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Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/59523
OFF THE WIRE Continued from page 18 CUPPING SERIES EXPLORES COFFEE'S EXPERIMENTAL SIDE In recent years, Portland has been gaining more and more of a reputation as a specialty coffee epicenter, with some of the most forward-thinking roasters and cafés setting up shop. With that culture in mind, Portland-based importing company Sustainable Harvest recently launched a learning series geared toward experi- ments in coffee—and they'll be holding one of the courses while the SCAA Annual Exposition takes place in Portland this month. Titled "Experimentos en Café," the every-other-month series brings innovative coffee producers to Sustainable Harvest's Portland office to discuss their advances at origin and cup coffees. The importer says it launched the get-togethers as a way to connect with the Northwest coffee community. "We don't really have a local customer base," says Adam McClellan, relationship coffee manager at Sustainable Harvest. "Our model has always been geared toward larger roasters—full container quantities, things like that—and we really wanted to find a way to work with smaller roasters and bring in more coffee from our highest quality producers." Sustainable Harvest has hosted two of the events so far, and they've brought out well-known Portland roasters including Coava, Heart and Water Avenue. The first installment featured Hernando Tapasco from Colombia's Café Granja la Esperanza, who has been experimenting with planting unique varietals. His efforts resulted in the first Pacamara varietal grown in the country, and samples of the coffee were cupped at the event. In the second installment, held in February, Emilio Lopez Diaz of Cuatro M Single Origin Coffees in El Salvador presented his work trying different processes with his coffee, including experiments in enzyme fermentation. On the Saturday of the SCAA show, Sustainable Harvest will host a third event featuring Gilbert Gatali from KZNoir in Rwanda, who will talk about a project he started that involves building private washing stations in different quality-oriented growing regions 20 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com COURTESY OF SUSTAINABLE HARVEST