The submission period has begun for the Good Food Awards, an annual competition honoring the best producers of specialty, responsibly sourced goods in the nation, including coffee.
BY ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of Good Food Awards
Last week, the Good Food Foundation announced that they are accepting submissions for the 2018 season of the Good Food Awards (GFA), an annual competition honoring exceptional food growers, makers, and purveyors. The Good Food Awards, which is entering its eighth year, is calling for specialty coffee roasters to submit their best coffees to be tasted and judged by a panel of coffee experts to determine what the standout coffees of the year. “The Good Food Awards celebrate the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsibly produced. We grant awards to outstanding American food producers and the farmers who provide their ingredients,” the website notes.
Along with coffee, the GFA honors producers of a variety of specialty goods, including charcuterie, fish, oil, and cider. This year, the GFA is introducing a new category called ‘elixirs,’ meant to capture items like drinking vinegars, bitters, and tinctures that have been traditionally lumped into the category of ‘spirits.’ GFA gives out top honors to 15 purveyors in 15 categories, with winners being announced in early 2018 in San Francisco. After the awards ceremony, winners will be featured in an open market where people can purchase some of the best specialty goods the United States has to produce.
While there are a number of awards and competitions to honor food and drink, the Good Food Awards places equal importance on taste and sustainability, and has been incredibly popular amongst the coffee community and beyond. “As the only national initiative to recognize food crafters who excel in both taste and sustainability, we anticipate over 2,000 entries from all 50 states,” a press release states.
Interested competitors need to submit an application by the end of July and will then send samples to be tasted during a blind cupping in September. In the past, coffees have been brewed and tasted by a panel of coffee experts—including roasters, green buyers, coffee educators, and business owners from all across the United States. Past winners of Good Food Awards in coffee have included Square One Coffee Roasters of Lancaster, Pa., Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in La Jolla, Calif., and Kickapoo Coffee Roasters in Viroqua, Wis. You can see a full list of last year’s winners, along with winners from the last eight years of competition, by checking out the website. You can also learn more about other specialty purveyors and see what foods have won top honors in the past.
The window for submitting applications will close on July 31.
