Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1492816
36 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) By Bethany Haye T he flagship coffee event of the international Cup of Excellence competitions is the one held each year in Brazil, where the project was started in 1999. The purpose is to channel recognition and higher prices to the farms investing the time, money, and loving care needed to produce the nation's most delicious coffee. Winning beans go to a special auction. Coffees that won the 2022 Brazil Cup of Excellence were sold during five and half hours of online bidding in January at an average price of $12.15 per pound, which is 711% above the New York Commodity Exchange price that day of $1.49 per lb. The top price was $43 per lb., up 2,771% on the C-price. The auction's total proceeds were $238,746. For small producers of winning microlots, the beauty of the auctions is that they don't charge fees. Considering that many of these small growers don't have the means to pay fees or travel to auctions, the online sales are often the best way to get these exceptional lots to the world's top coffee aficionados. Participating in the worldwide auctions allows producers to see who else is out there and which coffees are popular where, allowing them to be more market-savvy and to op- timize pricing. This brings new pride and motivation to small producers who might not have previously known the real value of their ultra-specialty coffees on world markets. For specialty roasters, the auctions are a way not only to discover small lots they might have otherwise missed, but to see what new techniques and cupping experiences are coming into the market and what's trending in which regions of the world. Over the past 23 years, Cup of Excellence has become the international gold stan- dard of coffee competitions. Eleven other selected countries now hold official Cup of Excellence competitions for their own specialty coffees: Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. The 'Oscars of Coffee' is bouncing back from the pandemic to reward the world's great coffee growers. The Brazil edition proves it. Brazil's Cup of Excellence Runneth Over Judges spent four days cupping round- the-clock to select the winners. Erwin Mierisch was head of the group of 18 international judges from 11 countries including Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, U.K., and the U.S.