Cup of Excellence made its entrance in an industry that was already changing. The competition met a need that followed the rise of the coffee bar culture, as more people began to demand quality and knowledge about the origins of coffee. When the Cup of Excellence was launched in 1999 as the "Best of Brazil", it also changed the terms of the coffee trade. Before that, even the most skilful coffee farms had to hope for a miracle to meet roasters who appreciated the quality of their work.
In the right place, at the right time
Now a showcase and meeting place had been created for coffee farms and roasters with a common interest in flavour and quality. A small coffee roaster from Ryen in Oslo was present at the competition in 1999 - on an international scale. Solberg & Hansen bought five out of ten coffee lots in the subsequent auction and also became the first ever lifetime member of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (the non-profit organisation behind the Cup of Excellence).
The competition quickly became a fair link between quality-conscious coffee farms and roasters who valued the product they could offer. Since then, the Cup of Excellence has made a wide range of outstanding lots available to us coffee lovers. The subsequent auction has given more and more coffee farmers a sustainable livelihood. The sum of these changes has helped shift the balance of power in what has traditionally been a buyer's market, regardless of quality and flavour.
Coffee farmer Juan de La Cerda (pictured) runs the El Socorro coffee farm, which consistently achieves new top positions in the Cup of Excellence.
Coveted coffee celebrities
25 years after "Best of Brazil", the Cup of Excellence has been organised in 11 South and Central American countries, as well as Burundi, Ethiopia and Rwanda in Africa. In addition, Asian countries such as Indonesia and, in 2023, Thailand have organised CoE competitions.
The Cup of Excellence has been called "the world's fairest coffee competition" and compared to the film world's Oscars. And there's no doubt that the competition has created stars. A large number of unknown coffee farms, producers and cultivation areas have built well-known brands with products that have been in demand for years. Regardless of nicknames and comparisons, today the Cup of Excellence has become a symbol of fair trade, quality and traceability. The bonus comes in the form of the ripple effects that follow the competition.
Today, long-term relationships are the mainstay of cooperation between producers and roasters who want to offer unique flavour experiences. The record-breaking prices achieved at the auctions, as well as the predictability that comes with long-term partnerships, give coffee farmers the opportunity to further develop their product. Today, the competition and auction return almost 5 million US dollars to coffee producers around the world every year.
Today, long-term relationships are the mainstay of collaboration between producers and distillers who want to offer unique flavour experiences.
Alliance for Coffee Excellence
From farm to auction
Cup of Excellence is a non-profit organisation that organises competitions and subsequent auctions in producer countries. All participants compete on a level playing field and are judged blindly by several panels of independent judges. The coffee farms choose a batch from this year's harvest and send samples to the Cup of Excellence. The coffee then goes through up to six rounds of judging, both national and international, where the samples are judged according to the competition's highly advanced cupping scheme.
In round five, the participants who qualify for the auction are picked out, a maximum of 45 lots that must be awarded at least 85 points. On the final day, the winner will be chosen from the ten lots that have progressed furthest in the three-week jury process.
At the end of the competition, up to 45 coffee producers can look forward to the day of the auction, where they can expect to sell for far more than the market price. And hopefully meet buyers with whom they can enter into long and fruitful partnerships.
