Winner Named at Brazil Late Harvest Cup of Excellence Competition

First-time contestant Jesimar de Oliveira Sandi recently beat out 22 other competitors in front of Brazilian and international juries in the Brazil Late Harvest (Naturals) Cup of Excellence® competition.

photo by Alliance for Coffee Excellence

In total, 5,634 cups were prepared, analyzed and scored by the juries, who met at the MINASUL cooperative in Varginha, Brazil. Jesimar de Oliveira Sandi’s coffee achieved a final score of 92.13 after 6 cuppings, ranking him almost 2 points over the next contender.

Here’s more from the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, organizers of the Cup of Excellence program:

The International Jury, hailing from 11 different countries arrived on a Sunday to spend the week cupping at the MINASUL cooperative one of the largest coffee cooperatives in the world which has 5,000 grower members and processes 1.2million bags a year. The jury, staff and farmers were met with an international film crew creating a documentary about exceptional coffees and the Cup of Excellence competition process.

Naturals account for 88% of Brazils entire coffee production and while Carmo de Minas dominated the list of the 22 winners, the top 3 places went to growers outside this famous growing region.

Each of the 22 Brazil winning coffees will be sold to the highest bidders on March 14th during a live auction through the new Alliance for Coffee Excellence website.