What is COE? What are the Cup of Excellence and Barista Championships? Are COE Beans Always Delicious?

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

Understanding C.O.E Coffee Competition

Generally, we commonly see competition beans labeled with C.O.E., which refers to Cup of Excellence - the International Coffee Cupping Competition. C.O.E. evaluation is the most authoritative in top-tier coffee competitions. The outstanding candidates that emerge from rigorous competitions are the highest quality coffees from that country for that year. In each cupping session, they must consistently maintain high scores to rank among the top, and only then can they be awarded the C.O.E. winning designation. The coffee beans from winning estates are then sold through unified specific online auctions, allowing buyers worldwide to bid on coffee beans in a transparent manner. This approach rapidly spreads the reputation of excellent award-winning farms, while competition batches of coffee can achieve better prices.

Coffee Cupping Competition Format

Coffee farmers carefully select approximately 25-35 bags, each weighing about 60kg, which are sent to the competition warehouse for storage until the auction ends. Countries participating in the competition typically have over 500 farms. The first stage is the preliminary round, the second stage is the semi-finals, and the third stage is called TOP 10. In each stage, the sum of individual scores must reach at least 84 points to qualify as passing. Under this strict competition system, only about 20-30 farms or estates remain, ranked by their scores to determine the competition bean rankings.

COE stands for Cup of Excellence, representing "a perfect cup of coffee" and also known as the "Excellent Cup." It is the world's most important specialty coffee bean competition. First held in Brazil in 1999 by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), it is currently the world's most renowned and authoritative specialty coffee competition, and also the most credible in evaluating top-tier coffee.

The competition generally takes place annually, where specialty coffee growers submit their best coffee beans for evaluation by domestic or international judges from this organization. Participating coffees must undergo strict competition rules, and ultimately, winning estates must pass through six stages. Typically, from 500 estates, fewer than 30 remain after the final selection.

Why Have COE?

The traditional coffee industry primarily pursued mass marketing and commercial transactions. However, driven by huge profits and commercialization, coffee quality and production origins gradually gained attention.

Before the advent of Cup of Excellence, most coffee beans were processed as blends. The wonderful flavors of different coffee beans couldn't be highlighted, and flavor characteristics were submerged within country or regional names. Truly excellent beans were often buried and overlooked.

To give producers motivation to grow high-quality coffee, not just the self-awareness of "I want to grow delicious coffee!" but also high profits, enabling coffee growers to change their lives and escape poverty. Therefore, specialty coffee evaluation competitions emerged, adopting the COE system, evaluating and ranking based on scores.

Influenced by attractive selling prices, coffee growers who previously focused only on yield began to work on quality, striving to produce the most flavorful coffee "beauties" to participate in competitions.

Top-tier coffee "beauties" depend not only on coffee varieties and genetics but also on a combination of climatic and human factors: for example, volcanic lava deposits at high altitudes in South America formed the soil that nurtures them, growers calculate the ideal maturity period to harvest good coffee beans, then select appropriate methods for washing, drying, pulping, polishing, sorting... Finally, there's the art-like roasting process, which is what the judges gathered at COE competitions excel at.

The Role of COE

Coffees awarded the COE designation can be traded at high prices in international online auctions focused on specialty coffee.

This system not only enhances the production motivation of coffee estates but also improves the evaluation and local reputation of coffee estates and their surrounding areas, thereby increasing coffee trade volume with multiple benefits.

COE Standards and Evaluation

Total scores of 69 or below belong to slightly inferior commercial beans or industrial-grade beans.

Total scores between 70-74 belong to general commercial beans.

Total scores between 75-79 belong to superior commercial beans, generally called high-grade commercial beans.

Total scores between 80-84 belong to specialty coffee.

Total scores of 85 or above belong to COE competition grade, also Cup of Excellence winning coffees, currently recognized as the highest level in the international coffee community.

Benefits of Competition Coffee Beans

Every coffee that wins in C.O.E. must have its own unique characteristics. To emerge victorious from among numerous farms, it must undergo rigorous challenges, and its quality is the best among many farms. Competition beans themselves have very few defects and insect damage, with high consistency in bean size and similar color. Even the expansion degree and coffee coloring after roasting are consistent. The flavor reflects the growing environment, soil, terrain, and even green bean processing methods, thus creating unique flavors. Although coffee beans produced from the same farm have little variation in various conditions, competition beans are definitely the best beans selected from the farm for competition.

With C.O.E. competition experience, it's easier to establish information and connections with foreign buyers in production, transportation, and marketing. It can help foreign buyers resolve concerns. For small-production farms of about 30-40 bags, it's easier to trade directly with more foreign small-scale coffee buyers without going through intermediaries or large coffee traders, benefiting both parties. Besides saving the profits of intermediaries or large coffee traders, the main benefit is saving freight and tariffs between countries. This is the driving force for coffee producers' efforts.

Winning estates receive C.O.E. recognition for their efforts in improving quality. It's not just about winning a major award but also about ensuring farmers' efforts receive deserved prices and returns. Participating in C.O.E. competitions not only makes farmers more dedicated to improving quality and raising coffee bean standards but also helps create the specialty coffee market.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473