Further investigation reveals that the prize from the actual competition was only $1000 and the other 20k was from the company she works for. They're apparently trying to up their professionalism and standing in the biz and offered that to any of their barista's who win the competition.
There's a bit of brewhaha (sp?) on the boards now about whether that's kosher or artificially inflating the prize level for this type of event. That's prompting some further discussion about whether driving up prices such as the Best of Panama Esmerelda to $130lb (purchased by some industry leading companies) isn't the same thing, or worse, since it's an exorbitant amount to pay for a non-rare coffee and the winning grower isn't exactly a poor coffee farmer who's getting a premium for a great crop. I don't know much about him but his name is Daniel Peterson, not Lopez or Herrera or something. Part of the idea behind coffee competitions is to bring awareness of high quality specialty coffees and get more money to growers who often make a very poor living. But on the other hand, great coffee is great coffee no matter who grows it so it's hard to fault a wealthy farmer for going the extra mile to grow an outstanding crop.
