Forgot your password?
Kickapoo Wins Again!
Every year for the last 5 years, Roast Magazine has put on a Roaster of the Year Competition to which roasters all across the country apply and enter their best coffees. Being the prestigious contest that it is, the competition is fierce and the judgment is tough. This year, CoopCoffee's member roaster Kickapoo Coffee entered for the first time ever and ended up making it as one of the top three finalists!
Roast is a specialty magazine devoted to issues concerning the "art, science and business of roasters." Anyone in the roasting industry either subscribes to it or at the very least, knows about it. That's one of the reason their annual Roaster of the Year competition boasts much publicity and reverence. Winning first place in this exclusive, experts-only contest grants the lucky roaster a front-cover spread along with a full article in the November/December issue of the magazine about the winning company.
 | The competition is open to any and all roasters provided they fill out the written application. Though there's not a particular focus on or special treatment of Fair Trade roasters, FT practices are certainly highly regarded. Last year, 100% Fair Trade Roaster Higher Grounds of Alabama won the Roaster of the Year award. |
The competition is split into two separate categories: one for micro-roasters -- those who roast less than 100,000 lbs of coffee per year -- and one for "larger" roasters (those who roast more). In the application, the roaster explains the history and mission of the company, their techniques in working with the different varieties of coffee, and their dedication to the art of roasting itself. The evaluation process focuses on a couple core issues in the management and constitution of the roasting company. Two central criteria for judgment examine how the roaster incorporates sustainability in his or her business as well how the production demonstrates an innovative twist.
This year, 30 top-notch roasters applied for the micro-roastery category and from that list, Kickapoo came out in the top three! Clearly, their six-page application impressed the judges; they proved to be one of the unique, innovative groups that Roast was looking for! Roast magazine's publisher and contest judge, Connie Blumhardt reports that "Kickapoo had amazing written scores. Their business model is well written, well executed and is a wonderful example of a sound company." TJ Semanchin of Kickapoo claims the Cooperative Coffees story "was a major piece of what made us come out ahead." Indeed, CC's grassroots history and its unique cooperative structure makes it quite unlike most other groups in the industry.
Along with the application, roasters must submit three different samples of coffees, one of which is a blend. After moving on from the written application, the finalists enter a contest based purely on quality. Cuppers from Coffee Lab International -- a coffee testing center that sets the industry's quality standards and provides CC with quality reports -- along with professional cuppers from the West coast tested the three remaining roasters' coffee to narrow the selection down to a finalist. While Kickapoo missed the grand prize, their final standing was very impressive and worthy of CC praise! World-renown cupper, Mane Alves particularly liked Kickapoo's Guatemalan roast (from CC producer-partner Rio Azul) as well as their Kenyan Fair Trade, non-organic peaberry variety (from Royal Coffee importers). Competition was formidable: Kickapoo was up against a roaster who imported the "geisha" variety which has been known to cost over $100 per pound for the green coffee!!
We're proud of Kickapoo and all effort they pour into their coffee and the company... as well as their high marks in one of the most prominent coffee roasting contests on the continent. It goes beyond proving that Cooperative Coffees doesn't claim excellent quality for nothing!!
