How to Pick the Coffee of the Crop
An Australian online news provider has talked of the Cup of Excellence as being the best way of ensuring award-winning coffee.
Known as the ‘Oscars’ of the coffee world, Cup of Excellence has been making headway in Sydney as a means of guaranteeing both the taste of coffee and high prices for coffee growers.
Ten years old, the programme hails from the US and is an international method of ranking and selling the most superior beans from contributing or participating coffee-producing countries.
Drawing reference to Paul Geshos, one of the two Australian judges on a 26-strong member panel who has not long returned from his recent trip to Colombia to grade coffee beans, the judge is also lauded for the Cup of Excellence coffee available through his Mecca Espresso outlet in King Street, City.
During the recent Colombian-hosted event, over 50 types of quality coffees made it to the table, selected by a panel of judges choosing from between 875 lots entered by coffee growers from across the country.
There is clearly strong competition among these producers to have their beans score highest, with bids being taken from all corners of the world, including Japan and Australia. At last week’s event, 21 top Colombian coffees fetched record prices at auction, average at US$12 per pound in weight of the commodity. Farmers received 80 per cent of this figure, therefore doubling their earnings on last year, according to Geshos, who feels he is “getting a quality coffee and paying a fair price.”