Over the last few months our team has been out in the wider coffee community, from the cupping tables of the Global Coffee Awards World Championship in El Salvador to hosting three regional rounds of the same competition in our Charleston lab. It's been a busy season of travel and connection, and we wanted to share a few highlights from the journey.
Judging the Global Coffee Awards World Championship in El Salvador
In March, Traci Armstrong traveled to San Salvador to judge the first Global Coffee Awards (GCA) World Championship, held from March 20 to 23 alongside the Producer & Roaster Forum. The GCA is a competition for roasters: regional Gold, Silver and Bronze winners from the US & Canada, Europe and Origin editions sent their best coffees to be evaluated blind, and the world champion was crowned from that field.
Over three days of judging, Traci evaluated around 400 samples alongside coffee professionals from more than 10 countries. For her, the experience was a reminder of the sheer amount of work and pride that producers and roasters put into their coffees, and a chance to step back from the day-to-day of importing and reconnect with the global context of what we do.
On the ground at Mapache
While in El Salvador, we also spent time with Sofia Escobar and Jan Carlo Handtke at Mapache. Moving straight from a competition table to the farms where the coffee grows is always grounding, and it's a big part of why we make these trips.
Sofia and Jan Carlo both come from multi-generational coffee farming families. Beyond their hospitality, the standout moment of the visit was the nursery at Finca Cartagua, where they currently have more than 40,000 young Marsellesa plants ready to be cycled into the farm.
Jan Carlo chose Marsellesa because it offers much better resilience to drought and disease than the Pacas and Bourbon trees it will replace, while still delivering a bright, sweet cup. Marsellesa is a Sarchimor-type variety (a cross of Villa Sarchi and Timor Hybrid), bred for leaf rust resistance, and it has become one of the go-to choices for Central American producers renovating older farms. Seeing that kind of long-term investment in a farm's future is inspiring, and we look forward to following these lots over the next few years.
Why renovation matters: replanting a farm is a multi-year bet. New trees take three to four years to reach full production, so a producer choosing a resilient variety today is planning for harvests at the end of the decade. It's one of the clearest signs of a farm that intends to be around for the long haul.
Bringing it home to Charleston
A couple of months later we brought that experience back home. Over three days in June, our Charleston lab hosted the judging for the GCA's regional MENA (Middle East and North Africa), Africa and Asia editions, with Traci serving as lead sensory judge. Every entered coffee from those three regions was shipped to Charleston for evaluation, which put an unusually wide range of roasting styles and origins on our tables in a single week.
Bringing that international energy and such a diverse selection of coffees into our own space was the perfect conclusion to this season of events.
What's next for the Global Coffee Awards
Planning is already underway for the next season. The 2026 GCA World Championship will be held at PRF Mexico on March 18 and 19, 2027, and we're excited to continue our work with the GCA team. We'll share more about our involvement soon. In the meantime, you can visit the Global Coffee Awards website to see what's on the horizon for upcoming regional and global events.
A big thank you to the producers, roasters and everyone in our local community who made these events happen. We're glad to be a part of it, both here in Charleston and with our partners abroad.
Related: read about our 2020 Coffee Quality Summit in Yepocapa, browse our current offerings, or request samples from the Charleston lab.