The Força Café Championship was created to spotlight Brazil’s hardworking, quality-focused smallholder coffee producers—and to help ensure them a fair price for exceptional work.
Submissions are narrowed by export company Stockler, which purchases dozens of lots at well above market price, and then winning lots—selected by an international judging team—are made available through a three-day online action. Every additional cent earned in the auction goes directly to the producers, and buyers have the option to contribute a premium to Casa da Criança, a community center whose impact on its coffee-focused community truly can’t be overstated.
These coffees are delicious, traceable and already making a very real difference across generations of coffee producers. We hope you’ll join us in bidding December 17.
In the New York City area? We’ll be hosting a cupping of winning lots in our Hoboken, N.J., office (111 River Street, Suite 1220) from 3–4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12. Please join us!
Some Fine-ish Print
To participate in the auction (or the cupping), please contact Head of Providence Trading Gerra Harrigan at gerra.harrigan@nkg.coffee, who will bid on your behalf. The auction will include the top 12 natural processed coffees and the top 10 semi-washed coffees. (The winning lots were announced during an event on the NKG-owned farm Fazenda da Lagoa October 18, and the top 10 naturals are listed below.)
The auction will take place over three rounds—but you must bid during the first round to bid during subsequent rounds. NKG Stocker will not participate as a bidder; it will instead define the minimum price for the auction and purchase, prepare and ship the coffees during a shipment period of January/February 2020.
Bidding will begin at $2.50, and the highest bidder during the final round wins. Winners will have the option to include a 10¢/pound premium to be paid to Casa da Criança — a community center in Santo Antônio do Amparo (the nearest town to Fazenda da Lagoa, and home to many of Lagoa’s full-time and seasonal workers). With donations received this year, Casa da Criança hopes to expand the number of courses offered and the young people it reaches; improve the quality of its Taekwondo Project (which has nurtured nationally ranked athletes); improve two of its bathrooms and purchase fans for its Taekwondo and Music rooms.
For any additional information — about the auction, the producers, Fazenda da Lagoa, Stockler or Casa da Criança — please, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. These coffees and the auction have enormous impacts on the producers and their communities, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to help share their story and find these coffees great homes.
Natural Process Winning Coffees:
1st: Joseane Borges da Silva
Strawberry, grape jam, bubble gum; big, round body.
Municipality: Lambari
2nd Place: Cleber Thiago dos Reis Silva
Tropical fruit, peach, banana, chocolate; syrupy body.
Municipality: Lambari
3rd Place: Rosangela Moura Alves
Apricot, nectarine, honey, sweet, citric acid.
Municipality: Santa Margarida
4th Place: Eugênio Rossi F. Souza
Nutella, clove, baking spices; sweet and balanced.
Municipality: Boa Esperança
5th Place: Valdir Batista Borges
Lemonade, black tea, pipe tobacco; sweet, savory, citric.
Municipality: Camacho
6th Place: Ivanir Maria Bastos Silva
Green apple, lemon, citric; bakers’ chocolate finish.
Municipality: Santa Margarida
7th Place: Elieser Carmelito da Silva:
Hazelnut, cocoa, butter; sweet, creamy body.
Municipality: Santa Margarida
8th Place: Ronan de Oliveira Silva
Orange, herbal tea, sweet and juicy; citric acidity.
Municipality: Ilicínea
9th Place: Eliane Vieira Lemos Ferreira
Cherry, dark chocolate, hazelnut; creamy body.
Municipality: Ilicínea
10th Place: Amilton Rezende Peixoto
Hazelnut, cinnamon; creamy and balanced.
Municipality: Santo Antonio do Amparo
11th Place: Regina Fatima Bueno
Strawberry, peach, floral grape; creamy body.
Municipality: Ilicínea
12th Place: Joaquim Fernandes Peixoto
Caramel, hazelnut, lemon, sweet.
Municipality: Santo Antonio do Amparo
Caption: InterAmerican Head of Providence Trading Gerra Harrigan with producers Rosangela Moura Alves (first place winner in the Semi-Washed category and third-place winner in Naturals) and Joseane Borges da Silva (first-place winner in the Naturals category) during the Oct. 18 awards ceremony on Fazenda da Lagoa in Minas Gerais, Brazil
