Cup of Excellence Returns to Rwanda
After a two-year break, the 2018 Cup of Excellence was held in Kigali, 7-10 August, marking the 10th Anniversary of the first Cup of Excellence. Rwanda was the first African country to conduct the programme administered by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. The head judge, Paul Songer, was a pioneer to bring the Golden Cup as an early pilot program in 2007 to Rwanda as a staff member of ACE at the time. This year’s program set a record for all-time entries with over 344 washing stations entering the competition.
Over those 340 samples were entered, with the National Jury selecting the top 150 lots and all of which qualified (only 40 are allowed to pass through to the International Jury) at 88 and above in calibrated scoring. The International Jury was represented by coffee companies around the world: Japan, United Sates, South Korea, United Kingdom, Germany, El Salvador, Australia, Switzerland, China, France, Burundi and Costa Rica.
The top two winning washing stations had not previously entered the competition, with the 2nd place wining lot from Mayogi women’s cooperative scored 90.06 and is from the Northern province of Rwanda. Mayogi received the prestigious Presidential Award for receiving above 90 by the International Jury. Mayogi began just over four years ago. Twumba, which placed first, scored 90.53 and is located in the Western Province of the country.
Twenty-eight winning lots for the Cup of Excellence and eight National Winner lots were from the International week that scored between 84-85.99. The National Winners auction is just in its 3rd year and Rwanda has not previously held the National Winners auction. This will be the 8th actual Cup of Excellence Auction for Rwanda. Coffees from the Western, Southern and Northern Provinces were all represented in the final results.
The upcoming auction for Rwanda is 20 September and the Burundi is set for 2 October.
For more information about 2018 membership and to register for an international jury, samples of the winners and the auctions log on to allianceforcoffeeexcellence.org.
The Alliance for Coffee Excellence will be hosting a cupping of a selection of the Cup of Excellence Award-winning Rwanda and Burundi coffees on 4 September during Tea & Coffee World Cup in Birmingham, UK. For more information, visit: www.tcworldcup.com.
would love to get connected to Rwandan coffee, in terms of coffee washing investment and dividends with a working capital of U$ 100K. What can u suggest please. R