What fun it was.   A week of competition.  Lots and lots of cups of coffee, grinders, water being heated by gas burners and huge kettles.    The SCAP team worked really hard as did all the cupping judges.   At first, I thought they had an easy fun job.  That perception did not last long.   On your feet cupping coffee (often through lunch time) using your senses is both physically and emotionally draining.   Q cuppers are a bunch of special individuals with more than good noses and well connected taste buds.

 I learned a lot about coffee.  Never had the opportunity to taste so many top coffees along side one another and to start to tease apart the differences was a very unique and fabulous thing for me.   I was inspired by the Naturals.  I did not think I liked naturals very much but some of these were delicate and not a hint of fermenting cow.   Having been brought up in cow country most of the naturals I have ever tasted, even ones I liked, remind me of the smell of cow sheds.

Top honor Geisha washed went to Jackie Mercer, Finca Los Cantares.  She is a very special warm lady who is not restricted by social convention and honestly it could not have gone to a better more talented involved and nicer person.  That was the perfect ending.   A win for her, for her values, for women and for Panama.   

What a fun day at Best of Panama.  16 International judges and lots of coffee farmers.  Whilst I was building up my confidence to cup and score the coffee, I started scoring shoes.    These were boys with some very serious footwear.  Must be a correlation between fine coffee and fine shoes.  Let me explain:

The man in charge from Norway, the (teeny weeny bit kinky) black boots with heels.  Paired with tight jeans and a t-shirt under the green apron, perfect choice for our 'to the point' Master of Ceremonies.  Bossy boots, maybe, but nice job!   Takes a certain sort to cut through black forest cake and chocolate mousse to get to the meat of the issue.

A couple of cuppers from Greece and here you have a Greek figure skater coming to help his friend translate into Spanish and English.  Actually, the shoes were but a small part of the look.   Very buff, owns a gym back home, great guy!

Reckon these were the most expensive shoes.  American very trendy.  Very serious designer  foot ware.  You were noticed, at least by me!

What can I say, international judge from Australia - you have some seriously nicely worn designer Spanish shoes.  Understated chic.  Goes well with the hair do.  Nice look.

Loved the white plimsols on the shy young man from Huddersfield, our only Brit in a green apron/international judge.   Went well with white t-shirt and baseball cap.   Also, liked his taste in coffee, very bullish about the honey process.  Good man.

Loved the wabi sabi understated look from Japan.  Lovely older leather, older guys.  So much experience, real gentlemen and a different coffee tasting vocabulary.  No pop-corn flavors for them.  Cherry blossom and plum.

Here is a sample of the rest of the judges and cuppers shoes.     It takes a certain flare to describe coffee as a green forest, intense with a touch of thyme, earthy nice mushroom, sugar lime candy....to name but a few...actually, a very few of the many wonderfully descriptions of our coffee I heard today.  

The story would not be complete without a few coffee farmers shoes.  As you would expect a practical lot.   My favorite, I am cross with myself that I did not shoot a pic, I leave a space in her honor and might get one later in the week.   One of the most creative and talented women in coffee in Panama wore hiking boots, serious ones that went well with her seriously practical outfit complete with hair net.     Our Presidencia, she wore sandals.......nice comfortable practical choice, no nail polish.   One of the big boys in CR and Panama exclusive coffees, with a go to market label of his grandfather's photo.....well he just had another great pair of practical shoes you would expect up here in the Mountains.   What was I wearing........very boring, I did not score at all.

Tomorrow, a nice contrast to supervising digging holes for baby coffee plants in wellington boots on my farm.  I plan to join in the most glamorous coffee event in town - The Best of Panama competition.  It is the Specialty Coffee Association of  Panama's (SCAP) Oscars.   

My coffee is not in the competition, it does not make sense for my very small farm to donate 500lbs or so of coffee to enter.  That said, as a member I am thrilled to be able to participate and join the more well known names of coffee in this small town for their big event.  Apparently, there is a spare cupping table and I am going to go along and see if I can taste some winners and learn something.  I will be joining some Japanese, Greeks, a panel of international judges and many of the big growers who will also be slurping coffee.

The nice lady who administers the organization briefed me this afternoon on the 'rules'.  She really is a sweetheart, very kind and  helpful even on this rather tense day with all hell breaking loose in the office in preparation for tomorrow and the second round of cupping.  

So, this is the situation:  I am not allowed to smell of anything.  No perfume or body lotion, no fruity lip gloss, no scented deodorant, fruity shampoo or hair spray that the highly sensitive noses present might scribble down and attribute to a coffee.   

No open toed shoes and no high heels.  Not sure why no sandals - could it be the distraction of brightly colored toe nails or smelly feet, not sure.   No high heels, because they make a distracting noise on the floor.   Not sure quite where that leaves me, ballet flats are apparently the coffee cuppers uniform.  I do not own any.

Agreed to check in with my nice administrator friend first thing in the morning for a reminder on the cupping rules.  The basic gist is:  You can make as much noise as you like slurping the coffee but must not make any other sounds or talk.