The Story of Cup of Excellence? The Ever-Victorious Champion | Panama Finca El Cielito

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The Story of Cup Of Excellence: The Perennial Champion | Panama Finca El Cielito Coffee Estate Coffee Beans

Currently, the coffee-producing countries participating in COE are predominantly from Central and South America: Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Mexico, with only Rwanda and Burundi from Africa. Among these, Brazil and Colombia are among the world's top coffee-producing countries, so they each hold two COE competitions annually.

What is Cup of Excellence (COE)?

Cup of Excellence (COE) is similar to Taiwan's tea competitions or France's wine competitions. It is an annual coffee competition held in many coffee-producing countries to identify exceptional quality coffees. The organizing body is the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE). The COE competition began with its first event in 1999. By 2013, COE competitions were held in countries including Brazil, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Rwanda, Burundi, Colombia, and Bolivia. The full name COE stands for Cup of Excellence, translated in Chinese as "卓越杯" (Excellent Cup), "超凡杯" (Extraordinary Cup), or "超凡一杯" (An Extraordinary Cup). The organizing body ACE (Alliance For Coffee Excellence) selects thousands of coffees from member countries each year. After domestic cupping evaluations, a batch of high-quality coffees is selected. These selected coffees are then evaluated by internationally recognized cupping judges to choose the top 10. These ten lucky coffees are then put up for global online auction, fetching excellent prices. From the initial domestic selection, international cupping, to the final auction, the entire process takes about three weeks but can completely transform the life of a coffee estate, bringing them onto the international stage.

The Competition Process

As ACE members, various national coffee organizations first hold domestic coffee competitions. Farmers submit a certain quantity of coffee for participation, and each coffee must undergo at least five cupping evaluations. The evaluation criteria include eight aspects: cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste, balance, and overall performance. Only coffees scoring above 84 points can be recognized as COE coffee beans. During the scoring process, if any judge has slight doubts about the coffee quality, the coffee is eliminated from the competition. The final champion is auctioned through public online bidding and can fetch extremely high prices.

Success Story: Finca El Cielito

For example, the Honduran family farm Finca El Cielito stood out through Honduras's coffee organization IHCAFE's cupping competition (COE). Later, with long-term assistance from IHCAFE, they gradually improved their coffee bean processing equipment and procedures, gradually becoming independent. Even without IHCAFE's assistance, they continued to achieve excellent results in cupping competitions. Today, they have also begun exporting micro-batches to international specialty coffee buyers. The success of COE lies in opening international recognition for many coffee-producing countries and coffee estates, thereby increasing trade volume. Award-winning small farmers also receive substantial rewards.

The Unexpected Evolution

However, the "specialization" process of COE was not originally anticipated by ACE founder George Howell. George Howell is a pioneer of the American specialty coffee movement and an expert in single-origin coffee beans, with profound knowledge of regional terroir and coffee varieties. He pioneered a new light-roast coffee trend in Boston, USA, and established a chain of coffee shops that quickly captured Bostonians' tastes. However, he later sold to the Starbucks Group, which was aggressively expanding into the US East Coast. With substantial returns from the sale, Howell began traveling to coffee-producing countries, becoming a coffee consultant for many producing countries.

(Panama coffee competition perennial champion Finca El Lerida estate, moving toward specialization development, providing new options for top-tier leisure travel, representing a world that small coffee farmers worldwide cannot aspire to.)

In 1999, Howell joined a United Nations and International Coffee Organization (ICO) program, working with several passionate coffee consultants to create a new model of economic sustainability for small farmers. Thus, COE was born and quickly established its international authority. The influence of COE is profound, embodying values of social consciousness and providing opportunities to introduce small quantities of excellent coffee to customers, attracting the favor and respect of independent coffee roasters worldwide. Through promotion by home roasters, it has also connected a group of loyal consumers who love good coffee. Meanwhile, small coffee-producing farmers not only gain higher rewards and opportunities for overnight fame, but their regions or countries also benefit from the reflected glory.

(Panama coffee competition perennial champion Finca El Lerida estate, moving toward specialization development, providing new options for top-tier leisure travel, representing a world that small coffee farmers worldwide cannot aspire to.)

However, when competition becomes fierce and the strong dominate, I also see many financially robust coffee estates that can independently breed and refine with strong capabilities, and can hire more workers for care. Meanwhile, a large number of small farmers are still swept to the margins of the market. Without government support or limited capabilities, poor small farmers lack the ability to invest in self-improvement and don't even have entry tickets to participate in competition. Today, the system created by Howell, originally meant to select "Specialty" coffee concepts, has been hyped into a high-end "Specialty" commercial market after combining with the commercial market. Not only have coffee shops become specialized, but coffee estates in producing countries have also begun specializing, becoming market entry barriers. This perhaps was not what he originally expected!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommends Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal R-220 grind size 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, using 15g coffee grounds. First pour 25g water for bloom, wait 25 seconds. Second pour to 120g water, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total water. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the flavors in the front, middle, and end sections. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains faster, pausing during pouring can extend the extraction time.

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