Cup of Excellence

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'.

Coffee is 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 with 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. The purpose of the auctions are for farmers to receive increased premiums for their exemplary coffees and to set transparency in pricing. The market for coffee has increased over 330% from 2003 to 2011.

In 2025, Cup of Excellence announced they would be switching from the online auction provider M-Cultivo to V-Auction.

Organization

The COE board of directions

Noelia Villalobos - Board Chair

Tim Taylor - Treasurer

Paul Stewart - Secretary

Cory Bush - CEO of Beyers Koffie, Board Member

Thomas Pulpan - Kaffebrenneriet, Board Member

Carl Cervone- Enveritas, Board Member

Aleco Chigounis- Red Fox, Board Member

John Moore- CEO of Vassilaros & Sons Coffee, Board Member

Vanusia Nogueria- Executive Director ICO, Board Member

Results

References

References

1. Deirdre Mayer Dougherty. (December 2023). ""A Sense of Taste with a Sense of Place": Coffee Identities Across the United States and El Salvador".
2. (20 February 2006). "The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade and the Elusive Promise of Development". Zed Books.
3. Pablo Dubois - Funding of commodity development projects with special reference to coffee. Chapter 10 in.Erik Chrispeels (ed) - International commodity organisations in transition. London, Cameron May, 2002. pp 121-131.
4. Barnett, Andrew. (2011-02-14). "The cup of excellence: The Oscars of the coffee world". seattlepi.com.
5. "Countries". Cup of Excellence.
6. "What is Cup of Excellence?". Cup of Excellence.
7. Staff, Daily Coffee News. (2025-03-26). "Cup of Excellence Names V-Auction New Online Auction Provider".