From right to left in the front row: The first, second and third place winners in the 2021 Honduras Cup of Excellence. Photo courtesy of Cup of Excellence.
The Honduras coffee-growing region of Santa Bárbara was heavily represented in the recently concluded Honduras Cup of Excellence green coffee competition, where 25 lots scored 87+ points to earn COE awards.
All 25 lots will be in an online auction on Thursday, Aug. 19, including the 17 coffees that hailed from Santa Bárbara and six coffees that scored 90+ points. Top coffee in the competition, a washed Gesha variety from the Mierisch family-owned Finca Santa Lucia in the Comayagua region, scored 90.67. Finca Santa Lucia also produced the top-scoring coffee at the 2019 Honduras COE.
A remarkable twist of fate occurred with the second- and third-place coffees, as they were grown separately at different farms by a daughter and her father, respectively.
Iris Dariela Carvajal’s natural-process Typica from Finca Platanares in the Lempira region reached 90.4 points, while a honey-process Typica from the farm Los Pinos grown by Caravajal’s father Reniery Orlando Carvajal took third with 90.35.
The COE competition was presented jointly by COE and the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE).
At an awards presentation in Tegucigalpa last Friday, IHCAFE Board President Pedro Mendoza said, “It is a source of pride to represent these excellent producers who recognize quality as the way forward, to get ahead in the highly competitive world of specialty coffees,” according to an announcement from COE.
In addition to the COE auction, 15 additional lots that scored between 85 and 86.99 will be heading to a COE “National Winners” auction taking place online Aug. 9-20.
Comment