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Cup of Excellence® Cupping Rules:
Selection Process:
The Cup of Excellence® competition consists of 3 STAGES:
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Pre-selection or screening
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National jury which is made up of host country cuppers
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International jury which is made up of international coffee professionals
The Pre-selection process reduces the number of entries
to approximately 150 through visual inspection and cupping analysis.
Cuppings are done in sessions of ten coffees or
less on a table.
The National Jury Stage consists of 2 cupping ROUNDS
lasting about 5 days.
The first round lasts about 3 days, during which the
prescreened coffees are cupped and scored. During the first round all of
the prescreened coffees are cupped and scored, the second round consists
of only the top 80 or so of which are then reduced down to the top 60 or
less coffees scoring over 84 points.
These top coffees then move forward and enter the international
stage of the competition.
All competition coffees must score at least 84
points to move to the next round.
The international jury consists of 5 days of cupping.
On the first day there is an extensive calibration. On
day 2-3 the international jury cups the coffees which have been approved
and passed by the national jury leaving the afternoon free for farm tours
or coffee presentations.
On the 4th day the second round begins and is the most
intense cupping day. The jury will cup about 45 coffees which have passed
the first round. Coffees scoring an 84 or above during this round are awarded
the prestigious Cup of Excellence.
The top ten scoring coffees are cupped one more time
to rank them and discover the first place winner of the competition.
The highest juror score and the lowest score for
each coffee are dropped out before tabulating the average score.
Any coffee that is found to have a major defect by
jurors during any round, at any stage, and no matter what its past scores,
will be disqualified.
“The Cup of Excellence® competition cycle was conceived
with the purpose of finding masterpiece lots of coffee from hundreds of
entries. This requires a dedication to key details and an unrelenting repetition
in the cupping search process that has become the unique signature of the
Cup of Excellence experience. Three overlapping juries inspect and cup samples
in an ever narrowing field of better and better coffee until the last day- with a mere handful of exemplary coffees- is experienced
to the elation of every judge who participates. It is not a matter of reaching
casual consensus; it is a matter of reaching unanimity of vision on that
last morning thanks to the very hard work and ironclad integrity of the
process. We all become students again and share in the rejuvenation of the
true discovery of quality”.
George H. Howell co-creator of The Cup of Excellence
and its first head judge.
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