Last week I traveled to Pereira, Colombia to participate as a sensory judge for the Cup of Excellence program. Pereira rests in a small valley that descends from the western Andes mountains, placing it in the heart of the major coffee growing regions. For those who are unfamiliar, the Cup of Excellence is a rigorous evaluation process that seeks to separate and reward exemplary lots of coffee and return fair premiums directly to the individual farmers responsible for producing them. Of the hundreds of lots submitted to the competition each year, only the finest are selected for evaluation by an international jury of skilled cuppers.

After a week of intensive cupping, the jury and the producers gathered together for the announcement of the final selections at the awards ceremony. For many farmers, this may be the only time that they will be recognized and appreciated publicly for their hard work and commitment to quality. As you can imagine, it is an emotional event for everyone. Winning top honors is a life-changing event for many farmers and their families. This year’s awards ceremony was held in conjunction with Salon Internacional del Cafe. During the ceremony, each finalist was brought on stage and introduced individually. For me, this is one of the best things that the Cup of Excellence program accomplishes—it connects a human face to the producers whose lives we depend upon for our own livelihoods.

This year, top honors were awarded to Alejandro Florez from the Meta region, from finca El Porvenir. Mr. Florez has been growing coffee since age 14. His coffee scored 91.6 points. Runner’s up included Javier Sanjuan Gomez and Leonte Collazos Rojas. The auction for these coffees will be held April 23, 2009. More information about this program and the other finalist can be found at www.cupofexcellence.org.

Be sure to check out some photos of the event posted in our photos section.

You can view all of our current COE coffees here.