May 29, 2014 will be Coffee-Cupping Day in Cameroon. An initiative of the Inter-professional Coffee and Cocoa Council (CICC) which will be launching the 2nd staging of the International Cameroonian Coffee Festival (Festicoffee), consumers will be gathering in 17 Cameroonian towns (Bafoussam, Bamenda, Bertoua, Buea, Kumba, Douala, Dschang, Ebolowa, Foumban, Garoua, Koutaba, Maroua, Mélong, Ngaoundéré, Nkongsamba, Soa and Yaoundé), to taste coffee for a symbolic gesture of 1 FCfa.
However, unlike last year, Coffee Cupping Day 2014 will also be held in six other African capitals. According to the CICC, while coffee delights are being savoured by local consumers, coffee lovers in Lagos (Nigeria), Libreville (Gabon), Lomé (Togo), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Monrovia (Liberia) will be doing the same.
The goals of this international coffee-tasting day, states the CICC, are “to put an end to preconceived notions about coffee, and expose the public in general and youth in particular to coffee and its positive impact on one’s health.”
In addition to Coffee-Cupping Day, Festicoffee 2014, which is to close on May 31, 2014, will include talks by researchers about Robusta coffee and discussions with operators in four Cameroonian towns as well as a coffee forum and fair.