Mercon Specialty Presents the First Brazil LIFT Producer Competition
Update: 10/18/2023
In August, Mercon Brazil successfully hosted the inaugural LIFT Producer Competition, backed by the unwavering support of LIFT and Mercon Specialty. This innovative initiative aimed to incentivize, nurture, and honor the cultivation of specialty coffee among Mercon's Brazil LIFT producers.
LIFT is Mercon’s sustainable production platform, providing valuable tools, training, and services to coffee farmers and communities. Through LIFT, we work directly with coffee producers to raise their quality of life by helping them improve their well-being in a social and environmentally conscious manner.
For the competition, LIFT producers could participate in 3 categories:
• Natural Coffee
• Pulped Natural, Semi Washed or Fully Washed
• Coffee Produced by Women
Four professional Licensed Q Graders in Brazil, including our Specialty Coffee Coordinator Bruno Felipe de Lima, coded, analyzed, and tasted 260 registered samples of micro lots across all categories from 190 different producers. The top 15 samples from each category were then carefully selected.
The finalists were announced last week, and 15 samples from each category are now being sent coded to our Mercon Specialty office. The samples will be subjected to analysis by our quality coffee professionals and esteemed customers. This process will identify Brazil LIFT producers' top micro-lots of the year.
On October 12th, the finalist coffees reached Seattle and are presently being prepared for cupping events scheduled with the Specialty team and handpicked local clients. The top three winners from each category will be declared on November 10th during a virtual event in Brazil. We will share the winners and the presentation ceremony after the announcement.
View the winners and finalists here!
Stay connected to discover how to partake in this competition and judge the exceptional specialty coffees that have made it to the final round!
Finalists of the Natural Category:
Finalists of the Washed Category:
Finalists of the Women-Produced Coffee Category:
