that good good
There is always coffee somewhere. Twenty-five, is the number of coffees that the annual Good Food Awards has announced as its 2019 finalists. And these twenty-five coffees are about to be everywhere they can be in the next couple months, if they haven’t been already.
Last year, Ethiopia – yes mama Africa – swept the 2018 awards with coffee roasters representing from California to New Jersey. The nominations often full of known and newly acquainted coffee roasters are an opportunity to explore deeper into the origin of a coffee and the roaster that has developed its profile.
Aiming to redefine good food and for this culture, coffee especially, these finalists, like nominated actors in an industry award system these roasting brands will receive increased attention with many more eyes on them and the beans they roast. With hundreds and hundreds of independent roasters in our nation, having this Awards champion the good in food that they are creating allows us as explorers of coffee to make connections beyond our familiar.
California leads the finalists with five nominations; there’s a newcomer whose name alone – Drink Coffee, Do Stuff – gets this culture and the mountain people’s attention, there’s Oregon, Washington and Texas each coming in second with the former state getting a back-to-back nod and 2018 win for Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters’ roasting – both from the Gugi Highlands of Ethiopia. And, on a personal note, the founder of this webzine’s late great-grandmother was raised in Oak Cliff, Texas, thus, for a specialty coffee – Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters – to be coming out of this town with a GFA nomination is especially noteworthy.
Some notable finalists include coffee brands one’s keen on what’s new in this culture should keep an eye on – the sustainable minded Still Vibrato out of Oregon who also have a stellar desert mug, Perc Coffee Roasters out of Georgia who swear you’ll freak out over their ‘good coffee’ and Folly Coffee Roasters out of Minnesota who aim to bridge the gap that was in themselves “between the coffee elite and the everyday drinker of jo.”
This year’s tally is Arkansas (1), California (5), Colorado (1), Georgia (1), Illinois (1), Ohio (1), Oregon (2), Maine (1), Massachusetts (1) Minnesota (2), Montana (1), New Jersey (1), Pennsylvania (2), Texas (2), Virginia (1), Washington (2).
Here’s to drinking well into 2019 when the Awards ceremony will occur on January 11 and the subsequent marketplace will be held on January 13.