Podcast: Darrin Daniel from Cup of Excellence

Darrin Daniel, Executive Director of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, took some time out from the Coffee Expo in Boston on April 8, 2022, to speak with Anne Valdez, cofounder of Amrita Coffee.

Here is an edited transcript of the interview:

Anne:

I’m here with Darrin Daniels from The Cup of Excellence and The Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Darrin is the executive director for both. The Cup of Excellence was formed in 1999 as a result of the Gourmet Project. I knew about the Gourmet Project at that time because I bought one of the five coffees that the Gourmet Project studied through the USAID, where they were trying to find a way to reward the farmers for excellence in their coffee outside of the C Market [global exchange]. The Brazilians decided to do an internet auction; the Cup of Excellence format was formed after that, with an international jury judging the coffees. It’s a very rigorous process that Amrita Coffee supports and likes. Darrin has worked with some amazing companies, including illy Coffee, Stumptown, and Allegro Coffee. He was on the sustainability council for the SCA [Specialty Coffee Association], and he is on the board of directors for Roast Magazine. He’s been featured in quite a few industry magazines and has been at Cup of Excellence since 2005, which coincidentally was the same year I started as an international judge for the Cup of Excellence (COE). So what I’d like to ask Darrin is, what makes The Cup of Excellence coffee so special?

Darrin Daniel:

Thank you so much for having me today, and for all of us to be back together at this trade show here in Boston. The unique part about COE, from my experience, is that it’s created this very transparent model, and really, in some ways, probably was the architecture for direct trade. That model has given producers more leverage and a lot more access to markets. Price discovery, through the competition and through the auction itself, is extremely important. Those have been the things that we did in the beginning and that we still do it today; they are part of our roots.

Anne:

I know that the cup of excellence has improved the lives of the coffee farmers and the communities. Can you talk about that progress?

Darrin Daniel:

We have historical examples of producers who really had no access to certain markets. I know of a gentleman in El Salvador, Emilio, who won first place [in COE] in El Salvador I believe in 2019. I was in Seoul, Korea at a trade show and I saw this giant poster with Emilio’s face on it on the wall of a cafe. They had bought his lot. I texted him, saying, “You’re famous in Korea.” He texted back, “I wasn’t anyone in Korea until COE.” Now he has developed a market in Korea because of the COE program. And it’s given him the ability for more infrastructure, more growth. I know other examples in talking to people in Ethiopia, which is a relatively new program. Farmers there have said that it would be the equivalent of almost winning the lottery to get some of the higher prices that can be achieved. It’s hard to imagine, but that is a reality for many of the growers there.

Anne:

It is a very prestigious event that sometimes draws coffee company vice presidents to the awards ceremony and gives farmers more economic opportunities. How is the Cup of Excellence Coffee sustainable?

Darrin Daniels:

Bridging markets in itself creates sustainability. We do see challenges for many in-country partners we work with. Some of them rely on government funding to be able to continue the programming, and so if those things change, then they have to try to pivot and work through the challenges. So sustainability to me means we have a strong, financial kind of rock for us to put our program on. We are growing in new ways, and we’re seeing other funding opportunities to give us financial strength for the next 10 to 20 years.

For the producers, the program has created its own sustainability because farmers rely on it. I was just talking to a gentleman in Bolivia and he was asking how producers in Bolivia can get the Cup of Excellence back. That’s not coming from an agency or a government entity, it’s coming from the farmers. And if it’s coming from them, we know it’s going to be sustainable.

Anne:

I know the Cup of Excellence has always been innovative and always looking for new ways to improve. So what exciting news do we have for the Cup of Excellence in this coming year?

Darrin Daniels:

We’re just coming off of the first year for Indonesia, which has been amazing for us, and Ecuador was a first-year program for us in 2021. We are having discussions with some new countries. In Brazil, we created a sub-platform for producers that do not qualify for COE, yet had put their lots into warehouses. We created a marketplace platform so that those producers, if they wanted to, could sell directly to a buyer, not through an auction, but just basically a marketplace place to buy. And that was mostly successful.

It did present some challenges for us, with prices not set well enough for the producers. It was definitely a pilot. We always try new things in Brazil because we know we have so much strength and ability to work with the team there. So we hope to extend the platform, which would mean more farmers getting higher prices outside of the COE auction, or outside of the national winners auction. So it’s still in development, but I think in the next couple of years we’ll see something that’s more robust.

Anne:

On a topical note, what would you say has been the impact of climate change on the farmers and on the markets?

Darrin Daniels:

Well, we have seen a slow erosion of producers’ ability to manage what’s going on. Producers generally don’t have access to irrigation and things like that in coffee; it’s very rare. So they’re completely dependent upon rainfall. And what we definitely have seen is lower yields, issues that we saw four or five years ago that people are recovering from. So they’re replanting , and they’re just starting to see things kind of change. It’s a constantly moving target with producers trying to gain somewhat of an advantage in a very difficult situation. So climate change has definitely affected yields, harvest times and growing cycles. We see producers trying to go up to higher altitudes if they have the ability to do it. And that’s not a guarantee that there will be an improvement.

Anne:

And what impact have you seen supply chain challenges have on the industry?

Darrin Daniels:

Well, COVID has certainly caused a problem with scarcity of containers, but also prices have gone up. Inflation is easily eight percent. You have to get coffee from point A to B, and there’s no way to get around that fact. So this has been a big issue. Whether it’s going to be a permanent issue, I don’t think it will be. Demand is still there and I expect the issue to settle down.

Anne:

For us, sometimes we’re looking for other coffees when we’re running out of certain ones, we’re also buying a little bit longer when we do our purchases, so that we can continue to supply our customers with coffee.

Darrin Daniels:

That might be a really good idea to go long, because we don’t know how erratic the market’s going to be or how available quality coffee is going to be. So while normally we never say “go long” because of perishability, maybe it’s a very smart idea to go long in certain origins.

Anne:

I usually pick up my coffees through importers and I buy about three months worth of supply at a time. Now I’m buying for six months.

Darrin, I appreciate you taking the time with us, and I really look forward to going to Mexico and being a judge and seeing you there.

Darrin Daniels:

Yes next month will be in Mexico City together, cupping coffees like the good old days, like normal. I can’t wait to see you down there; it should be an amazing event.