Cup of Excellence Brazil: What These Winning Lots Tell Us About the Country’s Future

If you’ve ever cupped a Brazilian coffee that completely shattered your expectations, chances are it came from a Cup of Excellence (COE) auction. These top-tier lots are the best of the best — meticulously produced, blind cupped by international juries, and often scoring well above 87 or even 90 points.

But Cup of Excellence isn’t just about big scores or record-breaking prices. It’s a window into the future of Brazilian coffee. The varietals, processing methods, and regions showing up in the winner’s circle each year reveal where innovation is happening, what producers are investing in, and what’s possible when quality becomes the goal.

For roasters in Canada looking to stay ahead of the curve, paying attention to Brazil’s COE results can offer valuable insight — and even influence how you think about sourcing from the world’s largest coffee producer.

What Is Cup of Excellence, Exactly?

Cup of Excellence is a competition and auction platform that rewards excellence in coffee production. Each participating country holds its own competition, where coffees go through several rounds of blind cupping by national and international juries.

Only the highest scoring lots (usually 87 and above) make it to the final auction. These coffees are then sold to the highest bidder, often at premium prices. For producers, it’s a chance to gain recognition, access new markets, and be rewarded for pushing quality to the limit.

In Brazil, Cup of Excellence is one of the most established and competitive in the world. The country has been part of the program since 1999, and each year’s auction continues to raise the bar.

What the Winning Coffees Are Telling Us

The most exciting thing about the Brazilian COE is how diverse the winners have become. Historically, you might expect lots from traditional regions like Sul de Minas or Mogiana, processed as clean naturals or pulped naturals. But in recent years, the range of profiles and origins has expanded significantly.

Here are a few trends that are emerging:

1. Experimental Processing Is Taking Center Stage

Many of Brazil’s top-scoring COE lots now involve anaerobic fermentation, carbonic maceration, or other experimental techniques. Producers are using fermentation tanks, inoculated yeasts, extended drying protocols, and sealed containers to create coffees with intense fruit, floral, or wine-like notes.

These aren’t subtle variations. Some lots are bursting with passionfruit, jasmine, or rum-raisin — a far cry from the nutty, chocolatey Brazils of old.

What this means for roasters: If you’ve been seeking wild, fruit-forward profiles usually associated with Central America or Ethiopia, you might find them in Brazil — and not just as novelty coffees, but with traceability and scale behind them.

2. New Varietals Are Earning Attention

While Catuai and Mundo Novo are still widely planted, many COE-winning lots come from newer or lesser-known varietals. Arara, Catucaí, and even rare types like Paraíso or Catiguá MG2 are showing up on the score sheets.

These cultivars are often selected not just for disease resistance or productivity, but for their ability to express more complex flavors — especially when paired with innovative processing.

What this means for roasters: It’s worth paying attention to the genetics behind a coffee, not just the region or processing method. Varietals once thought to be purely commercial are being pushed into the spotlight when treated with care.

3. Small Producers Are Thriving

Many of the recent COE winners are small farms — some as small as a few hectares — where families are managing the entire production chain from tree to drying bed. These producers are often highly motivated, curious, and eager to experiment.

This shift reflects a broader movement in Brazil: producers moving away from the bulk commodity model and toward quality-driven micro-production. For buyers, this opens the door to more direct relationships and unique stories.

What this means for roasters: If you’re looking to build long-term sourcing partnerships with farmers, Brazil has more smallholder options than ever. These producers are not just capable of delivering great coffees — they’re often open to collaboration and feedback, too.

How to Engage with COE Coffees as a Roaster

Even if you’re not bidding at auction, COE can still be a useful resource.

  • Cup the finalists. Many importers offer sample boxes or public cuppings of top-ranking coffees. It’s a great way to calibrate your palate and get a sense of the new flavor directions coming out of Brazil.

  • Ask your importer for past COE producers. Many COE winners go on to work directly with buyers or cooperatives. You can often source from the same farms outside of the auction setting, sometimes at more accessible prices.

  • Use COE to discover regions or varietals to explore further. If you see a lot from Chapada Diamantina scoring 90 points, it’s worth learning more about that area — even if you don’t buy that exact coffee.

  • Tell the story. COE coffees come with a wealth of detail, from farm history to processing notes. These stories make great content for customer education, especially when paired with high-impact flavor profiles.

Final Thoughts

Cup of Excellence isn’t just a showcase of Brazil’s best coffees — it’s a forecast of where Brazilian coffee is headed. The rise of experimental processing, underdog regions, and lesser-known varietals points to a country in the midst of a quiet but powerful reinvention.

For Canadian roasters, that means more options, more variety, and more reasons to explore Brazil with fresh eyes. Whether you’re cupping a COE-winning anaerobic Arara from Caparaó or discovering a producer who just missed the top 25, these coffees are reshaping what Brazil means in the specialty world.

And that future is already in the cup.

Back to News