A shot from last year’s One of a Kind Guatemala auction. All images courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.
The Guatemalan national coffee association Anacafé is bringing back the One of a Kind Guatemala (OOAK) green coffee auction.
With early bird sample kit reservations already underway, this third iteration of the OOAK program will culminate in an online auction on Aug. 23 of this year.
All coffees available through the auction will go through a rigorous judging process, and all auction coffees will reach at least 86 points, according to internationally established protocols. The auction program is in partnership with the nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence, through its ongoing Private Collection Auction series.
Bids for all the auction coffees will start at US$5.50 per pound, while the stated goal of the program is to provide specialty coffee market access to producers while showcasing smaller and experimental lots.
Last year’s auction generated an average per-pound price of $7.09. The top-scoring lot, submitted by Agricola Industrial Santa Rosa, was purchased jointly by two roasting companies, Czech Republic-based La Boheme Cafe and and Greece-based Roasters Kolektiva.
“ΟΟΑΚ is a great opportunity to taste Guatemala’s little treasures,” Roasters Kolektiva QC analyst and sourcing expert Penny Skordaki said in an announcement from Anacafé. “Producers make a really huge difference with experimental processes on traditional varietals, and this was a surprise as we cupped these coffees. We met some nice complexities and unique flavors at the cup profiles.”
This auction is open to Anacafé-member producers who can provide lots of five to eight 30-kilo boxes of coffee, and it does not require them to have an export license.
Penny Skordaki of Roasters Kolektiva.
Buyers from all over the world are invited to participate, and forthcoming sample sets of auction coffees are currently selling for $225.
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