The RG has announced their Coffees of the Year for 2012!

Two things jump out to me as surprising:

1.) Three of these coffees are from Hawaii and
2.) None of these coffees scored over an 89

First: huge congrats to Hawaiian coffee growers. 2011-12 has been a great year for them – right on the tail of Pete Licata winning the USBC, this is very good news. I had unfortunately overlooked Hawaiian coffee as a high level competitor on the specialty scene, and it is kind of nice to see them recognized. It’s probably time for me (and the rest of us!) to take another look. I think a trip to the islands is in order!

Second: What does it say about our scoring system that the winning coffees in this competition failed to break 90? It looks from the RG announcement that the scoring was done at least in part by Q-Graders, so I’m assuming that they used the SCAA form, which I am somewhat familiar with. It strikes me as surprising that a full half of the field is right around 86. With the bright line between specialty and non-specialty falling at 80 points, that 6 point spread between ‘non-specialty’ and ‘coffee of the year’ must house an awful lot of beans.

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