The Cupping Table - By M-Cultivo

Welcome back to the Cupping Table podcast! In this episode, host David Paparelli sits down with Michael Girma, CEO of Romina—one of Ethiopia’s highly diversified agribusiness and hospitality brands. Managing a massive supply chain that includes 25,000 smallholder farmers, 20 washing stations, 5 dry mills, and a dedicated export arm, Michael has an extraordinary perspective on what it takes to move...

Welcome back to the Cupping Table podcast! In this episode, host David Paparelli sits down with Endale Asfaw, the founder and managing director of Aroma Coffee Trading and Consultancy Services. With over 30 years of experience across Ethiopia's coffee value chain and a definitive background as a Senior Cupper and Technical Manager at the Coffee and Tea Authority's Coffee Quality & Insp...

Finca Sophia is one of the most high-demand, high-altitude coffee farms on the planet, growing elite Geisha varieties at over 2,000 meters in Nueva Suiza, Chiriqui, Panama. But this year, they are doing something completely unprecedented. In this episode of the Cupping Table Podcast, host David Paparelli sits down with Willem Boot and David Pohl to discuss their monumental decision to skip the leg...

There are limits to what is possible in Uganda—until you choose to push past them. In this live episode of The Cupping Table recorded at the London Coffee Festival, host David Paparelli sits down with Kenneth Barigye, the founder and Managing Director of Mountain Harvest. Kenneth shares how his team is challenging old stereotypes, bypassing volatile macro market pricing models, and establishing a...

Description: Ian Kissick is a titan in the specialty coffee world—holding the titles of 2023 UK Barista Champion and consecutive 2024 and 2025 Irish Barista Champion, alongside placing 6th in the world. But after 9 years at the peak of competitive coffee brewing, he is walking away.  In this episode of the Cupping Table podcast, M Cultivo co-founder David Paparelli sits down with Ian to unpack the...

What do you do when a century-old family legacy is on the absolute brink of collapse? That was the exact crossroads facing 4th-generation coffee producer Kenny Vidurrizaga and his brother Alex. In a single season, a devastating wave of leaf rust ("La Roya") ruthlessly wiped out 50% of his family’s coffee crops at Finca Santa Estella. With global market prices hitting historic lows and the farm dro...

In 2020, Diego Baraona faced an impossible choice: stay in Barcelona to start a new life or return to El Salvador to save a 5th-generation coffee legacy on the brink of collapse. When his father (known as the "King of Pacamara") passed away during the height of COVID-19, Diego inherited more than just a farm; he inherited a mountain of bank debt and a failing agricultural system dependen...

In this episode of The Cupping Table podcast, host David Paparelli sits down with Frederick Bejo, a visionary leader in the UAE coffee scene and co-founder of Archers and Benchmark Coffee. Fred, the 2023 UAE National Brewers Cup Champion, shares his fascinating journey from arriving in Dubai in 2012, back when the region had only one specialty roastery, to building a global reputation for sourcing...

In this episode of the Cupping Table Podcast, David Paparelli, co-founder of M-Cultivo, sits down with Abdulrahman (Abdul) Alosaimi, the former airline pilot turned founder of Toga. Abdulrahman reveals his specialty coffee story, which began with a life-changing drip coffee in Sydney back in 2014. We explore how he translated aviation's high-stakes culture into a coffee shop built from the gro...

In this episode of the Cupping Table, David Paparelli sits down with Emily McIntyre, co-founder of Swift Coffee Sourcing, to discuss the professional evolution of specialty coffee importing. Drawing on two decades of experience, Emily provides a factual account of the operational challenges inherent in the trade, including the closure of her previous venture, Catalyst Trade, after hitting a "...

Forget what you know about traditional coffee farming. At World of Coffee Dubai, David Paparelli (M-Cultivo) sits down with Kai Janson to discuss the "elevated" future of specialty coffee. While many producers are stuck in "tribal scarcity," Kai is pushing Janson Coffee into a new era of abundance through radical experimentation. We dive deep into Waved technology, a controvers...

Join us on the Cupping Table as we sit down with UAE National Barista Champion Frederick Ruben to uncover the fascinating journey of one of the industry's most innovative minds . In this episode, Ruben reveals the harrowing story of how he was scammed into moving to Dubai and how he climbed from a cafeteria worker to a world-class coffee specialist at Benchmark Coffee . We dive deep into the &...

In this special episode recorded live in Dubai, we sit down with two legends of the US coffee-growing scene: the late Jay Ruskey (Frinj Coffee, California) and Kraig Lee (Kona Farm Direct, Hawaii).From the first 47 "test" plants in Santa Barbara to breaking price records in Kona, Jay and Kraig share the evolution of an industry many thought could never exist. They dive deep into the tech...

In this episode of the Cupping Table podcast, David Paparelli sits down with Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles, to discuss their 15-year journey of investing in Burundi coffee communities. Ben shares the harrowing reality of producing coffee in East Africa, from fighting off bandits armed with spears to navigating a coup d'etat while attempting to export specialty lots. They dive deep into...

In this panel discussion, David Paparelli, CEO of M-Cultivo, sits down with Rachel Peterson of Hacienda La Esmeralda and Jeferson Santos of Daterra Coffee to explore how their estates have fundamentally reshaped the global specialty coffee industry. The conversation delves into the evolution of private coffee auctions, moving from simple price discovery to sophisticated platforms for brand storyte...

In this episode of The Cupping Table, David Paparelli sits down with Roland Glew, the green coffee buyer at Ozone Coffee, to explore the intricate realities of global coffee sourcing. Roland shares deep insights from his travels to origins like Peru, Malawi, and Costa Rica, emphasizing how infrastructure and individual expertise can make or break the quality of a harvest and the reputation of a co...

In this episode of the Cupping Table podcast, David Paparelli sits down with Kenneth Barigye, the founder of Mountain Harvest and Chairman of the Uganda chapter of AFCA. Kenneth shares his unique journey of entering the coffee industry in 2017—tasting his very first cup of coffee only after founding his company—with a mission to challenge the global perception of Ugandan coffee quality. The conver...

In this special episode of The Cupping Table, M-Cultivo co-founder David Paparelli breaks down the "nuts and bolts" of the 2026 coffee auction season, specifically focusing on the unique hybrid format of the Dubai Coffee Auction. Following a record-breaking year in 2025 where coffee reached prices of $30,000 per kilo, David explains how the platform connects a global network of producers...

In this episode of The Cupping Table, David Paparelli sits down with José "Pocho" Gallardo, the visionary engineer behind the world-renowned Finca Nuguo in Panama. Pocho shares his unique perspective on what it takes to master high-altitude Geisha, detailing how his background in engineering informs his approach to coffee. They discuss the "magic" of the Panamanian coffee commu...

In this deep-dive interview, Mokhtar Alkhanshali explores the intersection of heritage, identity, and the high-stakes world of luxury coffee production at the Al-Khanshali Estate. As a self-described "third culture kid," Mokhtar discusses how his upbringing between San Francisco and Yemen allows him to act as a cultural translator, bridging ancient cultivation techniques with the modern...

In this episode, we are joined by Ratibor Hartmann and Tessie Palacios of Mi Finquita, a nine-hectare farm representing the third generation of the Hartmann family’s 100-year coffee legacy in Panama. We delve into their revolutionary approach to ultra-specialty coffee, focusing on their award-winning Chicho Gallo varietal—a unique Ethiopian discovery named in honor of Ratibor’s father. Ratibor and...

In this episode of The Cupping Table, David Paparelli sits down with Kraig Lee, the founder of Kona Farm Direct and a 30-year veteran of Hawaiian coffee farming. Fresh off a breakout year where his coffee sold for a record-breaking $910 per kilo at the Dubai coffee auction , Kraig shares the incredible journey behind Kona’s resurgence on the global stage. They dive deep into the fascinating story...

In this episode of The Cupping Table, David sits down with Raul Rivera, the visionary behind El Salvador’s legendary Finca Santa Rosa. Raul shares the emotional journey of taking over the family farm after his father's passing and transforming it into a four-time Cup of Excellence winner. They discuss how Raul applied his corporate background in economics to coffee production, his controversia...

In this episode, David sits down with Jay Ruskey, the founder of FRINJ Coffee, to discuss how he pioneered the California-grown coffee movement by transforming avocado groves into high-end coffee farms. Jay dives deep into the agronomy of coffee, explaining why stressing plants is actually a mistake, how California’s unique "latitude over altitude" climate produces distinct flavor profil...

In this episode of The Cupping Table, we sit down with Jorge Castro, Director of Production at Inmaculada Coffee Farms, to discuss how an industrial engineering background helped them produce some of the world's most successful competition coffees, including the legendary Eugenioides. Jorge reveals Inmaculada's data-driven approach to experimental processing, explains why metrics like Brix...