On Friday, January 22nd, the American food world digitally convened to bestow one of the more recognizable honors for ethical and sustainable practices: the Good Food Awards.
For 11 years, the Good Food Foundation has been celebrating “the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture.” Coffee has been part of the GFF programming since the beginning, one of the first of such awards to acknowledge both the artisanal and ecological impacts of coffee.
This year, the from a field of hundreds of applicants, only 25 finalists (found here) were named back in November, and from that short list, 14 were crowned the cream of the crop with a 2021 Good Food Award. The list includes names new and old, with blends and single origins, varieties both rare and common, and representing a total of seven different producing countries. This year’s list is a welcome change from the Ethiopia-dominated rosters of past years. So without any further ado, here are the winners of the 2021 Good Food Awards for coffee:
Abracadabra Coffee Co., Mexico Finca Santa Cruz Natural, Vermont
Bend Roasting Company, Layered Fermentation from Abore Washing Station Shatawene Village Sidamo, Oregon
Big Creek Coffee Roasters, Ethiopia Guji Uraga, Montana
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, Cerro Azul, California
Campos Coffee USA, Colombia La Negrita Natural Geisha, Utah
Eastlick Coffee Company, Sudan Rume, Inmaculada Coffee Farms, Florida
Huckleberry Roasters, Phantom Limb Blend, Colorado
JBC Coffee Roasters, Ardent Ethiopia Natural, Wisconsin
Modest Coffee, The Collector: Costa Rica – Familia Monge, Illinois
Noble Coffee Roasting, Ethiopia ‘Benti Nenqa’, Oregon
Onyx Coffee Lab, Panama Lamastus Family, Arkansas
Peach Coffee Roasters, Costa Rica Cordillera de Fuego, Georgia
PT’s Coffee Roasting Co., Ethiopia Tigesit Waqa Natural, Kansas
Triple Coffee Co., Pacamara Natural (Abel Giron, Honduras), California
And coffee’s haul extended beyond its own category, picking up a prize in the confections category with the Coffee Caramel Bar from Chocolatay Confections in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
For more information or to find a full list of winners, visit the Good Food Awards official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
