Nav: Home > Coffee >

Introduction to Colombia CoE and Introduction to Colombia La Lagrimita Estate

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange For more coffee bean information Please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style ) CoE, which stands for Cup of Excellence, CoE competition beans have become the benchmark model for coffee competitions in various coffee-producing countries worldwide Currently, there are 7 major producing countries that have joined the CoE competition organization, including Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia in South America, as well as Guatemala in Central America

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Cup of Excellence: The Premier Competition for Quality Coffee

CoE, short for Cup of Excellence, has become the benchmark competition model for coffee-producing countries worldwide. Currently, 7 major producing countries participate in the CoE competition organization, including Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia in South America, as well as Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras in Central America.

The CoE competition has convinced small coffee farmers in producing countries to specifically improve their coffee cultivation quality, while also allowing international buyers to directly connect with estates, thereby promoting the high-quality coffee produced by these hardworking small farmers. Coffee organizations in various producing countries are also willing to actively cooperate with CoE's philosophy. On one hand, this deepens the impression among international communities - after all, these producing countries compete intensely with each other, and creating the impression that "[Country X] produces excellent coffee" provides excellent brand value that's difficult to achieve with money alone.

However, some established interests in producing countries still oppose this initiative, such as traditional intermediaries who exploit farmers and vested-interest businessmen (for example, this year's Bolivia CoE competition was forced to be canceled, and many small coffee farmers in the country were saddened and outraged upon learning this news...).

Overall, the CoE competition model has indeed brought very positive encouragement and accelerated development for small coffee farmers in various coffee-producing countries, combining three favorable conditions: moving toward high quality, benefiting the environment, and improving their social status, and has received widespread acclaim!

This year, the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), to recognize CoE's outstanding contributions, specially awarded the "True Sustainability Award" to CoE's President Susie Spindler. The citation read: "for understanding and promoting long-term survival of coffee culture based on quality."

The Rigorous Selection Process

CoE is truly the most important model for discovering quality estates in the specialty coffee world!

CoE first undergoes preliminary selection and cupping by selected domestic judges. Coffees that meet the competition standards (typically fewer than 75 out of every 500 estates advance to the final round) are then submitted to annually selected international judges for three phases of cupping. Therefore, these national competition coffees must pass through 5 strict rounds before determining whether they will be listed among that year's winning estates in the national competition.

These winning coffee estates must achieve a minimum score of 84 points. In exceptional years, around 30 estates might be listed, but strict standards combined with abnormal climate years might result in only 20+ winning estates for that year. The remaining numerous estates can only work even harder to improve quality, hoping to be listed among winning estates the following year.

La Lagrimita: The Tear Drop Estate

La Lagrimita (Tear Drop Estate) was a winning estate in Colombia's second CoE competition of 2005! Among all countries' CoE competitions, only Colombia holds two competitions per year. This is because coffee-producing countries that straddle both sides of the equator have different harvest periods in their growing regions, which is why Colombia has two competitions annually.

The second competition in Colombia often coincides with the time when high-altitude estates have just harvested and processed their premium beans. Therefore, in Colombia's second CoE competition, one can often find traces of high-altitude estates. Ou She's La Lagrimita Estate belongs to a small estate at quite high altitude with a cold local climate. Because it only harvests once a year, collecting from April to June, it can only participate in the second CoE competition.

La Lagrimita Estate has a rather tragic name - "Tear Drop" Estate. The bitter history of this estate comes from the owner's grandmother, who spent her entire family fortune to purchase this coffee farm. The cultivation process experienced countless hardships, and she still had to support her family. To this day, the estate still needs to grow fruit trees and raise poultry to maintain their livelihood.

According to estate owner José Eliuth Muñoz M's interview with Colombian FNC officials: "We are truly a small estate, harvesting only 40 bags of green beans per year, so we still need to rely on other economic crops to survive. I am already 50 years old but still single, unable to afford marriage. However, we diligently maintain the estate's original environment. Of our 6-hectare farm, we only use 2 hectares for coffee cultivation. All coffee has 100% shade trees, and water and soil conservation is excellent. We also introduced California red earthworms for organic soil cultivation, serving as the main nutrient source for our coffee trees..."