On 15 August 2025 we co-hosted the first Taste & Talk in Toronto with Coffee Academy Canada. MITFAR Café gave us the room and sponsored the evening. Macarena Coffee Importers supplied the green coffee, and Safa Salehi roasted it for the session. The room was a mix, baristas, café owners, people who had competed, and people who had never sat at a cupping table before.
The first half was a presentation on what "specialty" actually means, followed by a walk through the Coffee Value Assessment protocol, the newer framework the industry is moving toward for evaluating coffee. It produced a lively discussion, which was the point. A feature-based approach describes a coffee rather than ranking it, and after an hour of using one you start to notice how much a single number leaves out.
The second half was the cupping. Eight exceptional Colombian coffees sourced by Macarena, featuring lots crafted by renowned producer Wilton Benitez at Granja Paraíso 92 in Cauca, Colombia, a farm working with innovative fermentations, thermal shock processing, and ultraviolet sterilization that would have sounded absurd fifteen years ago.
Laid out that way, a cupping table stops being a tasting and becomes an experiment. Same farm, same care, different varieties and different processes, which means that for once you can actually separate the two and find out which one is doing the work.
Paraíso 92 Red Bourbon P-00, Washed, single anaerobic (48h, cherry). Notes: Berries, milk chocolate, grape.
Paraíso 92 Yellow Bourbon P-21, Washed with thermal shock, 96h fermentation. Notes: Red grape, vanilla, milk chocolate, hibiscus.
Paraíso 92 Silver (Caturra), Washed with thermal shock, anaerobic fermentation 40h. Notes: Lychee, berries, citrus fruit, eucalyptus.
Laderas Estate Coffee (Blend, mainly Caturra), Washed. Notes: Nuts, caramel, orange, lemongrass, chocolate.
Paraíso 92 SL28, Natural & anaerobic, 48h fermentation. Notes: Grapefruit, pineapple, bittersweet chocolate, cherry, green apple.
Paraíso 92 Typica P-07, Washed with thermal shock, 68h fermentation in mucilage. Notes: Peach, tropical fruit, orange blossom, lychee.
Paraíso 92 Sidra P-18, Washed with thermal shock, 96h fermentation. Notes: Blueberry, caramel, citrus, floral, golden raisin, herbal.
Paraíso 92 Sudan Rume C-01, Washed with thermal shock, 96h fermentation. Notes: Mango, melon, plum, jasmine.
If you have ever wondered how much of a coffee's flavor comes from the plant and how much from what happens to the fruit after it is picked, this is the way to find out. You cannot get there from reading about it.
We closed by going around the room, accompanied by Mitfar Café's house-made iced tea and cookies. Everyone named a favorite and explained why.
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Coffee Academy Canada published a full account of the evening, with photographs. [link]
More sessions are planned.