The competition is the most prestigious high-quality coffee auction, coming to Ethiopia for the first time
The prestigious international competition Cup of Excellence (CoE) was devised in 1999 by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence with the dual aim of making the complex coffee chain more transparent and fairer to farmers and improving the quality of the various origins. In the competition the samples assessed are restricted to those from producers located in the country selected for the event.
The highly rigorous assessment process is conducted before a jury of experts from the origin country, with the assistance of 20-25 judges from all over the world. The samples are tasted with the cupping method and judged blind. The last ten coffees left after the elimination process are tested according to the same procedure and the one with the highest points score is pronounced the winner. The secret of the success of the Cup of Excellence is that each of the top ten coffees is cupped at least 120 times.
This year’s event features the debut of Ethiopia, for which the remarkably high number of 1,450 samples has already been reached. The competition will certainly have a beneficial effect on the promotion of Ethiopian coffee varieties and the profitable work of the coffee farmers.
