Coffees drying at Finagro Plantation in Tanzania. Photo courtesy of ACE.
The Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) and Tanzania-based Ngorongoro Coffee Group have announced the green coffee winners in the second Ngorongoro Tanzania Private Collection Auction program.
The 20 winning lots, which range from 32 to 300 kilograms, are heading to an online auction scheduled for Tuesday, March 22.
The list of winning coffees, which scored between 85.47-88.82 according to an international jury, reflects four different post-harvest processing types (fully washed, carbonic maceration, honey process and natural process) and eight different arabica coffee varieties. Coffees all hailed from four farms within the Ngorongoro Coffee Group network.
In years past, the Ngorongoro Coffee Group has held an annual auction event called Cupping at the Crater. Last year, as the in-person event was made impractical due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the group teamed up with ACE under the group’s “Private Collection Auctions” auction banner. Similar to ACE’s countrywide Cup of Excellence program, the Private Collection program involves private partners as coffee suppliers and facilitators.
A scene from the Ngila Estate, part of the Ngorongoro farm network. Photo courtesy of ACE.
Other ACE Private Collection Auctions have featured partnerships with Fincas Mierisch in Nicaragua, Isla Custom Coffees in Hawaii, Qima Coffee in Yemen, and numerous parties in Taiwan.
The top-scoring lot at last year’s Tanzania auction fetched a remarkable $65 per pound at auction. This year’s top-scoring lot is a carbonic-process N39 Bourbon from Finagro Plantations. All of the other coffees in the top five were Gesha varieties produced by Acacia Hills Coffee.
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“Sharing our knowledge with our member partners along with our varieties is a critical part of our growth,” American Mark Stell, a co-founder of Ngorongoro Coffee Group, said in an announcement from ACE. “What is good for the winner is good for the group is our attitude. We as a group are really excited to see one of our growers excel at their processing with standard regional varieties. This shows their commitment to excellence in all parts of growing and pushing the industry to experiment with all types of processing.”
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