Earlier this year our Director of Coffee travelled to Nicaragua. He spent a week with one of our newest coffee-relationships, Cooperativa Las Victorias, and then headed to Matalgapa to judge the Cup of Excellence (COE) competition during International Week.
We convinced our good friends at Idle Hands Roasting Co. and Relevant Coffee to bid on one of the winning COE lots with us (this did not take much convincing, since the coffees were all incredible), and next thing we know, we won the 15th place winning lot.
This natural processed maracaturra lot was produced by Martha Albir from Finca Picona, in the Nueva Segovia region in Nicaragua. According to World Coffee Research, the maracaturra variety 'likely originated from a natural cross between Caturra x Maragogipe in Nicaragua.' Similar to the maragogipe variety, maracaturras are known for yielding big beans and for their yum yum deliciousness in the cup that can really bring that caramel frappuccino to the next level.
The Cup of Excellence (or COE) program is an annual coffee competition that seeks to identify and reward coffee farmers who produce some of the highest quality coffees in the world. ("Quality" in this context referring exclusively to what's in the cup - is the coffee sweet, nuanced, balanced, exciting, so delicious that it makes you want to dance - something that we caught one of our co-judges, Jordan Dabov, doing throughout the competition. We have some thoughts on the concept of 'quality', but that's a topic for another blog post.) Through the bringing together of international judges and later, through the auction in which the top lots are sold to international buyers, COE achieves its goal for farmers to receive higher prices for their high-quality coffee beans. Dating back to the first COE competition in Brazil in 1999, the program has played a central role in the constant improvements in quality the specialty coffee industry has been enjoying, while also providing a platform for farmers to be recognized and connected with buyers worldwide.
Similarly with Relevant Coffee, while this is not the first year we've been involved with Cup of Excellence, it is our first year bidding in an auction. Meanwhile, Idle Hands has been bidding in COE auctions since they were founded back in 2021, winning 16 different lots over the years from 10 different countries.
We were in Nicaragua during what's called the International Week. By this point, the team of cuppers in Nicaragua have already spent weeks evaluating and cupping over a hundred lots that Nicaraguan producers entered into the competition. Round one is called Preselection - any coffees that do not score higher than 86 points do not move on to the next round. Out of the 175 lots entered into the competition, 81 moved onto the next round, called the National week. Similar to the Preselection round, these coffees are (re)evaluated and cupped by the team of Nicaraguan cuppers. To move onto the next round, the International round, coffees must score 86+ points again. So, when we arrived in Nicaragua to start slurping bowls of coffee with soup spoons for the International week, 40 coffees that had passed the National round were waiting for us to enjoy. To qualify as a COE coffee and go to auction, the coffees had to score 87+. (There can be slight differences in these cutoff scores depending on the country, and in some cases, there is a maximum number of samples that can move forward.) For context, this lot from Martha Albir was given a final score of 87.23.
The experience as an international judge is truly overwhelming in the best way possible. We were joined by international jurors from seven countries including Brazil, Bulgaria, Japan, Germany, China, Taiwan, Korea, and of course, Nicaragua. To cup and discuss coffee flavors and profiles with such a diverse group is a very humbling experience. We all know flavor and taste preferences are subjective, and this experience at the same time throws that fact in your face while also somehow illustrates how calibrated people can become despite differences in preferences. It's pretty amazing, or diacachimba.
To judge and score coffees of this caliber reminded us of the struggles of Paul and Prue when they have to judge the finale episode of The Great British Baking Show, or Heidi Klum in Project Runway. Everything you taste is exciting and amazing, and yet you have to split hairs and find ways to reward those coffees that stand out from the rest, whether obviously or subtly.
Every coffee had it's own unique profile - some were more floral, some more jammy, some more chocolatey, and others more simple. Despite this, there were some notes that showed up over and over again such as dried mangos, lemon zest, pomegranate, tamarind (so much tamarind!), vanilla, butterscotch and fresh coffee pulp. To us, Martha's lot was a standout - it balanced notes reminiscent of caramels, brown sugars and spices with jammy red fruits like dried cherry and cranberry, topped off with something that reminded us of a strawberry vanilla popsicle.
All in all, the experience was very amazing, or bien tuani. Thanks to the amazing folks at COE and CONATRADEC (The National Commission for the Transformation and Development of Coffee Growing in Nicaragua) who made everything possible in Nicaragua.