By winning the title of Best Worker of France Coffee Roaster , Anne Caron has inscribed her name in the history of this prestigious competition which has been celebrating craftsmanship in France for more than a hundred years. Unlike Serge Gainsbourg in his songCoffee color
she has never been “fed up with coffee” and has never waited “for it to settle down”. Already, coffee, Anne Caron fell into it when she was little. And as far as she can remember, she’s always loved it. “Coffee is tangy,” she confides to20 minutes
. When it is well prepared, even children love it. Since then, she has served more than 100,000 every day. The brandCafe Caron
, it is to his father that we owe it, founded forty-five years ago. Author of a signature coffee that he developed after many years, Sylvain Caron himself was awarded the title of best roaster in France in 2011, several years before Anne Caron took over the management of the brand and become, in turn, the best coffee roaster in France. It was in 2017. The first award-winning woman in the category. And here is Anne Caron who has become Meilleur Ouvrier(e) de France Torréfacteur, a competition she has been preparing for since… 2018.
A coffee with a positive impact
The event, which is held every four years (five this time with the health crisis) consists of five technical tests, a professional situation test and the presentation of a masterpiece. Anne Caron was able to impress the jury for this event in particular. “I presented a mobile roasting unit in line with my values,” she says. That is to say including a strong environmental and societal dimension. »
Because her goal in life, “is to offer a coffee with a positive impact that is fully in line with sustainability” Anne Caron has always campaigned for a specialty coffee, the equivalent of a grand cru for wine, subject to strict criteria, the final mark of which must be greater than 80/100.
“It’s more expensive, but it’s also more virtuous”, she explains, citing the necessary respect for the land and the forests, for those who pick the coffee cherries, for the environment of the countries crossed for transport, and of the consumer who ultimately pours himself quality coffee. “It will obviously be a little more expensive, but everyone wins and it’s the only way to commit to a more sustainable coffee world. So much for the principles.
“Listen to the coffee beans, I love it”
Concretely, this masterpiece? “It was a mobile roasting unit,” she recalls. Mobile means able to travel. The idea was to be able to distribute the coffee that my suppliers brought me by sail to Le Havre, to roast it in this mobile unit and to bring it back on a barge to Paris, where I had planned multiple meeting points on these bicycle highways that have become the quays of the Seine. “You have to believe that it rained.
Just like the practical roasting test. “Listening to the coffee beans burning, because you can’t see them in a cast iron oven, I love that!” »
It is difficult to imagine a finer consecration for this woman of character and great sensitivity, than this title of MOF which highlights the contribution of a woman in a sector traditionally reserved for men. “It’s less and less true, laughs Anne Caron, even if the bags of coffee still weigh 60 kg and you have to be able to lift them. »
With Mikaël Portannier and Laurent Baysse.
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