Cup of Excellence Update

It's December which means that the annual Brazil Cup of Excellence Competition is wrapping up. The Cup of Excellence competition has been held in Brazil since 1999. All coffee farmers, large and small are invited to submit their best coffee samples. Each coffee goes through a very rigorous blind tasting, first by a national jury, and then a jury of international experts. In recent years over 1000 farmers have submitted their coffees, so it truly is a huge competition.

Since it's inception, our family has routinely been one of the finalists (top 30) - a feat unmatched by any other family. We actually won the Cup of Excellence in 2004, and while we didn't win it this year, Fazenda Cachoeira placed 16th!

What is even more impressive is how the samples from Fazenda Cachoeira are gathered. Most farmers selectively harvest coffee cherries, placing only the best-of-the-best in a separate lot to submit for competition. Our Uncle Gabriel harvests the cherries in the usual manner. He then samples all of the different lots from the farm and selects the best lot to submit for competition.

This difference may sound insignificant, but this is hardly the case. Gabriel believes that by refusing to selectively harvest, the samples and your placement in competitions reflect the quality and consistency of your coffee - not your ability to pick the perfectly ripe coffee bean. It is for this reason that our family has placed so well and done it on a consistent basis. Some in our family would probably consider this practice stubborn - but we agree with it and feel that it provides an honest testament to the quality of coffee we grow.