Cup of Excellence
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The Cup of Excellence is an annual competition held in several countries to identify the highest quality coffees produced. It is organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, which was founded by George Howell, Susie Spindler and Silvio Leite.[1] The Cup of Excellence has worked to fundamentally change the high quality coffee industry and has supported advances in farming and premiums to farmers that would have been impossible without it[citation needed].
Format
[edit]The winning coffees are sold in internet auctions.[2] 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.[3] The Cup of Excellence competition has been dubbed as the 'Oscars of the coffee world'.[4]
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.[citation needed]
History
[edit]The competitions began in 1999.[2] 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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[citation needed]
In 2025, Cup of Excellence announced they would be switching from the online auction provider M-Cultivo to V-Auction.[7]
Organization
[edit]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
[edit]See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Deirdre Mayer Dougherty (2008). "A Sense of Taste with a Sense of Place": Coffee Identities Across the United States and El Salvador. pp. 68–. ISBN 978-0-549-73594-6. Retrieved 14 November 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Benoit Daviron; Stefano Ponte (20 February 2006). The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade and the Elusive Promise of Development. Zed Books. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-1-84277-457-1. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Barnett, Andrew (2011-02-14). "The cup of excellence: The Oscars of the coffee world". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Countries". Cup of Excellence. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
- ^ "What is Cup of Excellence?". Cup of Excellence. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
- ^ Staff, Daily Coffee News (2025-03-26). "Cup of Excellence Names V-Auction New Online Auction Provider". Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. Retrieved 2025-04-04.
Further reading
[edit]- Technoserve (January 2015). "Cup of Excellence in Brazil and Honduras: An Impact Assessment" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-19.
External links
[edit]- ^ Traore, Togo M., Norbert L. W. Wilson, and Deacue Fields. “What Explains Specialty Coffee Quality Scores and Prices: A Case Study from the Cup of Excellence Program.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 50, no. 3 (August 2018): 349–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/aae.2018.5. Wilson, Adam P., and Norbert LW Wilson. “Economics of Quality in the Specialty Coffee Industry: Insights from the Cup of Excellence Auction Programs.” Agricultural Economics 45, no. S1 (2014): 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12132. Bureau, US Census. “Caution: HOT Commodity!” The United States Census Bureau. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/global-reach/2013/06/coffeedata.html. Internet Archive. “GH2X-FDCC: ICyte - Saved Page: Cup of Excellence® Winners Re… : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Accessed April 11, 2023. https://archive.org/details/perma_cc_GH2X-FDCC.