Barend Boot participated on behalf of Boot coffee in the selection of the best tasting coffees from Cauca in Colombia. As an important coffee region, Cauca supplies one-sixth of the annual production of coffee in Colombia. Recently, the finals in the "washed, honey and natural" categories took place in the coffee town of Timbio. Afterwards, the coffee was auctioned live under the eyes of hundreds of coffee farmers. Boot coffee Netherlands bought some special microlots, including a Natural coffee from Geisha and Castillo arabica coffee. More than 2,000 people then honored the representatives of the F.N.C. and the participating companies from the USA, Korea and the Netherlands at the 'Specialty Coffee in Cauca' festival.
 
Barend Boot says, "The joy of coffee farmers is so visible. Hundreds of farmers cheered us on. With the production of specialty coffee, they have an alternative to stay out of poverty and not give in to pressure from criminal organizations to grow coca. Especially now the price of average coffee in the world has never been so low because of the enormous amounts of coffee in the warehouses in Brazil." *(note ed.: last week the US arabica price from the C market New York was USD 1.03 per 442 grams of green coffee)
 
Specialty coffee as a weapon to bring peace
In this 5-year project of the F.N.C. (Federation of Coffee Farmers) with Fintrac, USAID, and Boot Coffee USA, production of specialty coffee by individual farmers and cooperatives in Cauca offers a way out of the stranglehold of the coca and guerrilla organizations. Peace was recently made by the Colombian government with the main guerrilla organization the FARC. Criminal organizations around the coca and other smaller guerrilla groups are trying to step into the gap and get a piece of the pie. Many areas in Cauca are still unsafe. Production of specialty coffee is the lubricant and concrete solution to give peace a foundation. Once the coffee farmer does make a profit from his production to reinvest in the next harvest, in his education and in his communities. The vast majority of coffee farmers in Colombia are smallholders with often only one hectare of coffee. Through education of the coffee farmers and by bringing the market from the coffee roasters to the farmers, the project aims to create a solid platform for improving quality and improving the base price of the specialty coffee produced.

Background

In this competition, more than 230 lots of coffee were submitted by coffee farmers and extensively tested by the F.N.C. together with staff from Boot Coffee USA and reduced to about thirty lots. These were tested by judges from companies in the USA, the Netherlands and Korea. This resulted in 14 winning specialty coffees. These coffees, mainly from small farmers, may call themselves 'the Best Cup in Cauca'.
 
Boot coffee and microlots of coffee
Boot coffee has purchased some special microlots, one of which has been teamed up with Trabocca. These coffees will be transported to the Netherlands in September. Barend Boot expects to introduce these Limited Edition coffees from small coffee farmers at Boot in the fall and as Christmas presents.