a limited perspective), I was incredibly impressed by the dedication and care these farmers have about the quality of their coffee and how it is perceived internationally. These are people who earn (maybe) a few dollars a day. If all they thought about were how to provide the next meal for their families, no one could blame them. If they met visitors with distrust and weariness, few would be all that surprised. Yet all we experienced was warmth, openness, grace, and lots and lots of questions. What do you look for in a cup of coffee? What do you think about how I planted my trees? What do you think about the varietals I’ve planted? What do you think I can do to improve the quality of my coffee? Most of these questions were directed at Poul, who did his best to answer based on his experiences in other coffee growing countries. One of the main things I took from these visits (and it’s been a generally recurring theme as I explore more of this industry) is that I know very little about coffee. It’s what constantly keeps me both challenged and motivated to stay.

Poul asked the farmers if there’s anything they want us to tell our customers and the responses were resounding: a lot of hard work goes into producing coffee and there are many, many challenges. Despite this, it is evident that these farmers are continually striving to produce better coffee. The evidence of this is in the fact that Sánta Barbara farms are increasingly dominating the top-25 spots at Cup of Excellence. Arturo believes the best way for Honduran coffee to improve is through the competition and more international exposure and purchase. Honduran coffee farmers aren’t looking for aid or handouts from the international community; they’re proud of what they do and as I keep mentioning, they care a lot about how their coffee tastes and how it is perceived in internationally.

Something that was reinforced during this trip is that there are some amazing people working in the speciality coffee industry. I learned a lot from the COE judges and saw how passionate they are about serving great coffee at home, as well as doing as much as they can for the people growing coffee. While there are lots of questions regarding how to best go about buying coffee “fairly”, it is reassuring to know that many people doing the buying are aware of the complexities involved in “fair trade” and are willing to forge ahead and learn as much as they can about how to responsibly buy and sell what we all love.

I hope you’ve found these posts about Honduras interesting and (at least somewhat) informative. We hope to build long-lasting relationships with the people we met this past week and hope you’ll soon be able to enjoy coffee from this exciting country.

When we arrived in Tegucigalpa, I was initially struck by the shiny malls and modern roads. I didn´t come with a ton of preconceptions, but I was definitely not expecting to see this. However, we'd just arrived and had only driven a little bit out of the airport. The landscape quickly changed into tiny and crowded tin houses perched precariously on hillsides, bumpy roads, people riding horses and mules. A lot of people ride in the back of trucks and many people hitch rides randomly. From what our airport escort told us, Honduras is a country that is quickly developing in certain ways: lots of roads are being constructed and as the brand new supermarkets and malls indicate, there are more people with disposible income. The scenery on our way to the hotel was mostly farms, huge green valleys, scattered houses and lots and lots of pine trees (another surprise).

After we arrived at our hotel - three and a half hours outside Tegucigalpa - and sat down to dinner, it quickly became apparent that the Cup of Excellence program is very important to the economy in this region (Marcala), as expressed in the many welcome speeches by local government officials. I can´t even count how many expressions of thanks I heard, as well as the earnest appreciation for what the jury panel is doing this week for the coffee industry here. Monday was calibration day and all the judges and observers got together and cupped some blended coffees (the coffees were blended because the organizers don´t want us to be able to identify individual coffees during official cupping) and then discussed each coffee and the scores they received. We did a couple rounds of calibration and called it a day. For the most part, jurors fell within a tight range of scores, but some coffees were definitely controversial and it was very interesting to hear why people disagreed on their scoring. The cupping room itself is beautiful: brand new tiled floors, high ceilings and big, spread out cupping tables. We meet in a gazebo after every session of cupping and discuss the round in warm and breezy outdoor air. I´m not sure how common it is to do this kind of thing outdoors, but for me, it´s a great way to refresh after sensory overload.

Everywhere we go, we´re treated like VIPs. After cupping is done for the day (around 1pm), we break for lunch and have the choice to participate in daily cultural activities. The towns we visited both yesterday and today obviously planned weeks in advance for our arrival because we received official welcome speeches from the mayors and watched organized performances by local artists and dance groups. Tomorrow, the national congress will be coming to our hotel for the express purpose of meeting us and finding out how the first days have gone. It's all a bit crazy.

It would be easy to view Honduras as a peaceful and easygoing country that is tourist-friendly based on the treatment we've received. But in order to actually believe that, you would have to ignore the fact that every time we leave the hotel, we travel in an entourage (straight up!). Yesterday it was a line of identical red trucks book-ended between police cars with their lights flashing. Today it was a tour bus with the same police entourage. On top of that, there are military men with rifles traveling in separate trucks from ours. WHAT THE WHAAT?!

Joking and absurdity aside, we're here to cup coffee. And that's what we are all doing with much pleasure and the utmost respect for the hard work these farmers do. What we are constantly reminded of by Sherri, our head judge, is how much of an impact these events have on the coffee industry. Although specialty grade coffee isn't even close to what most companies will buy in any given year, the rewards and benefits to winning farms of COE are enormous. Today I heard a story about a farm that had gone into receivership about eight years ago. Someone suggested to the farmer that he submit coffee to COE and the farmer, with nothing to lose, agreed. His farm ended up winning the competition and with the money it earned from auction, the farmer was able to get himself out of receivership and go on to place in the top three the following year. Economics aside, we cupped some beautiful coffees today: florals, sweet citrals, crisp acidity, almond/pecan nuttiness, chocolates, caramels... These are just a few of the descriptors. Tomorrow we'll cup the remaining 20 coffees and then re-cup all 39 coffees on Thursday. The 39 coffees that made it here have already gone through a national jury panel and we're the last stop before auction. Friday, the winners will be announced and we'll all celebrate another year of great coffees from a country that is establishing itself as a distinct and high-quality coffee growing region.

It's been daunting and a bit overwhelming for me, a novice cupper, to get past my inexperience and the fact that I'm surrounded by some very talented and world-renowned cuppers. With a clear head, an eagerness to learn and an excitement at having the opportunity to taste wonderful coffees, I've been able to overcome (mostly) all that surround this event. My first day of real cupping went well: my scores were close to the range of most jurors, with only a few exceptions. Hopefully the next few days will go as well.