Our Aguagate coverage continues with the results of the Colombia’s Cup Of Excellence auction. This year’s top bid went to Finca La Loma, garnering more than $40 a pound to a concern of Japanese coffee buyers. Sprudge.com had an opportunity to try La Loma and Castillo, Caturra or Crunchy Kit Kat, this is truly an outstanding coffee. Buying groups from Asia dominated the Colombia COE, accounting for all of the top 5 lots at this year’s auction. Here’s more info on the 5 top lots:

Sample Bag of La Loma

1. La Loma, Jose Antonio Gualguan, 40 box lot sold at $40.09 USD forย  a total sale of $86,614.85. COE information labels La Loma as a washed coffee from the Narino region, comprised of Caturra and Castillo varietals. No percentile breakdown of Caturra to Castillo is listed. This top lot sold at nearly 3 times the amount of its nearest competitor and was purchased by a buying group representing Saza Coffee, Bontain Coffee, Nagahama Coffee, Kasai Coffee, Sugi Coffee Roasting, and Maruyama Coffee.

2. Placer, Maria Carmen Herrera, 43 box lot sold at $15.31 USD for a total sale of $35,440 Placer was purchased by Taiwanese buying group Osir Coffee, and is listed as a washed process 100% Caturra. Like La Loma, Placer is from the Narino region in Southwest Colombia.

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3. San Jose El Cidral, Ligia Diaz, 43 box lot sold at $15.26 USD for a total sale of $35,324. Like La Loma, this coffee from El Cidral is headed to Japan, purchased by the Terarosa Haskan group. It too is from the Narino region, and is listed as 60% Colombia, 40% Caturra. Tasting notes from the COE website include “coca cola, milk chocolate and plums”. Yum!

4. El Cairo, Lucas German Melo Pinchao, 43 box lot sold at $14.20 USD for a total sale of $32,870. El Cairo was purchased by prominent auctioneers Times Club for C-COOP, and will be distributed in Japan (Tashiro Coffee) and South Korea (Coffee Libre). Yet another top draw from the Narino region, El Cairo is listed as 100% washed Colombia varietal.

5. El Guaico, Maria Amada Guerrero, 93 box lot sold at $10 USD for a total sale of $49,383. Rounding out an Asian sweep of this year’s Colombia COE top 5, El Guaico was purchased by a group representing more than a dozen shops and roasters in South Korea, with Jubean Coffee and Caffe Themselves most prominent among them. El Guiaco also represents a top 5 clean sweep for the Narino region, and is listed by the COE as 100% washed Caturra.

Connecting the dots is a tricky business, but suffice it to say, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the results from today’s auction. You’ll notice that, of the top five, La Loma is the only coffee listed as containing the Castillo varietal, and that the percentile breakdown for this year’s top lot is noticeably absent.

We never received that audit update from the COE…developing…

You can read the public listings for COE Colombia 2010 here.


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