A record breaking 10 coffees scored over 90 points at the most recent Cup of Excellence competition on 28 May in El Salvador.
“This is a feat made even more impressive with the challenges that coffee farmers are facing every day. Climate change has made harvesting and planning much more difficult and raised the cost of production,” says Erwin Mierisch, Executive Director for Cup of Excellence.
“El Salvador may be a small country but the farmers have always been at the forefront of quality and innovation and this showed in the scores.”
The final phase of the competition saw an international jury, comprising of 18 judges, repeatedly scoring 40 coffees in three categories: traditional washed and honey, traditional natural, and experimental.
Thirty of these coffees were awarded the Cup of Excellence prize, which recognises the top 10 coffees of each category that scored at least 87 and above.
Diego Baraona, who represented the Los Pirineos farm, is one of the farmers who scored over 90 points in the experimental category.
“We are extremely proud of this victory for our farm Los Pirineos! It has been a challenging year for us and good for coffee growing, but this gives us more energy to move forward and overcome all kinds of obstacles,” says Baraona.
An online auction will be held on 18 July, where the winning Cup of Excellence coffees will be sold to the highest bidders from around the world.
Cup of Excellence is a non-profit organisation which owns and manages an annual multi-level competition in coffee producing countries. Over its 25-year history, it has held competitions in 16 coffee producing nations.
