Tuesday here at the Center of Excellence saw the conclusion of round one for naturally processed coffees. Naturals, those allowed to dry whole with the beans still inside the cherry, can be problematic on the cupping table. "It's always difficult to cup natural coffees because you can always find a lot of variations from cup to cup and table to table" says Andrew Miller of Cafe Imports. Twenty-nine coffees in three flights were cupped on Tuesday and Andrew saw two coffees per set that were "outstanding." Most likely these six and four others will go on to the final round of judging on Thursday.

Andrew Miller in action.