Our Early History:
A personal look back by Susie Spindler co-creator of Cup of Excellence®

It was mid-1999 and the Gourmet Project was coming to a close. This project, funded by the International Coffee Organization, the International Trade Centre and the UN Common Fund for Commodities had focused on helping 5 countries receive better prices for their specialty coffee.

Frustrated at the inability of Brazil, (one of the Gourmet Project countries) coffees to gain excitement among US specialty coffee buyers several last minute ideas were contemplated, most of which were too expensive. George Howell, the quality consultant for Brazil had found some great coffees, previously unknown and up to then unappreciated by US roasters. George, Silvio Leite, Marcelo Vieira (president of The Brazil Specialty Coffee Association) and myself (I was the marketing director for the project) held the vision that Brazil’s coffees while different were just as valuable as some of the more well-known specialty origins.

The simplest plan would have been to invite a few respected cuppers to Brazil, let them select the best quality that was available, award the farmers who produced the winners and have this jury spread the news. Not good enough for the farmers, we surmised.

Don Holly, (then at the Specialty Coffee Association of America) joined the discussions and holding an internet auction for the winning coffees became more than just an abstract thought. We had no idea if this would work and none of us could have predicted the enormous logistics required. The Brazilian farmers were even more skeptical but when the ICO came to the rescue and made pre auction financing available 310 farmers entered the competition.

There were 14 members of that ground-breaking jury which cupped for three days at a small university in Lavras, Brazil, which was not the best location. Cooling off the cupping room meant contending with the occasional warm blast of outside smoke filled air making any sensory analysis difficult. The cupping room was cramped, the personal comforts almost non-existent. But the coffee proved remarkable, the international cuppers wonderful and patient and from these and later competitions a close knit international family of cuppers, buyers and farmers has developed becoming the foundation for Cup of Excellence.

The first auction was a wild success everyone was ecstatic, although the prices were low compared to current prices. Hidetaka Hayashi, the Gourmet Project consultant for Japan set the stage during this first event for what was to become a critical ground swell of support from Japanese consumers and roasters alike for winning coffees, then and now!

With the Government donor funding was gone, very few thought a second program could even get off the ground. But everyone involved could see that even this initial event had made a big difference for Brazilian quality farmers. BSCA and the Cafés do Brasil program dug deep into their pockets, and in the Fall of 2000 another international, much larger jury, came together in Lavras to search for the best that Brazil had to offer.

The 2000 competition sparked enthusiasm never before experienced. Flavor profiles of unknown winning farms ‘knocked the socks off’ the astounded jury, some from regions with a reputation for poor quality. Once the auction closed six weeks later we all knew we were on to something that had lasting merit as did other coffee producing countries who were watching very closely. Some have since become our partner countries.

In 2002 the non-profit Alliance For Coffee Excellence, Inc. was organized to manage the COE program in a consistent manner under an international board of advisors.  In early 2003 we launched our own website and auction platform with the help of Commodities One.

From these humble beginnings the program has expanded to multiple countries and has gone on to create not only the most stringent selection process known in the coffee industry today but enjoys a base of supporting members that span the globe.  Described as the “Oscars for Coffee” the Cup of Excellence program is respected around the world. We are grateful for all of the thousands of hours that have been donated by our juries and our supporters and for the roasters who took a chance and paid a lot more for coffees they were not sure they could sell at a higher price. It has paid off and the coffee industry will never be the same.

The wide-ranging effect that the Cup of Excellence program has had on the farmers and the roasters has astounded those of us who started the program and are now managing its growth. We have been ecstatic as roasters tell us of customers experiencing these great coffees for the first time and are now on their own discovery path!  We have sat, teary eyed, listening to farmers as they tell us the auction premium saved their farm or bought their family a future and their children an education and we are hopeful that many of our young national cuppers now have new careers and a more hopeful future.

We now know that the program benefits more than just the winning farmers and that after several years the entire producing country sees economic development that no other type of program delivers. By focusing on quality and transparency and by rewarding the individual farmer for his/her hard work the entire coffee infrastructure changes in support of premium coffees. In essence the coffee connoisseur has ended up developing a stronger personal relationship with the farmer.