A small roaster / retailer trying to locate and purchase the highest quality coffees from around the world is a daunting task. While brokers do their best, they are limited in their ability to search the four corners and find the best. Small producers are limited by production economies of scale that blend their care and knowledge into homogenous coffee lots sold for commodity prices. ACE and The Cup of Excellence offers a breakout from that cycle for the farmer. Participation in The Cup of Excellence is the road of that breakout that brings the best of the best to your door from each country. The ability to cup and critique the top winning coffees from an entire country is impossible from your office without COE delivering them to you. Especially as an International Jury Member, I was sucked into the “COE Family” from which I never want out. Especially as an International Jury Member, you become part of a dynamic international family with other cuppers and producers. My goal for being on the board of ACE is to offer a vision from the point of view of a small but growing specialty roaster, to increase the program’s visibility and value in the marketplace and to provide assistance in any way that I can by offering my time and energy without a lot of the politics that come into play.

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