The Malaysian capital is often visited in a hurry, but visitors who take the time to explore will discover a welcoming city, thanks in part to its friendly specialty cafés. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti Kuala Lumpur, the capital...
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
Thread Coffee Roasters Opens Tailor-Made Roastery in Baltimore
The interwoven actions of Thread Coffee Roasters in Baltimore are finding exponentially more space this week with the grand opening of a brand-new production roastery and training lab. The worker-owned...
Toronto’s Pilot Coffee Roasters Acquiring Bridgehead Coffee for $3.6 Million
Toronto, Ontario-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer Pilot Coffee Roasters is acquiring Ottawa-based Bridgehead Coffee in a deal worth approximately US$3.6 million. Bridgehead, which has 21 coffee shop locations throughout...
Baking With Coffee For Beginners
This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. Where to get started when introducing coffee to your bakes.
Bypass coffee brewing: How can it improve extraction?
There is a lot of science to brewing coffee. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, we trigger – and try to control – an almost endless number of chemical reactions to achieve the perfect extraction. To do so, we have to tweak different variables – such as grind size,...
Hawaiian Legislators Introduce Bills for Stricter Coffee Labeling
Legislators representing the Kona district of Hawaii have introduced a series of bills that would require more strict labeling requirements for single-origin coffees and blends containing Hawaiian-grown coffees. Some Kona...
New AFCA Director Gilbert Gatali on the 20th African Fine Coffees Conference
As the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA) prepares for the 20th iteration of its flagship event, the African Fine Coffees Conference and Exhibition, the group is operating under new executive...
Philadelphia’s Café Don Pedro Seeks to Build Up Small Businesses
A Dominican-owned coffee roasting company called Café Don Pedro recently launched in Philadelphia with ambitions for direct trading and boosting more Latino-owned small businesses throughout its supply and distribution networks....
How much do you over-extract coffee in recipes?
This is sort of an odd question, but it's not a troll. While I love brewing specialty coffee, I also enjoy frappes (with or without ice cream). A major hurdle when using my espresso has been that while the final beverage tastes fine, the coffee is just too high...
Sprudge Maps Spotlight: Little Bear Coffee In Albuquerque, NM
This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. Little Bear Coffee in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Starbucks Will Hold their Own Barista Championship Thank You Very Much
This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. The North American Barista Championship is expected to host over 15,000 Starbucks hourly workers.
What I Learned from My First Tea Ceremony
After taking in a brief moment of a tea ceremony in Thailand, I finally had the chance to participate in the full experience recently in Malaysia. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti In the years that I worked as a barista in a café,...
Why it’s easier for wealthier producers to grow specialty coffee
It takes money – and sometimes a lot – to grow specialty coffee. Producers not only need to continuously maintain and improve quality and yields, but they also have to invest back into their farms. Whether it’s replacing equipment and machinery or planting more...
Does specialty Robusta exist?
Hello! Has anyone tried 'specialty robusta'? I work with specialty cacao, and I often observe Robusta shrubs being cultivated at lower altitudes alongside cacao trees. Some farmers are experimenting with carbonic maceration to enhance the marketability of...
[MOD] The Daily Question Thread
Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread! There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community...
The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC
This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. Where to drink coffee in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Coffee Machine (High density use)
Hi everyone, i am new in this coffee world and i am looking to buy me a coffee machine to setup a small business. I am looking for affordable machine that is good for high density use. Im open for any recommendation and opinion. Thank you guys! Here is what ive found...
Which to buy first?
Hi there, mostly a lurker until now. I'm trying to incentivize myself towards some goals and decided that rewarding myself with a better coffee set up upon reaching those goals would be great. I plan to get myself one nice thing when I reach my intermediate goal...
[MOD] The Official Deal Thread
Welcome to the /r/Coffee deal and promotional thread! In this weekly thread, industry folk can post upcoming deals or other promotions their companies are holding, or promote new products to /r/Coffee subscribers! Regular users can also post deals they come across....
The London Coffee Festival has just more than doubled its ticket price
Last year: £18 This year: £38 Unbelievable. It’s the same venue and same setup. I’m just an ordinary coffee fan and every year I spend a lot buying roasts and equipment there. submitted by /u/gahgeer-is-back [link] [comments]
Explain making good coffee to me like I’m 5.
Hi everyone, I’m not new to drinking coffee, but I’d like to start making it (well) at home myself. I’m totally clueless. I have an old Keurig that I rarely use, as well as a basic Mr. Coffee maker. Usually I buy dark roast ground coffee (I do like a good, strong cup...
Seeking instant test for rough caffeine level in coffee
About once a month, some inattentive barista gives me regular coffee by mistake, which is a bummer. I drink decaf. So when I get coffee at a cafe, I'd like to do an instant test of the rough caffeine level by dipping a strip into the coffee. Something analogous...
Questions/thoughts on cardamom-forward "thermal shock" processed coffees.
Hey everyone, Having a cup of Buttercream from September roasters and got to thinking. This is the second thermal-shock processed coffee I have had with this huge, distinctive cardamom note (The other being DAK milky cake which is also from Colombia, but from a...
Third Wave Coffee brands
Greetings to all, I am reaching out to this knowledgeable community with a query regarding the recognition of coffee brands within the third wave coffee movement. Is there an existing, publicly accessible list that categorizes and acknowledges coffee brands as part of...
The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica
Feria del Café Frailes seeks to increase the gender diversity of coffee competitions.
BY SUNGHEE TARK
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cover photo by Sunghee Tark
The coffee industry has come a long way in the past 20 years, with innovations happening in many parts of the world and in different links of the supply chain. The World Barista Championship serves as a showcase of some of the best coffee professionals from around the globe. However, despite the many talented competitors who have graced the stage, there has been a noticeable lack of racial and gender diversity among the competitors.
This diversity gap is noticeable not only on the world stage but also at national and regional competitions. In order to address the noticeable gap in Costa Rica’s national barista competition, on January 21-22, Feria del Café Frailes, in partnership with ICAFE in Costa Rica, hosted the country’s first-ever women-only Barista Championship and Cup Tasters Championship.
The winners of the two championships would have direct spots at the national competition to be held in March 2023. This serves as an opportunity for the winners to further their careers and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
Beginnings of Feria del Café in Frailes
Jonathan Ramirez, one of the competition’s organizers and ICAFE’s barista trainer, believes that this event was historical because it paved paths for more diverse representation in these competition stages in the country.
“I have been directly involved in organizing Barista and Cup Tasters Championships since 2017 in Costa Rica,” Jonathan says. “Despite how many talented women (and gender-diverse) baristas there are in many places that I have worked, not many chose to compete on these stages.” As an organizer, that is something that he took to the team at ICAFE and SCA Costa Rica.
In fact, in 2022, the semifinals of Barista and Cup Tasters Championships in Costa Rica had only one woman competitor each out of the top eight competitors. It was not too different in previous years, with women always being less represented in these stages.
Making Space for Women in Coffee
Valery Torres, a barista at Dark Brews and the winning Barista Champion at the Feria del Café Frailes, will be competing soon at the national competition in March. She explains her reason for competing in the women-only Barista Championship. “Since my childhood, I grew up surrounded by coffee. I grew up in coffee-farming communities, and since four years ago, I have dedicated myself to the craft of making coffee.”
Despite her interest in competing and challenging herself further, she doubted if the competition was the right path for her. “Competing on the stage at the Feria del Café was one of the best experiences I’ve had, where not only did I feel like I marked a path as a barista but also grew personally. However, until that juncture, there were many doubtful moments. I saw very few women on these stages and questioned if I could even do this. Participating in the competition (at Feria del Café Frailes) felt safer and more ‘doable.’ Now I know I can go out of my comfort zone to continue competing at the national levels, no matter what.”
Sabrina Alvarado, the newly crowned Cup Tasters Champion at the Feria del Café Frailes, is a coffee professional representing her family mill, Beneficio El Roble, in the region of Los Santos, as well as the Costa Rican Academy of Coffee. She shared a similar sentiment to Valery’s, saying, “I’ve learned two things participating in this competition. One is that with a commitment to discipline, effort, and dedication, we can achieve anything. And second, I’ve felt like I finally understood that we can do (things that) we were told or (indirectly shown) were not ours to do.”
Looking Ahead
The organizers hope to see more diverse representation in the national competitions in the coming years, and they see this women-only championship as a signal to more individuals from diverse backgrounds to participate and compete in these stages.
The second edition of the competitions is already in talks, with the possibility of expanding the scope to latte art and roasting competitions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sunghee Tark (she/her) is the co-founder of Bean Voyage, a feminist organization that collaborates with smallholder womxn coffee producers to build an equitable coffee value chain. She is also a freelance coffee writer, Specialty Coffee Association LEAD Scholar, and Re:Co Fellow.
The post The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.