Ally Coffee Is the New Origin Trip Sponsor

Brazilian Coffee Merchants Ally Coffee brings back the Origin Trip Sponsorship, with a twist—Brewers Cup and Roaster Champs to join Barista Champs

Ally Coffee has resurrected the Origin Trip Sponsorship for 2016. The sponsorship—which was initiated by Café Imports in 2011—will take the top two from the United States Barista Championship; the top two from the United States Brewers Cup, and the top two from the United States Roaster Championship (formerly the Roasters Choice Competition), on a tour of three Brazilian coffee-growing regions in the fall of 2016. Ally Coffee signed the deal with the Specialty Coffee Association of America today.

As the 2016 Origin Trip Sponsor, Ally Coffee Merchants will take the top two finishers from the USBC, the U.S. Brewers Cup, and the Roaster Championship will be treated to an all-expenses-paid trip to three coffee regions in Brazil, including a stop at Ally Coffee’s own Fazenda Primavera, pictured here. (Photo courtesy of Ally Coffee)

“We are incredibly excited about this,” says Ricardo Pereira, Director of Specialty Coffee for Ally Coffee, noting that Ally is excited to also be sponsoring all the green coffee for the first round of the Roater Championship at the SCAA show in Atlanta in April. “We have wanted to celebrate the work of the Brewers Cup competitors and the roaster competitors] for a long time with a trip like this.” Ricardo has personally been involved with the U.S. Brewers Cup competition since its very first year, and continues to serve as a head judge. As a whole, Ally Coffee has been a longtime supporter of the barista community through its heavy involvement in the Greenville TNT series

On the trip to Brazil that Ally Coffee is sponsoring for barista, brewers, and roaster champs in 2016, farm visits will include a stop at the breathtaking Fazenda Matilde, pictured.

Ricardo says that Ally has signed on as the Origin Trip Sponsor for 2016 only at this point, but continuing with it for years after this “is not off the table.” Ally Coffee reserves first right refusal for future Origin Trip Sponsorship rights.

Ally Coffee has long been a supporter of the barista community through its outreach and education, and support of events like the Greenville TNT Series, and the U.S. Brewers Cup and regional events. Ricardo (third judge from left), who has been involved with the U.S. Brewers Cup since its inception, was a head judge at the U.S. Brewers Cup Qualifying Event last week in Kansas City.

The trip, which Ricardo says he hopes to schedule during Brazil’s harvest later in 2016, will take the six coffee champs along with a few special guests to visit Ally Coffee’s farm, Fazenda Primavera, as well as farms in two other producing regions in Brazil. Among the activities he has planned for the champs is a throwdown in the middle of a farm.

“I don’t know how we’ll do it,” says Ricardo, “but we’re going to do it!”

Barista Magazine will announce more details about Ally Coffee’s Origin Trip Sponsorship, and this upcoming trip to Brazil for the top finishers in the USBC, the U.S. Brewers Cup, and the U.S. Roaster Championship, as they are released.

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