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Posted on April 16 2013
April 16 2013
We had a fantastic time at the 25th SCAA in Boston last weekend with cuppings, interviews and lots of time spreading the quality coffee word! Mercanta were out in force at 25th SCAA in Boston last weekend and it was a success all round. We got share our love of quality coffee with a lot
Posted on April 1 2013
April 1 2013
Last Friday there was much excitement in the office as we became the proud possessors of ‘Mercanta’ engraved cupping spoons. As eager as we were to test them out straight away, we knew they would benefit in the long run from a little tempering. Although the need to season a roaster is widely accepted in
Posted on March 20 2013
March 20 2013
12th – 14th April will see thousands of people from more than 75 countries descend on Boston to discover the world of specialty coffee. The 25th Annual SCAA Exposition will feature hundreds of exhibitors from the coffee world as well as educational sessions covering a wide array of topics. It promises to be a spectacular
Posted on December 2 2012
December 2 2012
Each Christmas Mercanta sponsors a charitable project in one of the coffee-producing origins we work with. This year we decided to support FUNPRES, a not-for-profit organisation that runs support and prevention programmes for victims of child abuse in El Salvador. We have just received a report back on the project’s progress… FUNPRES (short for ‘Fundación
Posted on November 28 2012
November 28 2012
On Friday 23rd November we held our first off site invitational cupping day at one of the UK’s leading specialist coffee shops, Colonna & Small’s in Bath. We had a great turnout from roasters based in the South West and I’m sure that everyone enjoyed this opportunity to put faces to names and companies. We
Posted on October 30 2012
October 30 2012
In early September Colombia and the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) celebrated their 10th Cup of Excellence Anniversary in Popayán, Cauca – and what a privilege it was to be part of the international jury. A record total of 1,043 lots were entered into this year’s competition, from the regions of Cauca, Nariño, North Huila,
Posted on October 17 2012
October 17 2012
This August I had my first chance to take part in the Cup of Excellence programme, an opportunity that I have been very eager to experience. I arrived in Rwanda on the evening of 24th August very excited about getting to know more about this country and its coffees. There is only an open expanse
Posted on September 19 2012
September 19 2012
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our UK lab for a fantastic afternoon of cupping last Friday. We had a great time and really appreciated all the feedback from the group. It was a busy afternoon – a group of over ten of us cupped a total of 36 coffees, across three tables.
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
A big thank you to everyone who came to see us at our stand at the SCAE World of Coffee in Vienna last week. We really enjoyed the show – and the nail-biting WBC, World Brewers Cup and World Cup Tasters finals of course! It was fantastic to see another WBC winner from an origin
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
This May I was lucky enough to be accepted as part of the International Jury for the Guatemala Cup of Excellence 2012. Needless to say I was very excited to spend a week cupping some of the season’s best coffees from this fantastic origin country. We arrived in Guatemala City on the Sunday evening and
Posted on April 26 2012
April 26 2012
Mercanta was delighted to attend the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) event in Portland last week. This was our first time exhibiting at the show and we had an excellent few days meeting friends old and new. Our booth was staffed by our Mercanta North America team of Leah and Katherine (Hartline), who are
Posted on August 16 2011
August 16 2011
We’re excited to learn that our independent sister company, London School of Coffee (LSC), is now offering two modules from the SCAE’s brand new Coffee Diploma. LSC trainer and coffee industry veteran, John Thompson, will be teaching Green Coffee and Sensory Cup Tasting at LSC from September. About the Diploma Launched in June 2011, the
Posted on June 16 2011
June 16 2011
Mercanta’s team in Seattle are very excited about their brand new cupping table! We can’t wait to host our first cupping day for our North American customers. The custom built table top was installed this week, meaning that our new lab and office in central Seattle is finally complete! We have the same table in
Posted on April 14 2011
April 14 2011
We are very excited to announce that Mercanta North America has recently moved into a new office space in central Seattle – equipped with a custom-built cupping lab of course! We shipped our very first container of specialty coffee direct from origin to North America in 2006, after a decade of sourcing and importing some
Posted on March 11 2011
March 11 2011
In February I was lucky to have the chance to attend the annual East African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) conference, close to Arusha in northern Tanzania. This was my first trip to origin for Mercanta so I was very excited to get going – if a little unsure of what to expect. Needless to say,
Posted on September 30 2010
September 30 2010
Our most recent cupping event was a great success. As usual we cupped three tables of coffees: two tables of twelve and one of thirteen. The aim of this autumn’s event was to look at new crop coffees due in later this year – including the latest Brazilians, Indians, Tanzanians, Ethiopians and Indonesians – alongside
Posted on July 23 2010
July 23 2010
We are delighted to report that July’s Invitational Cupping Day was a great success. The aim was to showcase our new crop Central Americans, as well as to see how some existing lots from our inventory are holding up. We also couldn’t pass up the chance to taste some of our most recent African coffees
Posted on May 27 2010
May 27 2010
I feel very fortunate to have been able to be part of this year’s El Salvador Cup of Excellence International Jury and there is only one word to describe this year’s crop in El Salvador – exceptional! A total of 124 growers submitted their fruit to the Salvadoran Coffee Council for the first round of
Posted on May 5 2010
May 5 2010
Mercanta has donated two sets of two tickets for the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa to FIFA’s charitable Ticket Fund. This initiative will make World Cup matches accessible to thousands of South Africans who could not usually afford a ticket. FIFA will give a total of 120,000 free tickets to South African residents
Posted on March 3 2010
March 3 2010
Flori, Christian and Stephen recently took Mercanta to the third International World Coffee Congress, a three day event in Guatemala City where we decided to run an exhibition booth. Christian made the local arrangements and Flo and I arrived the day prior to the show to add the Mercanta ‘feel’, which in this case resulted
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