Hawaii Coffee Association presents virtual Conference, cupping competition
The statewide Hawaii Coffee Association presents an informative two-day webinar featuring coffee industry leaders, researchers and educators. The June 24 and 25 event is a free resource for its association members and the broader community.
In addition, HCA hosts the 12th annual Statewide Coffee Cupping Competition with winners announced during a 5 p.m. June 25 virtual awards ceremony. The eadline to enter HCA’s inaugural remote cupping competition is May 21. Coffees will be blindly cupped in three rounds using the Specialty Coffee Association of America scoring system.
Emilio Lopez of Topeca Coffee Roasters will give the conference keynote on “Living with Coffee Leaf Rust.” A seventh-generation farmer, Lopez is managing director of Odyssey Coffees, an agro-industrial organization based out of El Salvador, which together with companies in the US and Brazil, runs a vertical integrated coffee business. Odyssey grows and processes coffee from over a dozen farms and distributes them across the world to roasters who demand top quality. Topeca Coffee Roasters operates two different roasting facilities with cafes and a multi-state distribution.
“Twenty-twenty was the year of COVID and coffee leaf rust,” said HCA President Chris Manfredi. “Twenty-twenty-one represents the year in which we have an opportunity to successfully emerge from these multilayered crises.”
The webinar offers the latest information on a broad range of topics, changing trends and regulations.
“The coffee industry and the conditions in which we operate are changing rapidly,” added Manfredi.
Register for the conference at https://hawaiicoffeeassoc.org/page-1771716. For the official rules and required entry form for the Cupping Competition, visit https://hawaiicoffeeassoc.org/event-4242154.
For more information on the assocaition, visit www.hawaiicoffeeassoc.org.