Ethiopia 2026 Outlook from Heleanna Georgalis

L: Cher Denny, Blueprint Coffee; R: Heleanna Georgalis

Artisan Coffee Imports is honored to have partnered for 3 years now with Moplaco Trading Co. and its
owner / CEO, Heleanna Georgalis. Heleanna is the second generation owner of MOPLACO and the fourth generation in her family to make a livelihood in coffee. Through hard work and passion for people and coffee, Heleanna has built a reputation of quality and coffee expertise for both the MOPLACO team and herself. 

MOPLACO Trading Co. is short for "Mocca Plantation Company", which makes sense since the company started in 1972 with 1000 ha of land in the heart of the Harrar region of Ethiopia, and Harrar coffee is known for its distinguished Mocca flavor. 

I've come to treasure the annual email Heleanna shares with her customers near the start of our calendar year and at the Ethiopian Christmas-time. I'm grateful that this year Heleanna is allowing me to share her thoughts with Artisan's blog readers via this blogpost. Enjoy!

Jan. 6, 2026

2025 is way behind us in terms of crop and 2026 has soon fully arrived. The past 2 years have been particularly challenging for all of us I believe. Ethiopia, for the first time, achieved a staggering 2.65 billion USD of coffee exports, exporting more than 470T tonnes of coffee, (that is 11 million bags). Ethiopia was known for exporting maximum 6 Million bags, but given the favorable prices, it showed its real potential for export. People are wondering how we could achieve these levels of production but the reality is, that our production has been growing steadily every year but most importantly given the high prices even the dirtiest coffee was exported instead of being consumed locally.

Ethiopia is aiming at 3 billion USD of exports and 600T tonnes of production with tree planting frantically everywhere. Farmers are encouraged because for the first time they see real gains in coffee production. THIS BRINGS GOOD THINGS: Eucalyptus is being uprooted. For the ones that know me, this makes me extremely happy.. 

Local prices of REJECT were similar to the sales of export quality locally. 

2026 is starting with fascinating news that will reshape our coffee world as we know it:

• KDP and JDE Peet's US$16bn mega-merger 
• Luckin is reportedly considering a bid for Blue Bottle
• Coca-Cola wants to sell Costa Coffee.
• EUDR has been delayed hopefully indefinitely
• Brazil weather is improving and so coffee prices have been stabilizing. Everywhere else in the world except Ethiopia.

We must understand that this stems from the experience of last year when farmers rushed to capitalize on the gains they could get. In 2026, coffee prices in the South started at 150 Birr per Kg of red cherry and now at Sidamo Kokose and Bombe prices have reached even 340 Birr p. Kg of red cherry.

The liquidity needed to buy coffee is 3 times as high as last year, sometimes even 4 times. So many of the washing stations and exporters are struggling with the lack of liquidity offered by the banks. 

Our National Bank of Ethiopia has reported losses. Now banks are under strict scrutiny with very stringent laws, additional paper work and requirements. Apparently we have lost 444 billion birr. At least this is not only exporters loosing money but also our Government!!!!

Our digitalizing economy and regularisation of laws imposes new rules and regulations on a daily basis on both export and import. Hence we are facing not only huge penalties in import but also huge delays in clearing anything and huge taxes on all items.  Every process is delayed.

You can think all the above is very good and it is, but it comes at importune times putting a lot of strain on our movements and our facilities.

Coffee harvest in the West, Limu, Djimmah etc. is now over, and in Sheka (location of Moplaco's farm) we have a few days of cherry collection till the harvest is finally over. Flowering has started, which is very strange. Unless the last beans are collected, the flowering will abort and the new crop will be impaired.

In the South, in the highlands we have some 3 weeks of harvest left till coffee harvesting is fully over.

In Sidamo, Bombe, and Shantawene we are now seeing prices never seen before, Guji Kercha, and Uraga are underway with more regular prices but with a huge competition underway from some select exporters and in Gedeb the same.

In Yirgachefe and Kochere harvest is now almost over with some pockets of harvest still remaining.

Average prices requested are around 500 US cents/lb and the Coffee and Tea Authority has imposed significantly high prices as a minimum. The government is expecting high profits from coffee imitating past results. 2026 is a year in which exporters must be careful or there will be a lot of tears shed given the high purchase prices in the local side and the dropping NYC.

People will focus again on the commercial lots of Djimmah and Sidamo Gr-4 and Gr-5.

EUDR drove many people to the edge and the only region not focusing on this has been Harar as it is mainly exported to the Middle East. Crop is significantly lower and is challenging to reach the quality needed.

Container availability seems to be resolved since last year finding a container that was acceptable. However, finding one that was clean and with no holes was challenging.

Luckin Coffee not only contemplates buying Blue Bottle, but has a very lively presence in the market and in Ethiopia now, buying Guji coffee aggressively.

Ethiopian Drama never sees an end and each time we have more creative stories to share. This year's drama is the GOLD RUSH. We are now officialy the EL DORADO of Africa, with literally anyone digging to find Gold Nuggets. Artisanal Mining is booming. If we at Moplaco could afford a Caterpillar excavator, we would be digging too.

In terms of Moplaco:

On each station we will be producing about 2 containers of coffee, each comprised of select microlots of very good quality. Coffee quality is very good this year across the board.

In Sheka we have produced about 3 full containers of special lots, focusing on Honey process that was our best coffee last year with excellent feedback.

We will be buying mixed lots from the West, and this year coffee from Anderacha and Kaffa show excellent potential.

Least but not LAST:

Foreign Banks are entering the market slowly but surely and now Carefour will finally start operations in Ethiopia. Finally I will not have to carry bags full of things from Europe like a wandering gypsy.

For the ones that have LOST LOVED ones, I wish you all a recovery from sadness and optimism for the future.

For the ones that the year has entered optimistically, I wish a continuation.

Heleanna Georgalis

KAIZEN Project Reduces Waste at Artisan HQ

Lean Logistics Team - Takes a Break

The logistics team at Artisan doubled in size in the first quarter, growing from two people, Ruth Ann

and Marie Hucal, to four. We were delighted to add Marcia Higgins and Jonathan Miller to the team. We quickly learned, however, that many of our systems that worked fine when it was two people, no longer worked so well with four. Especially as we worked to get samples out the door in a timely manner, we could tell change was needed. In May 2025 we launched our first KAIZEN project.

"KAIZEN" is a Japanese word that has worked its way into the mainstream vocabulary for anyone

working in manufacturing, anyone who has worked in operations management and a wide circle of others. It means "change for the better" or "continuous improvement" and is pronounced: 

kai·zen /ˈkīz(ə)n,ˈkīˌzen/

IN MAY we started by getting our four logistics team members together - probably for the first time! Ruth Ann presented the definition of Lean and the 12 steps of Kaizen. We tried a fun numbers exercise and found that our team members are 235% faster at circlingn numbers in sequential order when numbers are arranged in order, uniform size, large size and not clear (not blurry). We started to see that different team members have different strengths and weaknesses and that's a good thing!

Our second meeting focused on BRAINSTORMING our chosen process for improvement: Receiving Pre-ship Samples from Origin. To kick off this meeting we had to review key rules for brainstorming:

No bad ideas

Capture everything

Allow time for people to think

Focus on quantity - get LOTS of ideas.

We used Canva for the Brainstorm and the resulting session looked like this:

The brainstorming ends with narrowing the many ideas into a few, and then the team basically votes to choose just 3 or 4 areas for focus. Ours were:

1. A new system for sample storage bins
2. Create a new work station designed and dedicated to sampe preparation
3. Revised labels for all types of sample bags
4. New system for capturing and calculating the pre-ship quantities needed
5. Implementing a KanBan system to minimize the chance we would run out of supplies
6. Creating a centralized sheet for naming our coffees

IN JUNE, the team met while Ruth Ann was in Rwanda. They shared with each other their progress on KAIZEN projects. Each team member received feedback and was able to move forward with their action plan.

Marie welcomes boxes of pre-ship samples.

Finally in AUGUST we could begin the wrap up. It was suprising how each area, whether it was a new sheet for coffee names or a new system for storage bins, brought up long discussions on communication, documentation, and possibities that seemed endless. 

In SEPTEMBER we were able to bring to conclusion each segment of the KAIZEN project to improve the process for Receiving Pre-ship Samples from Origin. Overall, we believe we've cut at least 12% off the time it takes to process a pre-ship sample. But more important than that, we've started to measure the time various tasks take. Once we understand how much time is required, we've become better at finding ways to become more efficient. 

Measuring time for tasks like sample preparation also helps all team members set realistic expectations. Realistic expectations reduces frustration.

The effort to improve processes also clarified the need for written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Now we have written SOPs for tasks that previously created friction and frustration.

The most visible results of our KAIZEN project are 

1. the new sample preparation work-station
2. the new sample storage bin system
3. the KanBan system with it's cards and boards for tracking WHEN something needs to be re-ordered, if it's been ordered and when it's in stock again.

Marcia with the new sample storage system.

In case we have any Japanese readers out there, the hiragana letters are as follows:

 

Proudly showing the new sample prep work station - everyone participated!

Jonathan is one of our KAIZEN champtions!

Slate's Excellent Rebuke of the SCA Take-Over of the Q

Thank you @dailycoffeenews and Roast Magazine for alerting us to a great article by Slate, dated August 25, 2025.

CLICK HERE for the full article

Here are a few of our favorite clips:

We might think of what’s going down like this: The SCA spent a pretty sum to breed a young racehorse  🏇 (let’s call him Cupping Monopoly) from the same pedigree as the world’s fastest horse 🏇 (let’s call him Q-Biscuit). And just as the young buck was about to race the veteran Q-Biscuit for the first time, the SCA purchased Q-Biscuit, then took him behind the barn and shot him. Place your bets! Cupping Monopoly, it turns out, wins the race.😂😂

...

Following the stunning agreement, Marty Pollack, a Q-Grader and co-founder of Torch Coffee, minces no words, likening the SCA to the Mafia [👍👍👍]: “They found out the No. 1 opposition to CVA global domination. It’s Q graders.” Now Q graders either train with the SCA—on a system that erases the specialty coffee community they have long been a part of—or don’t train at all.

...

In its June 2024 outline of the CVA model, the SCA writes, “There can be no calibration in cupping, as there is no objective standard regarding the impression of quality.” But if we are setting standards for tasting coffee, why would we pursue objectivity over quality? I want to drink good coffee, not objective coffee. Sadly, judging by the lack of community engagement the CQI pursued during its agreement with the SCA, it no longer believes in sharing a common understanding of what’s good either.

...

Further comment from me, "Why has the SCA board still not managed to fire Executive Director Yannis Apostolopoulos??"

See our related blogpost, dated June 1, 2025: CVA-Gate: Unnecessary Takeover...

Team-building at Artisan Coffee Imports

 Gallery of photos from our team-building day on July 31, 2025.

We were at the University of Michigan's Adventure Leadership center in Ann Arbor, Michigan for fun in the sun and, for some of our members, meeting each other for the first time!

Our UofM facilitators led us through ice-breaker games and then challenge activities such as moving a ball quickly when everyone must touch it. Then we had to sort outdoor toys when the "organizers" can't see the toys and there's no instruction on what "sorted" means. The most fun was when one group had to explain the instructions to group 2, and group 2 would get penalized for making mistakes.

Concluding the day with a circle of appreciation for each person's skills was almost as nice as the tasty lunch which started our event!

Alice Nshuti - update on a young Rwandan's coffee career

 

Alice showing a bag of Sandrew roasted
coffee from within her cafe - Mulax.

One of our greatest joys as an importer is to see the impact we have on the lives of young coffee professionals in places like Rwanda. 

Artisan Coffee Imports Internship

Alice Nshuti was first selected to work as an Artisan intern in 2021. She started in October 2021 with an intense 6-week coffee professional training at Ikawa House in Rwanda's capital city, Kigali. Then, throughout 2022, she worked as an assistant high up in the mountains of Gakenke with one of Artisan's supplier women's groups, the Rambagirakawa women.

Business Data Internship 

At the beginning of 2023, it was time to move into a more professional role. She was hired as Dukundekawa Musasa's Business Data Intern -- a position funded by Root Capital. While this was a paid position, the wages were so low, Alice would not be able to cover basic monthly expenses without support. Artisan therefore funded a "career-starter" subsidy for Alice's 6 months in the Business Data intern position.

Alice spent the next half year to a year exploring her job opportunities. She had a college degree in Agribusiness, almost 2 years' experience working at a coffee cooperative and a burning passion to work in the coffee industry. Unfortunately, no positions in Rwanda's coffee industry were opening up for her. She applied for jobs outside of the coffee industry, but she could tell her heart was not into it.

Business Data Intern

Starting Her Own Brand of Roasted Beans

In her own words she told me, "one day in 2024 I asked myself, why don't you just start your own small coffee business, no matter how small? It will make you happy and you will gain experience." So she did! She used what she knew, including her networks of people in coffee and friends with entrepreneurial ideas to take the first steps of making a business plan. 

She decided she would procure green coffee beans using her skills in cupping to select the best ones. She found a toll-roaster in Kigali who had good references from others selling roasted coffee. This roaster also allows Alice to supervise him / work with him each time he roasts her beans. This way Alice can be sure she is getting the type of roast her customers have requested. She's most excited when she wins a new wholesale customer who tastes her roasted coffee next to the brand they've been buying and they say, "wow! I didn't know coffee could taste that good!"

Originally the brand name for her roasted beans was Inshuti @inshuti_coffee . But when she started the trademark process, she learned that name was taken. Now she's changed the name of her roasted beans to Sandrew, which is a blend of her parents' first names: Sarah and Andrew.

Cafes in Kigali

Cafes in a busy central areas of Kigali are popping up everywhere. They're attracting consumers who enjoy the green plants lining the interior, the cozy ambience and a generally light-soaked space. One of Alice's customers serves fresh-brewed Sandrew coffee, craft beers and delicious bites. They are open 24 hours!

As if that's not enough to keep her busy, Alice also travels with Ruth Ann during her trips to cooperatives in Rwanda as a translator. After several years of supporting Artisan on one or two week trips, and after accumulating four years of cumulative coffee experience, Alice was ready to step into a new role at Artisan - that of Export Logistics Coordinator based in Kigali.

Inside Mulax Cafe

Export Logistics Coordinator - Rwanda

Since mid-July this year, Alice has been going up the steep learning curve of understanding a myriad of coffee export details. Artisan has special demands related to microlots, the women's groups and paying premiums, quality control of our containers and managing the risks loading day and international shipping in general. On top of these unique parts of Artisan's business, Alice has been learning the basics of pre-ship samples for customers and for NAEB, export taxes, ICO documents, weight notes and phytosanitary certificates. Add to this the constant effort to ensure quality of the coffee from the day it arrives at the NAEB warehouse. She's met the staff who work for our cooperatives at NAEB, our freight forwarder and our three exporters in Kigali. She carefully observed the unloading, moving and storage conditions of all of the microlots as they wait for shipment day.

It's a lot! Alice seems energized, however, by the challenge. She comments, "I love learning and I love learning more about coffee the most!"

Current role with Artisan: Export Logistics Coordinator

Alice was an Ikawa House "coffee professional" student in 2021.

Graduation day with Ikawa House instructors, long-time Q Graders and international cupping judges, Uzziel Habimana and Laetitia Mukandahiro.

Alice's one year internship as an Artisan Coffee Imports intern, and traveling with Ruth as a translator has increased her range of of experiences in coffee professions.

Alice especially enjoys working with and learning from the female farmers. Her 2021 internship focused on supporting projects of the Rambagirakawa women.

Kungahara women: their accomplishments and challenges

Today we visited the Kungahara women's group and their parent cooperative, Bwishaza. The main objective is to cup the coffees and select the lots for our customers. Relationship building and strengthening is another key objective of these trips. A third objective is to "Go to Gemba". This is a phrase from Lean Operational Management theory, that managers need to go to the place where the activity is happening, and go there often. Otherwise, the manager doesn't really know what is happening and makes poor decisions.

Relationship Building: happens in many ways. One of the sweetest on this day was a serendipitous meet-up with 3 of the Kungahara women while I and my translator, Bridget VUGUZIGA, were driving to the cooperative. We saw three women walking along the road, going the same direction we were going and stopped to give them a ride. After a few minutes, we asked where they were going and explained we were going to Bwishaza cooperative. Then one of them asked, "Are you Ruth?". My translator helped me reply with surprise, "well, yes! How did you know my name?"

Claire Mukakaruta, Marie Josee Nyirasafari, and Rose Nyiransekuye proceeded to explain that they are Kungahara farmers and therefore they have heard a lot about Ruth and how Artisan's customers support their group by paying a few cents per kilogram for the annual women's premium. I asked about how they feel about the coffee harvest this year. They said "it's good, but it's not just that the cherry price is high this year. We appreciate the opportunity to come together as women. We share our concerns and we help each other."

Kungahara Accomplishment - Land for Mulching Grasses

Last year the women leading Kungahara decided to buy more land that is next to their community coffee plot so that they could grow the grasses used for mulching.  The premium that Artisan paid helped them make the down payment for that land. They borrowed the rest of the money needed from the parent cooperative.

I'm confident from past experience with Kungahara that they'll pay down that loan from the parent cooperative and doing more exciting projects like this one. They are great about sharing what they do and communicating effectively.

Kungahara Challenge - Cupping lab destroyed to make room for the road

By "Going to Gemba" one learns what is really going on. I learned, for example, that the cooperative's

beautiful cupping lab had been destroyed to make room for the road improvements. The cupping lab was built for them in 2017 by a Korean non-profit and fully equipped with sample roasters, grinders, cookers, a sink, a large cupping table, lots of cups, spoons, etc. This was a shock. The road improvements are desperately needed, but Samuel, the cooperative's manager, was clearly pained as he explained the compensation payment from the government was about $1000 short of what they would need to replace the cupping lab. As I walked around and saw the piles of bricks, metal roofing and metal window frames that were the cupping lab, I was concerned. 

Cupping Continues - in the warehouse among the stacks of coffee

True to my past experiences of Rwandan persistence, a little thing like a crushed cupping lab does not stop them. They had set up a wonderful place to cup in the middle of their small coffee warehouse. We proceeded to cup many wonderful coffees while among the stacks of parchment freshly brought from the tables just steps away from the door. 

"CVA-Gate": Unnecessary Takeover and Destructive to Our Community

June 1, 2025

As I sat in the CQI Luncheon at the Brown Convention Center in Houston on April 26, the room seemed to be held in a palpable gloom. The confusing, half-announcements about "cancelling the Q" were abusive in their unconcern for the language that CQI had taught coffee professionals over the past 20 years. We had learned to talk to each other.

Over 20 years, the Q educational standard for assessing sensory attributes of coffee has become a language that is spoken by at least 106 countries. One hundred and six countries have at least one licensed Q grader! (I studied the list on the CQI website of currently licensed Q graders to arrive at this number.) The SCA was willing to toss this baby out with the bath water, convinced by the arrogant idea that by December 31, 2025, it could replace it with its own tool for physical and sensory assessment.

Vanity and self-obsession is the only explanation I can find for the SCA's blindness to the obvious better path they either never saw or refused to see: why not do both? Why not continue the Q Grading system, which SCA controls as of Oct. 1, 2025. Why not offer the industry the "old" sensory assessment Q Grading certificate as a "Level B" accomplishment and allow the new assessment the years of time it will take to build and promote a new "Level A" certificate.

There are decades of proof that the Q Grader and a new CVA assessment can co-exist meaningfully and beneficially. Our industry has always had, and benefited from, multiple and alternative tools for sensory evaluation of coffee. The Q Grader has existed alongside the Cup of Excellence, Academy of Coffee Excellence cupping form for decades. The ACE and the CQI programs have been considered two very distinctly important and meaningful approaches to evaluate coffee value. They have lived side-by-side without confusion. I believe the commercial grade coffee business has its own evaluation system to grade imports and name defects in imported, lower grade coffees. This one is older than the Q or the ACE evaluation.

Maybe SCA could give the CVA assessment a more appropriate name, like the "Physical-Descriptive + Affective Score" form? The "PDAS" form for short? I have no doubt, that the SCA could pour money into promoting the research-based under-pinnings of its Descriptive form for describing coffee and its Affective form for scoring coffee. This would be a welcome addition to the world of coffee sensory evaluation.

What is not appreciated by those like myself who try to improve value distribution across the coffee value chain is the SCA's candy-coating of its Extrinsic Assessment form as either well-researched or well-vetted across the coffee world. I'm one coffee professional who knows that my feedback at one of SCA's "Beta - testing workshops" in August 2023 has not been incorporated.

I suggested that the Extrinsic Assessment form is lacking any form of gender equity assessment. Research has shown over and over again how women are the backbone of coffee and investing in women and gender equity in coffee communities strengthens their resilience and improves coffee productivity. Gender equity and investments that support women, women's health and children's health are also highly correlated to attracting the younger generation to the profession of coffee farming. "I hear my mother's voice every day," one thirty-something Rwandan man told me. "If, when I was a boy, she was telling me every day that she hated coffee and I better do something else when I grow up, that's what I will hear in my head as a man." That man will not want to be a coffee farmer. Now change the scenario. What if we got lots of mothers today telling their children “whatever you do, make sure you plant some coffee trees.”

Research also shows that farm size and farmer years of experience are the most impactful factors on cost of production. Should these be found somewhere on an "extrinsic assessment" form? They are not there. In fact, the so-called Combined Form for the CVA assessment, which is the form most likely to be used in any real-life lab-setting, has nothing in "Part 3: Extrinsic Assessment." It's a blank rectangle to write your notes. Not a lot different than the current SCA Cupping Form when it comes to evaluating extrinsic factors, I would say.

And yet the Extrinsic Form seems to be the entire basis for the name of this tool: "COFFEE VALUE ASSESSMENT". I'm sorry. The emperor has no clothes. Let's call a "spade" a "spade" please, not try to call a frog a prince. The SCA is introducing a new non-quantitative coffee sensory description form which works nicely when paired with an affective assessment which is scored.[1] 

That's it! While SCA tries to sound fancy by mentioning Part 1: Physical Assessment, this form is the same green coffee evaluation form we've had for decades (taught in the Q grader class, by the way), and frequently used in combination with the cupping form to evaluate a lot of coffee. Except with CVA they've taken density off the form. Not sure how that's an improvement.

SCA tries to pat itself on the back as ethical by adding Part 4: Extrinsic Assessment. Again, nice try, but if you're only going to list the country, the region, the process, any certification and ignore everything else, including whether women are enslaved for production of this coffee, I'm not impressed.

We don't need to throw out the Q Grading tool that has empowered producers in 106 countries to talk to their customers in order to add emphasis or standardization to industry practices that are already well-established. Yes - let's agree to regularly share: country, region, process method and any third-party certifications.

Looking at the signs in the hallways in Houston, one would think the CVA form itself was going to bring equality to the entire coffee value chain by December 31, 2025 -- therefore we should all be jumping for joy! So why were all the CQI leaders I know looking concerned, glum or literally crying?

The audacity and insanity to believe that any system could replace a system practiced in 106 countries can only be likened to other groups we know who live in narcissistic worlds convinced that they are the only ones who matter.

If I could request that the SCA provide an FAQ on their new sensory tool that is actually helpful, it would ask and answer the following questions:

Q: What is the budget that SCA has allocated to train all the instructors in 106 countries?

Q: What is the timeline on which each of 106 countries can expect to have instructors and graders that equals the number of Q instructors and Q graders that they have today? I'm here in the USA, a pretty big country, and I can't find this information for my country.

Q: What is the plan to communicate with and gently transition students (like me) who are already training for their next Q calibration or instructors who have courses scheduled through the end of 2025?

Q: Where could Q instructors get accurate information? For example, about whether their students who were signed up to take their class on April 28 would be eligible for the CQI Q Grader Certificate?

A: There was none. My instructor was IN HOUSTON, IN CVA meetings on April 26 and 27 with SCA decision-makers and did not get accurate information. She ended up giving those of us who signed up for her April 28 class a mistaken message that "no certificate would be given even if you pass the calibration." CORRECT INFORMATION: CQI certificates are given to students who pass the Q calibration tests through September 30, 2025.

Q: Is there any good reason why SCA has not made the CVA an additional certification that professionals can earn, in addition to their Q Grader license, since the two are NOT mutually exclusive, just different? 

A: No, SCA chose chaos over the obvious solution of making the CVA the “A Level Certification” that one can earn on top of one’s “B Level Certification,” which is the Q Grader Certification. Such a solution would have created a global system with 106 countries in it already. It would have a substantial chance at convincing people like me that the SCA was interested in "evolving", not simply crushing competitors and don't worry about who gets hurt and #@$%^Y the little guys, gender equity and all that complicated stuff.

I was IN HOUSTON seeing SCA's freshly printed signs proclaiming the "evolved" new sensory tool and nothing on the SCA website had accurate information for people like me. People wanted to know if there was any other option besides dropping my 14 years of training and waiting until some unknown date, to go to a currently non-existent website to see if there were any CVA classes somewhere in the USA, and what it would cost.

Now, in June 2025, there is a website and there are 12 CVA Cupper courses in the United States before Dec. 31, 2025. (https://specialtycoffee.my.site.com/s/course-list?mod=CVA%20for%20Cuppers) There is no way to filter or see the CITIES or even STATES in which these courses are offered. You can click on each one and each time you click out again, you will have to start from square one to get the filter narrowed down to the 12 classes in the USA. Infuriating. Not exactly promising that SCA has suddenly become an organization that is up to offering a resource to the globe.

There is no way to contact an individual on the SCA Education staff to ask questions. I'd like to ask about getting credit for the CVA course I (paid for) and took at Coffee Roasters Guild retreat in Delavan, WI in August 2023. All I can do is fill out a CONTACT US form.

The cost for the two-day CVA Cuppers class is $850. Can you believe this?! Instead of paying $600 to re-calibrate my Q Grader License, the SCA thinks it would be good if I cancel all that planning and forget all my training and preparation and instead pay $850 to listen to their propaganda for 2 days and "practice cupping." Because this will make me eligible to be an evolved Q grader. Got that? I'm not even certified in the new system when I pay $850. This is the green fee to be eligible to pay even more money next year to actually get a certificate.... after they decide what that is going to be. They don't know yet. Do you get the sense they're making this up as they go along? I do.

Would it have made more sense to maintain a dual-track system? One track that is proven with systems and instructors, and the new track, which needs time to evolve. Maybe they could run a couple of pilots to see if the system works before they try to launch?

It was sad to see SCA's mismanagement of the valuable Q Grader tool overshadow what could have been a happier celebration of CQI’s accomplishments and mission going forward. With the inexplicably poor communication from SCA, they succeeded in looking like the ugly bully that bludgeons those genuinely interested in improving the industry. The SCA stands in favor of installing systems that ensure that white men with a lot of money keep all the power. ^&*%# the 103 countries that aren't big enough to pour money into SCA's coffers and "who cares?!" about instructors who passionately teach Q grading courses and those of us lowly coffee professionals who had just spent weeks preparing for a Q calibration class on April 28? We have been firmly (some would say abusively) put in our place as inadequate of your attention. Thank you SCA.

It was sad to me that CQI's accomplishment of bringing the Q grading system to at least 106 countries was not highlighted during the lunch. Speakers at the lunch tossed out the number "10,000 Q Graders" which is impressive, but that tally doesn't, for me, share the value of the Q as a means of communication between producers and their customers. "A language now spoken by 106 countries" emphasizes the depth of what Ted Lingle was seeking when he pursued the idea of a standard for specialty coffee. My 14 year journey as a Q Grader has continually brought me in touch with other professionals and organizations who value making it easier for producers to learn and understand what their customers want and need.

Another core value of the Q Grading system is its ability to be an appropriate technology in less-developed countries. Q instructors actually encourage the use of paper forms. Is paper and pencil an old-school technology? Yes. And many coffee producing countries simply still need old-school systems as a valid alternative.

The CVA Assessment, on the other hand, is reported to "prioritise digital platforms, exclusively employing electronic forms or tools. There will be no provision for traditional paper forms. Additionally, score calculation will be carried out electronically, potentially facilitated by an app, as per SCA guidelines." [CUPRIMA blogpost]

I fail to see how such a system is going to be helpful for the farmers I work with in rural Rwanda. This may change, but I don't believe my roaster customers are clamouring for a global digital database of cupping scores either. They appreciate and will continue to use Q scores. Does the FNC see value in such a database? No doubt. Does the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association want access to such a database? Of course, yes.

Taking the Q Grading system away from all producers in all producing countries is rude and presents innumerable expensive and frustrating challenges in other parts of the supply chain. SCA unfortunately continues to offer little to no explanation or communication. Here at Artisan Coffee Imports, as a company that values the voice of the producer and our common language, we’ll do our best to continue working with the Q Grading system and teaching Q principles at origin, in an ethical and sustainable way

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1. The CVA system calls Part 3 "Affective Assessment" (or Part 2 depending on whether you're using the combined or the "full")