Roasters! Enter Your Coffee in the Good Food Awards Competition!

Brent just emailed me about this today, and it’s an awesome thing to share with all the United States coffee roasters out there. So remember the amazing Slow Food event in San Francisco not too long ago? When all those roasters and growers and baristas came together to educate the general public (granted, the fairly top tier Bay Area foodie general public, but still…)? Well, it was a totally killer event, with tons of education and success. In fact, the coffee bar set up for education was so successful that it established a new template for the espresso and brew bars you often see at U.S. Barista Championship events, and also this past year’s World Barista Championship in London.

But ANYWAY. The point is, it was awesome that the people putting Slow Food together recognized that copffee deserves to be its own category in such an event ”too often in these kinds of bigger events and situations, coffee is still just an afterthought, considered a condiment like mustard or relish.

So anyway, this will be the first year of the Good Food Awards, which was launched by San Francisco-based Seedling Projects.

From the website:

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. We host an annual Awards Ceremony and Marketplace at the iconic Ferry Building in San Francisco to honor new Good Food Award recipients and also organize a month of events and tastings to support the wider community making good food.

In its inaugural year, Good Food Awards will be given to winners in seven categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles and preserves. Awards will be given to producers and their food communities from each of five regions of the US. The Good Food Awards seal, found on winning products, assures consumers they have found something exceptionally delicious that also supports sustainability and social good.

Yes, coffee!

HOW TO ENTER

From now through September 15, coffee roasters are invited to submit their goods for blind tasting. Three finalists will be awarded and one overall winner will be selected from each region of the United States. To enter, basic product information must be submitted through the Good Food Awards website, and a $10 processing fee will be charged. All products must be self certified by the producer/roaster as meeting the criteria of social and environmental responsibility outlined on the form. Confirmed entrants will be invited to mail samples for the blind tasting.

JUDGES

In the coffee category, the judges are:

Andi C. Trindle, Coffee Buyer and Trader for Atlantic Specialty Coffee
Benjamin Kaminsky, Director of Quality Control for Ritual Coffee Roasters
Chris Davidson Trader & Relationship Coffee Specialist for Atlas Coffee Importers
Edwin Martinez, Producer for Finca Vista Hermosa in Guatemala
George Howell,Founder & President of Terroir Coffee Company
Andrew Barnett, Founder of Ecco Caffe
Tony Koneicy, Founder of tonx.org
Brent Fortune, Owner of Crema Coffee + Bakery
Jason Long, Green Buyer for Café Imports
Peter Guliano, Director of Coffee Counter Culture Coffee
Tal Mor, Head Roaster of Four Barrel Coffee

AWARDS CEREMONY

Good Food Award winners will be announced on January 14, 2011, at an evening event for the food industry hosted by Alice Waters at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. And on January 15, 2011, all Good Food Award-winning products will be showcased at a public marketplace tasting.

Winners will receive a Good Food Awards seal to place on their product, an invitation to participate in the ceremony and marketplace tasting, and connections to the network of national buyers who seek our foods that meet the Good Food Awards criteria.

So go enter this, U.S. specialty coffee roasters, and get your craft out there! We’d love to hear about your experience, so please keep me posted! sarah@baristamagazine.com.