A summary of Coffee Encounters and Cupping Open

Last week our corporate events Encuentros Cafeteros and Open de Cata took place.
After a few years of pause due to the pandemic and the digitalization of Mare Terras Coffee, this year we have resumed our events and we have organized them once again at Hotel Rey Don Jaime in Castelldefels.
We kicked off Thursday 19 with the handing out of accreditations to the attendees, having coffee and greeting our suppliers, partners, customers and friends, we were looking forward to seeing you all again!

The talks were given throughout Thursday and Friday morning, accompanied by activities and tastings for the participants.
The attendees had the opportunity to listen to the speakers explaining different topics about their experiences, their points of view and they really made us connect with the magic of Coffee.

From Africa we had the strength and entrepreneurship of Coffee Producer Rosabella Langlat who works with her husband Sammy to improve coffee farming and support women coffee producers in her region Kericho & Nandi Hills. The spirit of self-improvement and energy of Emmanuele Rutsatira of Bahoo Coffee from Rwanda who spoke to us about his experiences and achievements and the development of our joint breast cancer prevention project ‘Breast Cancer Prevention’ and Kirubel Fikresilassie of Daye Bensa, whose constant investment in the education of young people and the new generation is creating opportunities in all facets of the coffee chain.

Lais Falheiros attended Encuentros Cafeteros together with part of the Cocapil team from Brazil. Lais talked to us about how they have evolved in the production of specialty coffees in a Natural way, about the enthusiasm he has for them and how they invest in infrastructure to develop new innovative techniques for regional Producers and for their own Farms.
Daniel Robles from Descamex – Mexico – in his talk he told us about the decaffeination of coffee, a very formative talk full of years of experience.

From Central America came Martha Albir of Cafetos de Nueva Segovia (Nicaragua), Andrés Salaverría of Jasal (El Salvador) and Mariano Ventura of Bicafé Guatemala together with Enrique Salazar of Bicafé Honduras.
Martha told us how the production of Arabica coffee is developed in Nicaragua, the challenges and problems they face and the actions they employ such as education and training for young farmers that they develop together with partners such as Mare Terras Coffee.
Andres’ talk was marked by his experience, how he has worked with our R&D team and how they have managed to maintain new processes that have been scalable to large quantities, and all that the process entailed, it was really a clear example of achievements in coffee growing.

The Bicafé team talked to us about the differences in the production of two Central American countries, such as the productions of small producers and their infrastructures, in a very visual way that gave us a good insight into them.
Colombia was represented by Luis Mauricio Rivera of Coocentral and Hertson Bernal. Luis Mauricio spoke to us about coffee growing in the Huila region and how the Coocentral Cooperative has managed to increase exports and maintain quality.
Hertson Bernal, a small Producer from the Huila region associated with Coocentral, told us how he and his family, which is his main pillar, started with the Cultivation of specialty coffees and how he began to work with our R&D Department. Hertson explained to us how he joined the ‘Young Coffee Growers of Huila’ project and about his commitment to the development of specialty coffees in his community, and how he shares the knowledge he has acquired with other coffee growers so that they too can make progress.
For all of us who attended the Coffee Encounters, Hertson’s talk was very emotional, he is a clear example of perseverance, overcoming and courage, without a doubt Hertson touched our hearts with his words and his feelings and made us connect with the magic that the world of coffee has for all of us who dedicate ourselves to it.

We have to thank all of our partners for their involvement and their willingness to share their knowledge and experiences. Without a doubt, for us, seeing that the essence of Coffee Encounters continues after so many years makes us very happy.
Thanks to all of you who participated!

We close Coffee Encounters to give way on Friday afternoon to the semifinals of the Open Cupping 2023.
We welcomed 34 participants with a lot of energy and desire to win the Grand Prix. Participants in the championship came from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Germany, Holland, Ireland, France, Ethiopia and Spain.
The semifinals demonstrated the high level of the participants, since in the Sensory Memory Tasting there were 4 participants who got 8 of the 8 cups right.

A total of 8 finalists were classified for Saturday, who, in addition to sensory memory, were playing for the triangulation prize, adding the time factor that makes the results vary.
The results were close, the 4 participants got the same points in the final (10) but the time was the determining factor to classify the winners.
The first prize went to Gabriel Céspedes, a taster with a lot of experience in championships, who won the €6,000, with a difference of 3 seconds to Valeriy Nikulin who won the €3,000. The third and fourth prizes went to Ilya Bychek who won €1,500 and Ilya Khlyzoff who in fourth place won €500.

The participants had a high level, this shows that each new edition of the Open Cupping is a challenge for many coffee tasters and that our team does not make it easy with the coffees chosen for the cupping tables!
To all the participants, thank you for participating, for coming to have fun and enjoy this championship!

We take this post to thank the sponsors who have collaborated and helped us to carry out this event: La Marzocco, Arias, BWT Water & More, Marco, Flores Aduanas, Cargo Flores, Compak and WW Right.

Thank you all, see you soon for new editions!