Vulcan Treasury Series

WHAT DOES “CoE - CUP OF EXCELLENCE” MEAN ?

Cup of Excellence is the most prestigious competition and auction for high quality coffees. It is an annual competition to trace the best coffees of a country, of each production year. The contest ends at a live auction, to reward the efforts of a whole year, in order to produce these unique coffee lots. The first contest was held in 1999 in Brazil, and now eight countries take part.

The competition is rigorous, with cupping evaluations conducted over a three-stage process by industry experts: first by a National Jury of about a dozen qualified jurors from the origin country, and then by an International Jury, comprised of approximately 20-25 experienced jurors from around the world.

A competition with 300 entries yields an average of 9,000 analysed cups, with each “Top 10” coffee being cupped at least 120 times. This process ensures elite top-quality consistent coffees enter the CoE auction.

WHAT DOES “ACE–NATIONAL WINNERS” MEAN?

Since the beginning of Cup of Excellence in 1999, winning farmers have continued to improve their agricultural practices, harvesting, processing and drying methods. These improvements have increased the quality of coffee standard in the industry.

The National Winner program began in 2016 and sells the semi-finalist to the Cup of Excellence program.  

Coffees scoring 86+ points by the national jury will be cupped and scored in three rounds by the international jury to determine eligibility for either the Cup of Excellence or National winner auction. The top 30 coffees scoring 87+ by the international jury will be Cup of Excellence winners. Coffees scoring 85+ at any round of the international jury will be eligible for ACE National Winners.

El SALVADOR - FINCA COLOMBIA

Finca Colombia delight us with a brilliant sweet and complex cup of natural Gesha with strawberry, hibiscus, honey and peach tasting notes.

This Farm, considered as the Jewel of the Crown on the coffee farms, was founded more than 100 years ago by a Colombian family who migrated to El Salvador and kept the passion for coffee growing. Despite the access difficulties, the Llanos Family continued cultivating and teaching the love for coffee to next generations.

In their 100th anniversary, they celebrated a promising future with the renewal of coffee plantations, inclusion of new varieties, and research on new processes that lead to better quality and consistency on the final drink.

ETHIOPIA - DAYE BENSA

Asefa is the owner of Dukamo Asefa Kerma farm. He has been working with farmers of the coffee industry for 27 years and he is currently collecting coffee from Hamesho Berena Kebele, in Bensa, Sidama. More than 300 farmers supply an average of 4000 kilograms of coffee annually from a total of 375 hectares of land. This site is found at an altitude of 2200 – 2300 and the farmers harvest the 74158 coffee variety.

Asefa owns a washing station where he processes coffee into washed and natural sun-dried coffee. In 2020, he participated in the Cup of Excellence competition and his coffee won seventh place. “Last year’s results were very helpful to promote our coffee and reach new market destinations. I am also happy with this year’s result and look forward to expanding market reach” he said.

EL SALVADOR  - LA MONTANITA

“My farm is located in La Montañita farmhouse, at La Palma Chalatenango tunnel. Six years ago my father leased me 3 blocks in his farm, where I started to grow Pacamara. I took advantage of the government when they began to give coffee plants to sow, as I did not have money enough to buy because the Pacamara coffee store is expensive. I gave the name of the farm La Montañita because that’s the name of the mountain.” Said by one of the few female coffee producers in the last year’s CoE coffee competition, Eugenia Nohemy Diaz Gutierrez.

Her coffee scored an 86.97, the highest scoring coffee in El Salvador National Winner competition. This coffee is a washed Pacamara with tasting notes of black currant, mandarin orange, black cherry, and rhubarb.