2015 Colombia (North) Cup of Excellence – Results

ColombiaCOE

Colombian coffee has a reputation for being some of the best in the world. Like many countries situated inside the bean belt the climate is ideal for the careful cultivation of the coffee crop, but Colombia also has the benefit of some truly exceptional topography.

The result is a constant wave of fantastic coffee coming from the northern parts of South America. But it isn’t just down to the climate or mountainous terrain or advantageous soils: It’s down to the skill of the farmers and the diversity of crop, growing and processing methods that they have adopted over the years.

That’s why we had such a problem finding the right Colombian coffee to offer in our Speciality Range – not that we’re complaining! With so many different varieties to choose from, you can be really spoilt for choice when searching for a Colombian.

And so, we can only envisage the trouble that the Cup of Excellence judges who had to cover Colombia this year went through. Can you imagine trying to whittle down the best that the country has to offer to a longlist and then a shortlist and then an even-shorter-list?

Luckily though, the Cup of Excellence scheme in Colombia is split geographically. Farmers in the north compete one year, while farmers in the south converge twelve months later.

It has been that way since the mid-2000s and the format is understandable. But given our preference for Colombian coffee and the variety that is on offer, we’d love to see them run two competitions a year.

This year it was the turn of the north, with Astrid Medina Pereira’s Buenavista farm topping the judge’s scorecards thanks to a presidential score of 90.20.

Astrid’s lot was snapped up by a consortium of buyers, the majority of which are from Asia. So if you’re in Japan, Taiwan or South Korea you should count your lucky stars!

In total thirty-one different farms placed with a score of 85 and above, eleven more than managed the total two years ago and more than any other competition we can recall.

Here are the results:

Colombia (North) Cup of Excellence 2015

	Farm	Lead farmer	Region	Score
1	Buenavista	Astrid Medina Pereira	Planadas, Tolima	90.20
2	La Florida	Gilberto Mosquera	Acevedo, Huila	89.63
3	El Porvenir	Raul Duran	Planadas, Tolima	88.85
4	El Placer	Rafael Valenzuela	Cajamarca, Tolima	88.75
5	El Mirador	Ananias Perez Santanilla	Suaza, Huila	88.63
6	San Isidro	Alirio Aguilera	Palentina, Huila	88.58
7a	Las Mercedes	Edgar Heladio Ossa	Acevedo, Huila	88.30
7b	La Estrella	Luis Alejandro Ortega	San Agustin, Huila	88.30
9	Fortuna	Yhoimar Villamil	Planadas, Tolima	87.70
10	Penitas	Alfredo Baos Joaqui	Palentina, Huila	87.58
11	La Esmeralda	Luis Arias	Planadas, Tolima	87.03
12	El Descanso	Jose Heider Mancipe	Guadalupe, Huila	86.98
13	El Diviso-Sanjon	Ana Nelly Munoz	Pitalito, Huila	86.95
14	Buenos Aires	Oscar Eduardo Jojoa	Pitalito, Huila	86.93
15	Miraflores	Orlando Perdomo	Pitalito, Huila	86.63
16a	Consuelo	Herley Rojas Alvarez	Planadas, Tolima	86.60
16b	Lote Alexandra	Martin Alvarez Moreno	Pitalito, Huila	86.60
18	La Cuadra	Jorge Sanchez	Ragonvalia, Norte de Santander	86.53
19a	Las Brisas	Libardo Rojas	Planadas, Tolima	86.33
19b	La Villa	Roberto Carvajal Penagos	Guadalupe, Huila	86.33
21	Buenavista	Yubely Ramirez Cruz	Pitalito, Huila	86.28
22	El Paraiso	Gonzalo Moreno Blanco	Toledo, Norte de Santander	86.00
23	Lote Leonardo	Edgar Melo Gomez	Pitalito, Huila	85.93
24	El Mirador	Jose Ricardo Molina	Pitalito, Huila	85.85
25	La Golondrina	Lourdes Meneses Gomez	Pitalito, Huila	85.70
26	El Tolu	Manuel Duarte Orduz	Herran, Norte de Santander	85.60
27	Lucitania	Victor Felix Fajardo	Garzon, Huila	85.53
28	El Silencio	Oscar Ortiz Gonzalez	Toledo, Norte de Santander	85.48
29	Buenavista	Joaquin Ordonez Buitron	Pitalito, Huila	85.40
30	Caracol	Antonio Maria Diaz	Pitalito, Huila	85.38
31	La Miranda	Hiyder Adolfo Lezcano	Caicedo, Antioquia	85.25

Last updated by Damien Wilde on Wednesday the 9th December 2015