Lots of 90+ at First Colombia Cup of Excellence Since 2015

The international jury for the Colombia Cup of Excellence was composed of roasters and importers from the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, Norway, Belgium, China, Denmark, Colombia, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. Photo courtesy of ACE.

Six coffees at the recent Colombia Cup of Excellence coffee quality competition scored 90 or above, tying a record previously set at this year’s CoE competition in Mexico.

Those six plus 23 other winning coffees — all of which have been scrutinized by three different juries through the competition platform — will be available via live auction through the CoE organizer Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) website on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

2017 Colombia Cup of Excellence winners. Photo courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.

Taking place in Ibagué, Tolima, the competition was the first CoE competition in Colombia since 2015, accepting coffees from throughout the country, as opposed to years past when ACE would hold separate Colombian competitions in the north and south.

The top-scoring coffee (91.28) in this year’s competition is a fully washed blend of Caturra and Castillo grown at an amazingly high 2,050 meters in Buesaco, Nariño, on Rodrigo Arley’s farm, Mirador El Naranjo.

Photo courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.

The second-highest-scoring coffee (90.78) is a natural-process Gesha from Orlando Ospina’s farm, La Maria, located in Cundinamarca. According to ACE, Ospina is a trained agronomist and this was his first coffee harvest after choosing natural processing due not only to lack of infrastructure, but also to minimize ecological impact.

Huila and Tolima were among the other regions from which winning coffees hailed, and winning varieties included Bourbon, Colombia, Tabi and and Typica.

Photo courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.

In addition to the Colombia auction Nov. 7, other CoE auctions remaining this year include Burundi (Oct. 10), Perú (Oct. 25), Brazil Pulped Natural (Nov. 28) and Brazil Natural (Dec. 7).