Cup of Excellence Kaffee from Colombia 

In 1999, the Cup Of Excellence program was launched by the non-profit organization Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) with the goals of bridging the gap between quality coffee farmers and quality roasters, providing a common platform for knowledge sharing, and increasing appreciation for quality coffee. The Cup Of Excellence is the world's most prestigious coffee competition, which also includes an auction for the winning coffees. The competition is held annually in various coffee-growing countries in Latin and South America, as well as Africa. In 2017, the countries were Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Burundi, Rwanda, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Peru.

Each coffee producer of these countries is able to submit a sample of his coffee free of charge and thus participate in the competition. The number of coffees submitted varies from 200 to 1000, depending on the size of the country and the spread of coffee cultivation. The course of the competition is planned in detail. In a 3 week process, all submitted coffees are tasted in six rounds by experts from the coffee industry according to a strict protocol and judged on their taste characteristics. In each round, only a small number of the coffees from the preliminary round will advance. In the first three rounds, a team of qualified judges from the country of origin evaluates the coffees. An international jury team tastes and evaluates the remaining coffees in the last three rounds.

What remains are about 30 to 35 coffees that have received the highest rating. These coffees are offered two months later in a global auction where ACE club members can bid on their favorite coffees and secure the green coffee of the winning lots. A majority of the proceeds from this auction go back to the coffee producers of the winning coffees.

Cup of Excellence in Colombia 2017

In September 2017, the Colombia Cup Of Excellence took place after a one-year break. It was held in Ibague, the capital of the department of Tolima.

Sascha, one of the founders of Tres Cabezas, was present as an international jury member and was allowed to taste and evaluate the top coffees of the last three cupping rounds, which are intended for the international jury team. What was remarkable about this Cup Of Excellnce was that no less than six coffees achieved a score of over 90 points. This is very impressive and testifies to Colombia's specialty coffee growing steadily in quality.

The Huila and Tolima growing regions were among top regions from which the winning coffees emerged and the winning coffee varieties included Bourbon, Colombia, Tabi and Typica. The international auction of the winning coffees took place two months later in November 2017 and we are thrilled to have been able to bid and secure a wonderful Colombian COE coffee.

Winning coffee from the Betel farm in our Online Store

Our Cup Of Excellence coffee comes from Hulia from the farm Betel, whose owner is Luis Arnobi Rodriguez Murcia. The beans consist of the Colombia variety and were able to mature slowly at an altitude of 1700 m NHN and develop their exceptional aroma. Luis runs the farm with his son already in the second generation and puts a lot of care into the constant care of his coffee plants.

He is always looking to deepen his knowledge and know-how of coffee cultivation, which is why he has put a lot of energy into continuing his education in different areas of the value chain, such as agricultural practices, sensory skills or barista craft. This allows him to know in detail all the steps of the quality and processing methods of coffee. The great recognition and good feedback from other producers finally encouraged him to participate in the Cup Of Excellence in 2017, and with great success.

We have roasted the winning beans as filter coffee to bring out the delicate and elegant notes of pineapple, lime and lemongrass. You can order the Colombia COE coffee in our online store.

Have fun enjoying it!