Le Carnaval du Café (LCDC) is an educational and collegial coffee event hosted by the Collaborative Coffee Source, held at the beautiful La Bellevilloise Arts & Culture Center in the heart of Paris, January 25th – 27th, 2015.
We received the following press release on the event.
LCDC has a highly curated program for those who want to get a grip on the pressing, current and controversial topics in Specialty Coffee.
We have an incredible line-up of speakers from all over the world: The charismatic Dr. Flávio Borém from the University of Lavras, Brazil; Paul Songer, a tremendously informed and intellectual person, who has been instrumental for CoE as as long standing Head Judge; Philippe Lashermes, one of the first and lead researchers on the team that broke the coffee genome sequence; just to name some of the illustrious LCDC speakers this year.
The two-day program is packed and the presenters represent the most current issues in specialty coffee from the fields of agronomy, botanical research, processing, the social sciences as well as years of professional experience within Specialty Coffee.
This event is distinct both in its small and intimate size combined with its big and worldly scope. (Keep in mind: this little event is totally unique in the world of coffee. The topics are current and important and the foremost people in their respective fields have accepted our invitation to come and present.)
What is it?
“Le Carnaval du Café” the name started as a joke. A silly and joyful name we wanted to give to this rather hardcore educational, yet totally collegial and friendly event.
It is hosted by the Collaborative Coffee Source, which is one of the tiniest, yet highly focused, professional, down-to-earth and hard-working green coffee sourcing companies out there. It distributes all over the world. All the coffees are specific lots, traded transparently and traceably, coming from fantastic farmers. The work is about tailoring the menus of some of the coolest roasters around.
CCS constantly works with issues that are critical to farmers (indirectly to roasters). As curious as we are and want to learn as much about everything as possible, we also wanted to create a platform where one can learn as much as possible about what is most relevant in the field of green coffee right now.
The most pressing issues; the ones that are hot. What are the trends? What do we see coming?
Flávio Borém’s presentation is one we are super proud to feature. He may be the most influential researcher, certainly in Brazil, in the field of Specialty Coffee.
Oliver Stand‘s contribution (picture) as a mediator for the discussions will be key, but he is also sharing his experiences observing the mess in Nyeri, Kenya in 2014, as he is currently writing a book about coffee from around the world. He had to re-write the chapter about Kenya after he’d been there because of the politically tumultuous situation during the last harvest.
In 2012 we had the famous Daniel Peterson of Hacienda Esmeralda speak about their famous Geisha varietal. Well, this year we’ve invited the fantastically knowledgable and charismatic Carlos Arévalo from La Palma y El Túcan in Colombia to speak about the infamous Castillo variety.
At the moment, Castillo is being questioned about its (supposed) lesser favourable cup attributes compared to other Colombian coffees. What isn’t being discussed is what the farmer who’s planted it should do with it. Interestingly, many are taking charge and trying to make it a favorable coffee by processing it differently.
Yet another controversial issue. Carlos will help put all of this in perspective and then share his own experiences as one of the guys at the forefront of the New Colombian wave of alternative processing methods.
Why Paris, again?
We hosted LCDC in Paris in 2012 and we are back again first and foremost to make a statement: Paris is still the center of Europe and it is still a food capital, but we all realize it isn’t so for specialty coffee. Not quite yet. What we do know is that people are working hard to make Paris an interesting coffee place.
The coffee community has grown tremendously – even since we started working with this community 3 years ago – so we want to help give it another boost before we take off with the event to other emerging coffee cities like BERLIN or NYC or wherever else we may go. It would for sure make sense to host it in OSLO one day, that IS a Coffee Capital after all. But it is actually more fun to do it in a place that isn’t that obvious.
Not only are the presenters coming from all over the globe and all its continents; so are the attendees. We have set the cap at 50 to make it as focused and educational as can be, yet keeping the atmosphere intimate and personal. To be honest, it’s rather exclusive.
There still are a few unsold tickets, as some people have had to withdraw. But one should not think too long about it – shoot us an email and we’ll try to get you in.
Picture of Oliver Strand by Tuukka Koski.
See you at Le Carnaval du Café 25-27 January, Paris!
