Cup of Excellence

The Cup of Excellence is an annual competition held in several countries to identify the highest quality coffees produced. It is organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, which was founded by George Howell, Susie Spindler and Silvio Leite. The Cup of Excellence has worked to fundamentally change the high quality coffee industry and has supported advances in farming and premiums to farmers that would have been impossible without it.

Format

The winning coffees are sold in internet auctions. The concept was developed by the Gourmet Coffee Project of the International Coffee Organization (ICO). This project was devised by Pablo Dubois, Head of Operations of the ICO and Frans Bolvenkel, of the International Trade Centre (ITC) at a meeting in Geneva in late 1994. This project, supervised by the ICO, managed by the ITC and largely financed by the Common Fund for Commodities, ran from 1995 to 2000, and aimed to develop methodologies for the creation of new "gourmet" or high-quality speciality coffees. The Cup of Excellence competition has been dubbed as the 'Oscars of the coffee world'.

They are scored and priced on the market based on two quality attributes that are measured, material and symbolic attributes. These can be defined as aromas, flavors, certification, market size, high altitude plot, and country of origin.

History

The competitions began in 1999. As of 2020, competitions are held in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Burundi, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Rwanda. In the course of the competition each coffee is tested at least five times. Only those coffees that get high scores continuously move forward in the competition. The final winners are awarded the Cup of Excellence and sold via an internet auction to the highest bidder. This is quite the catch considering the market for coffee has increased over 330% from 2003 to 2011. The purpose of the auctions were for farmers to receive increased premiums for their exemplary coffees and to set transparency in pricing.

Format

The COE board of directions

Noelia Villalobos - Board Chair

Cory Bush - CEO of Beyers Koffie

Tim Taylor - Treasurer

Paul Stewart - Secretary

Thomas Pulpan -Board Member

Carl Cervone- Board Member

Results

* 2022 Indonesia
** 1A - Koperasi Ribang Gayo Musara
** 1B - Koperasi Ribang Gayo Musara
** 2nd place -Pegasing Takengon Utara
** 3rd place - Frinsa Weninggalih
** 4th place - Koperasi Ribang Gayo Musara
** 5th place -Koperasi Ribang Gayo Musara
*2021 Indonesia
**1st place - Pantan Musara
**2nd place - Ibun Ita
**3rd place - Pantan Musara
**4th place - Ijen Lestari
**5th place - Ibun Yudi

See also

References

Traore, Togo M., Norbert L. W. Wilson, and Deacue Fields. “What Explains Specialty Coffee Quality Scores and Prices: A Case Study from the Cup of Excellence Program.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 50, no. 3 (August 2018): 349–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/aae.2018.5.
Wilson, Adam P., and Norbert LW Wilson. “Economics of Quality in the Specialty Coffee Industry: Insights from the Cup of Excellence Auction Programs.” Agricultural Economics 45, no. S1 (2014): 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12132.
Bureau, US Census. “Caution: HOT Commodity!” The United States Census Bureau. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/global-reach/2013/06/coffeedata.html.
Internet Archive. “GH2X-FDCC: ICyte - Saved Page: Cup of Excellence® Winners Re… : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Accessed April 11, 2023. https://archive.org/details/perma_cc_GH2X-FDCC.

Further reading

*

External links

* https://allianceforcoffeeexcellence.org/

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Awards established in 1999
Food and drink awards
Coffee culture