We’ve reached the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that was San Francisco’s First Annual Good Food Awards. Winners have now been announced in all categories, including coffee roasters, beer brewers, chocolatiers and other food stuff artisans. Congratulations to the ten coffee roasters that represent the pool of winning finalists, encompassing delicious coffees from Hawaii, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras and Kenya.
We’ve been covering the Good Food Awards over the past few months, during which time several finalists were disqualified for having coffees that could not be certified as being free from synthetic pesticides and/or herbicides. Many in the industry have blamed poorly worded rules and miscommunication for otherwise-delicious coffees being DQ’d from the event – you can backtrack with our GFA coverage by clicking on the smorgasbord of links at the bottom of this post.
The diligent and hard working team of professionals who curated and judged the coffee portion of the Good Food Awards were largely sympathetic to the critical backlash, but they ultimately stuck to their guns and kept a lot of great coffees from reaching the finals. This includes Kenyans and the infamous, delicious Panama Esmeralda, grown by Sprudgie Award-winning producer Rachel Peterson.
Here’s a complete list of winners, taken from the GFA web site:
Barrington Coffee Roasting Company – Ethiopia Nekisse (Lee, MA)
Blue Bottle Coffee – Kemgin (Oakland, CA)
Carrboro Coffee Company – El Aguacate (Carrboro, NC)
Counter Culture Coffee – Finca Kilimanjaro (Durham, NC)
George Howell Coffee Company – Konga Ethiopia (Acton, MA)
Gimme! Coffee – Finca San Luis (Ithaca, NY)
Madcap Coffee – Los Lobos Costa Rica (Grand Rapids, MI)
Montana Coffee Traders – Etiopian Peaberry (Whitefish, MT)
Noble Coffee Roasting – Kenyan Kiaora (Ashland, OR)
Public Domain – Kona Cloud Forest (Portland, OR)
Read about each roaster and their selected coffee here.
This kicks of the glorious Good Food Month. Mark your Dogs In Coffee calendar! “Coffee and Chocolate Week” is January 17th – 23rd.
