The best coffees of 2019

One way to determine quantitatively the quality of the coffee is by performing a tasting also known as cupping.

The coffee tasting consists of sensory analysis, its objective is to perceive, identify and appreciate a certain number of characteristic properties of coffee through the senses.

The stimuli (olfactory, gustatory and visual) that the tasters obtain from the tasting, allow them to analyze, describe, compare and set preferences among the samples evaluated.

The properties that are evaluated in a tasting are fragrance, aroma, flavor, post taste, acidity, body, uniformity, balance, sweetness, clarity, and defects of coffee. Each of these properties is assigned a value and the sum of these will result in a rating. Based on this, the best coffees are determined.

The Alliance for Coffee Excellence is an American nonprofit organization, which annually carries out the “Cup of Excellence” program.

The Cup of Excellence program is a global project that was born in 1999 designed to help farmers receive more money for their high-quality coffee, it is the most prestigious competition and auction of high-quality coffees.

The level of scrutiny experienced by the coffees of the Cup of Excellence has no comparison. Every year, thousands of coffees are submitted for consideration, and the winning coffees are sold in online auctions worldwide at premium prices, and the vast majority of auction proceeds go to farmers.

This competition is rigorous, with cupping evaluations carried out in a multi-stage process by industry experts. The coffee samples are first evaluated by a national jury of approximately a dozen qualified jurors from the country of origin, and then by an international jury, composed of approximately 20-25 jurors with experience from around the world.

At the end of the competition, the top 10 of the best coffees go to the auction stage, where coffees can reach prices of hundreds of US dollars for every pound.