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c Special Report

Head Judge of Brazil COE 2017
Susie

Spindler

Interview

Back to the origins, the idea of COE comes from the
Gourmet Project in 1997. In the age of internet, inspired
by the auction websites like Ebay, Best of Brazil coffee In the early days, COE team discovered that SCAA
started to auction online in 1999. In 2000, the 2nd Best cupping could not not show well the special taste of Brazilian
of Brazil had a big success so that other coffee associations coffee due to its high acidity. Hence, Mr. George Howell
of origin countries, like Anacafe of Guatemala, started established a new cupping form for COE, to highlight the
to learn from it. In order to better promote this auction balance of sweet and sour in specialty coffee, in order to
platform, COE arose in 2001 and spread all over the origin grant a more fair scoring system for high-end coffee.
countries in only 5 years. Thanks to the increasing need Based on the recent twenty-year’s evolution of COE,
of COE platform from coffee origin countries, the ACE Mrs. Spindler highlighted 3 points:
(Alliance for Coffee Excellence, NGO with head office Record-breaking scores of cupping
at North America) was founded to ensure the accuracy increasingly augmented a minimum score
and fairness of competition rules and protocols, optimal to pass the selection barrier. The minimum
marketing strategy, trained professional jury and to selection score of international jury is from 80, in 1999,
manage the COE in different countries. And Susie to 86, this year, thanks to the quality improvement of
Spindler is one of the founders. Brazil coffee. The launching of COE added fuel to the
flame, making farmers focused on the coffee production
quality by investing new processing methods and
independently processing of lots different high-end
coffee. This also makes the good quality beans not to be
commercial anymore. In the meanwhile, COE pushed the
origin countries to pay high attention to basic
infrastructure. Once the beans from emerging market or
remote region and farms were awarded in COE, the fame
attracts buyers from different countries to go to unknown
micro origin areas to invest, purchase and further improve
lives of local citizens and basic infrastructure. This action
makes micro origin area maintain stability on the
international stage, which is a a positive circle.
Change the stereotype about Brazilian
Coffee. Brazil is the largest coffee producing
country in the world, with a vast territory and
diverse landscape. In order to win fair treatment for Brazil
specialty coffee, Gourmet Project has been working
together with COE for 20 years, continually inviting
cuppers and international jury to producing places. Even
though Brazil is far away from a lot of countries, it is
worth to see and taste these beans. Same as other origin
countries, Brazil has many specialty coffee producers
working hard to get the high quality product.

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