Cup of Excellence

Cup of Excellence Winners

The Cup of Excellence program was established in 1999 to break the commodity/price cycle in the specialty coffee industry. It has two parts: a rigorous competition identifying the best coffees of a country’s harvest, followed by a web auction of these coffees to coffee roasters worldwide. Stringent three-stage yearly competitions are held to find the very best, specially prepared, boutique lots of coffee.

These incredible coffees have consistently fetched prices many times those available in the traditional coffee market or through programs such as Fair Trade. And 85% of the bid prices go directly to the farmers! Cup of Excellence proves the reward for quality can have a long-lasting effect in the struggle to achieve economic stability for coffee farmers and be an incentive to continue to grow the world’s best coffees.