The 2022 Best of Thailand ceremony. All images courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.
Fifteen coffee lots have been identified as winners in a Cup of Excellence (CoE) pilot program for Thailand green coffees called Best of Thailand.
CoE sibling nonprofit the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) is currently selling sample sets of the 15 winning coffees ahead of an online auction taking place Thursday, Nov. 17. ACE membership is not required for purchasing the $300 sample sets.
ACE collaborated with private companies K.V.N. Import Export (1991) and Coffee Therapy (Thailand) for the pilot program, which if successful, could bring a full CoE program to the country in future years. There have been CoE events and auctions in eight different coffee-producing countries in 2022.
At Best of Thailand, winning coffees largely hailed from the north of the country, with coffees reflecting four different post-harvesting processes and eight different arabica varieties. Lot sizes range from 60 to 150 kilograms.
“Thailand holds so much promise and possibility,” CoE Executive Director Darrin Daniel said in an announcement of the inaugural event. “We’re delighted to be part of Thailand’s specialty coffee history.”
A total of 100 farmers entered coffees into the competition before numerous rounds of national and international judging resulted in 15 winners.
The top-scoring coffee was produced by farmer Caleb Jor Dance of Caleb Gem Forest Coffee. The coffee, a washed-process Gesha variety that was grown at the highest elevation of any of the coffees in the competition, scored 92.82.
Winning coffee farmer Caleb Jor Dance.
“I’m more excited that this happened in my country than that I won first place,” said Jor Dance. “This is a big step for the Thai producers. We have been looking for this opportunity for so long and now finally this is happening and putting our country in the international markets is just amazing for us.”
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