How does the Cup of Excellence judge a coffee green bean?

The Cup of Excellence is a green coffee competition first held in Brazil in 1999 by the nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Entries are coffee green bean lots from the host country, judged by cupping, and winning lots are sold at auction. That auction income is what makes beans carrying a COE mark cost more than ordinary specialty coffee.

COE cupping borrows from the SCA scoring system but differs in detail: four cups are prepared for each sample, and dry aroma is scored separately. A country must apply to host a competition, and results follow three stages before auction lots and National Winner lots are named, which is why a coffee's origin country and its placement both shape price.

If you often buy specialty coffee beans, you've surely seen the word "COE" on packaging labels. What exactly does it stand for? Why are beans bearing the COE mark often more expensive? This article will give you a comprehensive understanding of COE—from its origins and founding organization, to the specific differences from the SCA cupping scoring system, and then to the three-stage competition format of the Ethiopia COE, breaking it down one by one. It will also explain the difference between COE auction lots and National Winner lots, as well as the difference between "same-lot" beans on the market and genuine auction lots, helping you more accurately understand and select coffee beans.

Front Street Coffee has discussed the cupping scoring system with everyone in previous articles, and COE was mentioned in passing at that time. And when browsing coffee shops or buying beans online, the abbreviation COE also frequently appears on product labels. Many friends have therefore raised the question: What exactly is COE?

The full name of COE is "Cup of Excellence," translated into Chinese as "卓越杯" (Cup of Excellence). This competition was first held in 1999 in Brazil by the nonprofit organization Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), and has now become globally recognized as the most well-known and authoritative specialty coffee green bean competition.

Any country can apply to host a COE competition, and the "contestants" are coffee beans from across the host country. Beans that stand out in the competition win reputation and considerable auction income for their estates through post-competition auctions.

The generous returns from auctions give coffee farmers a strong incentive to continue growing high-quality coffee, and we as consumers can therefore drink higher-quality coffee. It can be said that COE has proven to coffee farmers through real results that "hard work pays off."

Now let's look at COE's cupping scoring system. It has some differences from the SCA scoring system, and in fact was derived from the SCA scoring system. For specific details about SCA scoring categories, you can refer to the article "SCA Scoring Categories." COE cupping requires four cups to be prepared for each sample, and the scoring form is as follows:

The scoring frameworks of the two are broadly similar, with differences mainly in some details. In COE's scoring categories, dry aroma and wet aroma are no longer included in the total score calculation, and the scoring standard for cleanliness is also stricter. The body category is directly replaced by Mouth feel, which evaluates not only body but also smoothness and the presence of astringency, aiming to make a comprehensive judgment from more dimensions.

Flavor evaluation refers to the new version of the flavor wheel, allowing judges to give more precise and specific descriptions (finally there's a blank column to fill in). In addition, COE has eliminated the uniformity scoring category.

COE competition formats vary from country to country. Here we take the 2020 Ethiopia COE as an example. The entire competition consists of three stages: Pre-selection, National jury, and International jury.

Pre-selection Stage

The judges in the pre-selection stage all come from domestic professional judges in the host country, usually between 12 and 18 people. They conduct strict reviews of the competing sample beans, covering every aspect including roast level and cupping procedures. Only beans with a cupping score of 85 or above can advance to the next round.

National Jury Stage

This stage is likewise handled by domestic professional judges from the host country, with the main task of conducting a second screening of the beans that emerged from the pre-selection stage. The beans that win in this round will enter the final International jury stage.

International Jury Stage

The jury for this stage is composed of international cuppers. All competing sample beans are assigned a random number, and only the auditors know the correspondence between numbers and beans. After receiving the numbers, the jury begins blind cupping of the beans.

Ultimately, beans scoring 87 or above are rated as COE auction lots. Although the remaining beans fail to meet the auction-lot standard, their scores are generally still above 85, and these beans belong to the National winners category.

However, whether COE auction lots or National winners, they must ultimately be obtained through auction channels, which is also the part coffee farmers value most. Therefore, the COE mark we occasionally see on labels when buying beans may indeed belong to award-winning "contestants" from the competition. As for why we say "may," it is because some beans belong to COE "same-lot" rather than COE auction lots.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.