Coffee has always a facilitator for introductions to new people and things. Going on a first date? Let’s get coffee. Got a new idea you want to bounce off someone? Meet up at the cafe and talk it through. But the pandemic has all but halted any sort of interchange that coffee is so adept at initiating. But thanks to Cafe Imports, coffee is retaking its rightful place as the nexus point of ideas with the Legendary Coffee Exchange. In this very cool, first of its kind program, Cafe Imports will be pairing up participating roasters to share coffees with one another for a communal deep dive into sensory exploration.
Announced today, March 16th, the Legendary Coffee Exchange is open to all roasters in the United States and Canada and is completely free to take part in. The Exchange is simple: interested roasters sign up on the Cafe Imports website between now and March 30, where they will then be paired up and introduced by CI. The roasters will then send an eight- to 12-ounce bag of single origin coffee they have roasted to their exchange partner for a side-by-side cupping of the two coffees. The exchange partners will then link up and share feedback on the coffees via Zoom, FaceTime, email, carrier pigeon, whatever works for both parties.
Now, what coffee each roaster chooses is entirely up to them. Maybe you and your exchange partner have the same coffee on offer and you want to see how they approach it. Or maybe your exchange partner is really good at roasting coffees from Colombia whereas you lean more toward coffees from Ethiopia, so you want to pick each other’s brains about how to get the best out of those coffees. It’s completely up to you!
Ultimately, like coffee itself, the Legendary Coffee Exchange is as much about the connections it facilitates as it is the product being traded. And honestly, it just sounds like a lot of fun, and I want in. So if any exchange partners are looking for a silent third to uncritically praise you, holler at me.
Registration is open now through March 30th. For more information or to sign-up, visit the Cafe Imports 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.
