In the coffee world, the Cup of Excellence is the highest award a coffee can receive. Learn more about this extraordinary competition here. The highest coffee award in the world. It is held annually in the coffee-growing countries of Africa, South and Central America and organised by the Alliance For Coffee Excellence (ACE). The Cup of Excellence jury awards the best coffees of a country, which are then allowed to carry a seal until the next COE. This seal is used to identify the best beans of the season. Before a coffee is allowed to carry this seal, however, it must convince many people of its uniqueness. The participants The number of coffees submitted annually per coffee country ranges from 300 to 900, depending on the size of the country. Brazil, for example, has more entries than a small country like Rwanda. To make a pre-selection, you need patience and a fine sense of taste, because only the best beans should make it to the second round in the end. For the pre-selection of the coffees, a national jury is appointed to determine the best of the submitted coffee samples. It consists of staff from the national coffee organisations, exporters and Q graders. The coffees submitted are couped into five cups by the jury. This means that five infusions of each coffee are placed next to each other and each of them is tested. The procedure The coffees submitted will be couped by the jury over five cups. This means that five infusions of each coffee are placed next to each other and each of them is tested. The national jury focuses on flavour uniqueness during the pre-selection process and evaluates the aromas, taste, sweetness and acidity, body and balance of the individual components of a coffee. In the end, around 60 coffees remain to face an international jury of the world's most influential coffee roasters, buyers and sellers. The ACE, the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, is responsible for the jury. In this second round of judging, all coffees are tasted blind. This means that the jury has no information about the coffee samples, only the taste counts. During the cupping, the coffees are evaluated by the jury and the points awarded are compiled and checked by independent examiners.Coffees that score more than 86 points move on to the next round.For orientation: the highest score is 100, but even we have never given a coffee 100 points. All coffees that have scored more than 86 points are then tasted and evaluated again. Usually there are between 20 and 30 coffees. The members of the ACE 'Alliance for Coffee Excellence' can then bid on these coffees in a worldwide online auction. 19grams has been a member of ACE for many years. We participate in the international juries every year and buy the winning coffees in the international auction.