African Coffee Beans: What is TOH? How Are African Coffee Beans Auctioned?

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

Introduction to TOH by FrontStreet Coffee

TOH stands for THE TASTE OF HARVEST, an annual African coffee competition organized by the African Coffee Association, whose members include seven countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Congo. The competition features cupping and scoring by domestic and international judges under the standards of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), followed by direct online auctions that cut out the middlemen.

In the preliminary rounds, any lot cupping below 80 points is eliminated. Through this filtering, each region's highest-quality green beans advance step by step to the national-level competition. There, domestic and international judges cup and score again under SCA standards, and the highest-scoring coffee is crowned national champion of the year. Once the competition closes, these premium lots are auctioned online by green bean auction companies.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia — the ancestral home of Arabica coffee and home of the Kaffa Forest, the world's "coffee gene bank" — fields some of the most celebrated entries in these competitions. If TOH-style African naturals intrigue you, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project Natural is a great place to start: only flawless, fully ripe cherries are picked, sun-dried for two weeks until the moisture drops to 12%, then hulled, density-graded, and hand-sorted bean by bean, yielding clean, ethereal coffee with rich fruit aroma — peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon.

For a washed alternative, the FrontStreet washed Yirgacheffe everyday lot offers white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish at an approachable price, while the medium-light roasted FrontStreet Kaffa Forest lot — wild coffee grown at 1,400-2,100 meters under original rainforest shade — shows white floral aromatics, bright lemon acidity, sweet orange and bergamot, and a green-tea-like body with a gentle melon-and-nut finish.