Discover Cup of Excellence - a prestigious coffee competition that selects the highest quality coffees in the world. Why are we mentioning it? Because one of them has just joined our coffee selection.
The exceptional Buena Esperanza. Straight from Nicaragua, where some of the best coffees in the world come from. Its history dates back to 1790, when the first coffee tree was planted. It is characterized by a unique flavor profile, in which you will find the taste of dried dates, fruity notes of ripe orange, and honey. The aftertaste it leaves behind is reminiscent of an aromatic Earl Grey tea enjoyed in the morning.
This is the first coffee in the history of our roastery to be a winner of the prestigious competition for coffee producers – Cup of Excellence. As part of the competition, the best are selected from thousands of coffees and cupping cups.
Cup of Excellence - a prestigious coffee competition
More and more is being said about the Polish Barista Championships, Roaster Championships, Brewers Cup, and other coffee competitions. They are undoubtedly events that promote high-quality coffee and show that coffee is an endless source of new sensory experiences. Barista competitions are dedicated to people at the end of the "coffee chain". This raises the question – what about the people at the beginning of it, namely the Roasters?
The Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition is reserved for them.
The history of CoE began in 1999. It was then that the competition began to shape the specialty coffee market. It benefited small producers who focused on providing the highest quality beans and divided their harvests into micro lots (which are small batches of specially selected beans based on variety, part of the farm, or sensory profile).
This competition is currently (2026 season) organized in 11 countries:
- Brazil,
- Costa Rica,
- Guatemala,
- Honduras,
- Indonesia,
- Mexico,
- Nicaragua,
- Peru,
- El Salvador,
- Taiwan,
- Thailand.
The list of countries changes from season to season – in previous years, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Ecuador also participated in the competition.
Participation in the competition is free and open to everyone. However, a participant can only present one of their lots (a selected part of their harvest). Throughout the competition, judges from the national and international juries use specially prepared coffee evaluation sheets – we describe similar tools, although for slightly different purposes, in the article about what cupping in the specialty coffee world looks like. Unlike the well-known sheets (here in the roastery) prepared by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), this one is used exclusively to evaluate specialty coffee, and the main goal when filling it out is to evaluate, describe, and select the best coffee from a given country.
It is easy to notice the difference between the two sheets. What stands out is the scoring scale for individual attributes. In the SCA, the scale for each attribute starts at 6 and ends at 10 (with three exceptions), while in the CoE, the scoring scale takes values from 0 to 8.
SCA coffee evaluation sheet
In evaluating coffee, the CoE does not include aroma; its use is purely descriptive and does not affect the final score. It is also worth noting that the number of evaluated attributes differs – in the CoE there are 8 characteristics, and in the SCA there are 10.
CoE coffee evaluation sheet
In both sheets, defects are also approached differently. The SCA divides defects into two categories – taint ("a minor defect", which is noticeable but does not overpower the character of the coffee) and fault (a major defect that distorts the taste of the given sample). The Cup of Excellence allows for the evaluation of the intensity of the defect, and based on this, negative points are calculated according to a formula. Interestingly, if the coffee shows a defect at the international stage even in one of the cups – it is immediately disqualified.
Stages of the Cup of Excellence competition
The entire competition is divided into 6 stages:
- Preliminary selection – the national jury tests each sample only once, and coffees with a score of 86+ advance to the next round. A maximum of 150 samples participate in the preliminary selection.
- Second round – in this round, a maximum of 90 coffees participate, which are re-evaluated by the national judges, and the coffees must again obtain at least 86 points.
- Third round – coffees that advance from the previous round (maximum 40) are tested once again and must also obtain 86 points to advance to the next stage.
- Fourth round – after a week, the international jury meets to evaluate the coffees from the third round, and coffees scored at least 87 points advance to the next stage – similarly to the SCA evaluation, it is the point threshold that determines specialty status.
- Fifth round – coffees that made it to the fifth stage are awarded and go to auction. They are re-evaluated and described for the purposes of the auction.
- Sixth round – the 10 best coffees reach the final round, which are evaluated with particular care to determine the final result and select the winners.
After the demanding stages of the competition – comes the moment to honor the winners. Interestingly, coffees from the last two rounds are put up for auction. Due to the high interest and limited quantity of coffees, the winners often pay exorbitant amounts, which go to the farmer as an additional reward.
Uniqueness of Cup of Excellence coffee
Undoubtedly, the Cup of Excellence is the most demanding coffee competition, for which participants prepare throughout the season. It requires a lot of work, attention, sacrifice, investment, but above all, luck. Unfortunately, we have no control over the weather conditions, which affect the quality of the beans.
Fortunately, the results of this hard work bring benefits not only to the winners, but also to us, people who are lucky and have the pleasure of brewing and enjoying such highly selected coffees. The limited batch of Buena Esperanza has already sold out, but similar seasonal micro lots regularly enter our selection of single origin filter coffees – it is worth checking there more often if you are hunting for similar rarities.
Author: Alek Smęt, Head Coffee Roaster
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