Cup of Excellence

Cup of Excellence (COE) is a national coffee competition and online auction, now run in many producing countries by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE). It began in 1999 in Lavras, Brazil (originally “Best of Brazil”), and created the first online green-coffee auction.

Format

• Farmers submit lots; national and international juries cup them blind over multiple rounds.
• Lots scoring 87+ (the current standard) become COE winners and go to auction.
• Cumulative auction revenue: $60M+ since 1999.

Records

• $445/lb at the 2024 Ethiopia COE (bid by LA roaster Angelino’s) — the current record.
• Beat the $400.50/lb from Ethiopia 2022.
• Before that, Costa Rica 2018 held the benchmark at $300.09/lb.

COE is fragile where states are: the Ethiopia program was suspended in 2023 amid in-country difficulties, returning in 2024.

To verify

Sources disagree on the very first auction’s top price — $2.60/lb\ast \ast (ACE)vs\ast \ast$1.72/lb (Barista Magazine). A good example of why to double-check even official-sounding numbers.

Related

• Best of Panama — the other landmark green-coffee auction
• Alliance for Coffee Excellence — the organization that runs COE
• Coffee scoring — what an “87+” actually means