I love Costa Rican coffee, and as I mentioned before in posts like: Costa Rica Coffee + Starbucks = A Good Deal! It is quite clear that the fame of its quality is well known outside the Costa Rican borders; and now there is a contest that is actually helping to “push the limits” of the coffee producers in CR to deliver a better product. The name of the contest to determine the best coffee of Costa Rica is called: Taza de la Exelencia (Cup of Excellence) And it began with a total of 123 samples on its first week; now however only 48 samples remain in the contest for the first place.

The Costa Rica Cup of Excellence is part of a program organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE).

Yes I know; here is some info on these guys!

The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc is overseen by a Board of Directors. An advisory panel made up of members of the trade along with a representative of the member producing countries helps design program elements and strategy. A small team manages every aspect of the program to ensure success. (Taken form their site)

There are currently 8 different countries competing this year to determine the best of the best among its coffee samples: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia and Brazil.

Ok, what about the jury?

They are 19 in total, coming from the US, England, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and off course also from Costa Rica. Each and every one of the jurors has a background on coffee excellence, and they are completely devoted to their task.

Let’s take a brief look at the numbers!

The Costa Rican winners from last year competition sold their lot at $2.135 (46 kilos) on an internet auction; not bad considering the current market price at that time for 46 kilos of coffee was $114.55 (Yes that is a 19 times difference) But taken into consideration that the quality of the coffee was over 84 points it was a pleasure well worth it.

The Costa Rica Excellence Cup is also overseen by the Costa Rican Institute of Coffee (Icafe) and the Costa Rican Association of refined Coffee. Never the less the ones who will be in charge of the coffee auction are the ACE, you need to be registered with them in order to have access to the online auction so here is their link:

http://www.cupofexcellence.org/WhatisCOE/tabid/184/Default.aspx

Happy Coffee Hunting!!!