Cup of Excellence 2021
Cup of Excellence
What is it
It is the most prestigious competition and auction in the world for high quality coffees. Every year thousands of coffees are vetted to a level unmatched by any other championship in the world. The winning coffees are sold at world auctions with the resulting proceeds going mostly to farmers.
Cup of Excellence has pioneered its integrity and transparency in the coffee industry, ensuring the value of winning coffees. The COE raises funds for coffee producers in coffee-growing countries, incentivizing and motivating producers who know that there can be recognition and financial reward for their hard work and effort. During the years of its existence, it continues to build a more transparent infrastructure and provides farmers with the necessary tools so that they can improve their farms.
Cup of Excellence
How does it work?
Each sample that enters the competition process is assigned a number known only to the auditor. Each member of the jury blindly tastes the coffee without having any information about it. The competition is very rigorous with tasting evaluations carried out in various stages by experts.
- National Jury of approximately 12 qualified people in the country of origin.
- International Jury of 20-25 people with a lot of experience.
In order to understand the demanding level to which the coffees are subjected, one only has to think that for 300 coffees analyzed, 9000 cups would be tasted and that each coffee among the first 10 selected will have been tasted at least 120 times.
COE Ethiopia
Auction July 7
After making history last year in its first edition with the high number of samples received, a total of 1,450, Ethiopia is preparing for its second edition. These coffees are analyzed in a specialized laboratory located in the capital of the country, Addis Ababa and only 150 of these go to the next round, of which the international jury will only taste 40 coffees.
This competition will play a decisive role in promoting the country's coffee varieties and is organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, and USAID Feed the Future.
COE Mexico
Auction July 15
The Mexico Cup of Excellence Contest has been held since 2012, with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) as an international partner and the Asociación Mexicana de la Cadena Productiva del Café (AMECAFÉ A.C.) as a local partner. This partnership allows the Contest to take place in Mexico and thus take advantage of the trend of satisfying niche consumers in the national and international market who seek Mexican specialty coffee of the highest quality and reward its coffee growers.
The auction of the coffees classified as National Winners will be the week of June 28 to July 9.
COE Honduras
Auction July 27
For sixteen years in a row the Cup of Excellence has been held in Honduras. This competition seeks to promote economic recognition for coffee growers and publicize the characteristics and qualities of excellence of their coffees, showing specialists and consumers, from the country itself and also internationally, the best and special attributes of Honduran coffee and thus obtain better prices. and better positioning in the international arena.
Accessing international markets for specialty coffee makes Honduran coffee improve its image and value itself, which indirectly benefits all coffee growers in the country.
The auction of the coffees classified as National Winners will be held from July 19 to 30.
COE Guatemala
Auction July 27
Guatemala was the second country in the world to organize the Cup of Excellence competition in 2002. As every year, the Asociación Nacional del Café -Anacafé- will be carrying out this program in conjunction with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, with the purpose of to provide coffee growers with a platform to sell their coffee at excellent prices and present it to the international market.
The auction of the coffees selected for the Cup of Excellence will be held on July 27 for members of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and the auction of the coffees selected as National Winners will also be held this week between July 26 and August 8.
COE Costa Rica
Auction July 29
Costa Rica organized its first competition in 2007 and this year it celebrates its fourteenth edition thanks to the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and Café de Costa Rica.
The coffees, specially prepared for this event, are presented to qualifiers with National Judges and later to qualifiers with International Judges, where renowned tasters from important companies from Europe, Japan and the United States participate.
The auction of the coffees selected in the Cup of Excellence competition will be auctioned on July 29 and the coffees selected as National Winners will be auctioned during the week of July 26 and August 6.
COE El Salvador
Auction August 10
El Salvador organized its first competition in 2003 thanks to the Consejo Salvadoreño del Café, an autonomous state institution whose main objective is to improve the promotion and national and international positioning of the Coffee of El Salvador.
The first phase of this prestigious competition takes place with the calibration of judges and continues with the reception of coffee samples. Afterwards, a pre-selection of the registered samples is carried out and concludes with the evaluation of the international jury.
The auction of the coffees selected in the Cup of Excellence competition will be auctioned on August 10 and the auction of the National Winners will be held from August 3 to 13.
COE Ecuador
Auction November 18
In 2020, the Cup of Excellence competition and auction was held for the first time in the country of Ecuador. The organizers of this great event were the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and the Ascociación de Cafés Especiales de Ecuador (ACEDE), which, with twelve years old, represents the largest group of members of the specialty coffee industry in the country.
With their recent incorporation, both organizations want Ecuador to be recognized by national and international buyers and discover the great potential of their products.
The National Winners Coffee Auction from November 15 to 26.
COE Indonesia
Auction November 23
Indonesia is also one of the countries that has recently been added to this international competition circuit. With this competition, the country's specialty coffee producers seek to publicize their excellent beans and put them in the spotlight of the entire international community of buyers.
The auction of the coffees chosen by the Cup of Excellence competition will be auctioned for the Alliance for Coffee Excellence members on November 23rd and the National Winners coffees will be auctioned from November 22nd to December 10th.
COE Peru
Auction December 2
The Peru Cup of Excellence has its origin in a very recent date, since the first time the competition and the auction were held was in 2017. This opportunity arose through the collaboration of Alliance Coffee for Excellence and Central de Café y Cacao, together with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of Peru, the National Coffee Board, the Peruvian Chamber of Coffee and Cacao and the National Coffee Platform.
The auction of the coffees selected as National Winners will be held between November 29 and December 10.
COE Brazil
Auction December 9
Brazil was the first country in which this competition took place, under the name of "The Best of Brazil" in 1999 it began its journey to which other producing countries would later join seeing the great reception it had.
The contest made a change in 2018 and decided to incorporate two types of award to producers: The Cup of Excellence Winners and the National Winners. The coffees that fall into this category are auctioned from December 6 to 17.
