India's Finest Coffees Judged in Berne, Switzerland

Coffee Board has been organizing an annual competition entitled "Flavour of India - The Fine Cup Competition" since 2002, with an objective of promoting production of high quality specialty coffees in different regions and to create an awareness among the global consumers about the unique quality profile of Indian coffees.

Ever since the Competition was launched in 2002, the Coffee Board has been trying out many innovations for the success of the competition. One such step was to conduct the final cupping session in some strategic countries from the perspective of specialty coffee market. The main objective was to provide wide publicity for the competition and to the winners of the competition in the specialty coffee markets.

The Board organized the final cupping session of "Flavour of India - Fine Cup Competition 2006" at Berne, Switzerland to coincide with the 'World of Coffee Conference & Exhibition' and '7tn World Barista Championship' organized by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE). The final cupping session was held on 17'h May 2006 in which eight expert cuppers participated as an international jury and assessed the samples. The International jury for the final cupping session comprised of the following members:

Mr. Alf Kramer, M/s.Remarc, Norway ; Mrs. Sunalini N.Menon, Mis. Coffeelab, Bangalore ; Mr.Tim Wendelboe, Norway; Mr. Hirokazu Hamasaki, M/s.Nippon Coffee Co., Japan ; MS.Marja Touri, M/s.Paulig Coffee Co., Finland ; Mr. Daniel Badilatti, M/s.Blaser Trading AG., Bern, Switzerland; Mr.lnacio Teixeira, M/s.lnter American Coffee GmbH., Hamburg, Germany ; Dr. K.Basavaraj, Coffee Board, Bangalore. A total of 40 coffee samples in different categories were put up for cup quality evaluation by the international jury. Among the Arabica coffee samples, the plantation bulk sample from Badnekhan estate has been selected as the India's finest Arabica coffee. This estate is located at a high altitude of about 4000ft above MSL in Basrikatte village of Koppa taluk in Chikmagalur district, Karnataka.

According to the owner SrLPrem Kurian, the sample from the Arabica variety Selection-g, has been carefully prepared by following meticulous on-farm processing involving selective harvesting, natural fermentation, drying on raised platforms at the estate level. Incidentally, the coffee from this estate had won the Fine Cup Award for two consecutive years in 2002 and 2003.

Among robustas, the parchment AB sample from Choudicadoo estate belonging to M/s.Bombay Burmah Trading Co. Ltd., has been adjudged as the finest Indian robusta for this year. This sample has been prepared from the well known variety S.274, grown at a high elevation of about 3,3000 above MSL. in Coorg district, Karnataka. SrLM.K.Sanyal, Group Manager, Plantation Division, M/s.BBTC Ltd., who was present in Berne at the time of declaration of results of the competition, says that he has received a large number of enquiries about his coffee with offers of good premiums.

The award for finest among specialty coffee category was bagged by Monsooned Malabaar-AA sample from Mis. Aspinwall & Co. Mangalore who are well known in the world market as suppliers of good quality monsooned coffees from India.

There was also a special award for the best coffee from small grower's category coffee growers from Vasuvada village, Chintapalli taluk, Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. This Self Help Group called 'Grama Devatha Mahila Sangam' comprising of 110 tribal households cultivate arabica coffee in about 350 acres. This year, the group has made special efforts in preparing a high quality coffee and submitted a common sample. This is the first time that coffee samples have been submitted by two different tribal SHGs and both of them have reached the final stage of the competition and one among them won the special award for the small growers category.

All the jury members were quite impressed by the variety of coffees put up for the final tasting session and appreciated their quality. The scores of final cupping session were compiled on 18th May 2006 and the results were announced on 19th May 2006 at the World of Coffee Exhibition. A Tasting session of award winning coffees was arranged on 19th May 2006 at the venue of the 'World of Coffee' for the benefit of interested roasters and green coffee importers. There was a very good response for this tasting session and there were many enquiries about the award winning coffees. A brochure containing profiles of all the finalists of the Flavour of India-The Fine Cup competition -2006 was distributed widely among the participants of the tasting session as well as to the visitors at the Boards' stall.