When a green coffee competition set out to identify Brazil’s finest coffees in 1999, few could have imagined that 27 years later the Cup of Excellence would be giving sleepless nights to thousands of producers across more than a dozen countries and hundreds of roasters around the world.

Today, the Cup of Excellence is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious green coffee competitions in the world. For producers, finishing among the top three can be life-changing. For roasters, featuring a Cup of Excellence auction lot on the menu is a powerful statement of exceptional quality.

Now, in 2026, a new chapter begins. And what a chapter it is.

Brazil’s leadership in Canephora has been evident for some time. Brazil is the home of Conilon while also producing Robusta, making it uniquely positioned among major coffee-producing nations through the cultivation of both commercially important groups within the genetic diversity of Coffea canephora.

Brazilian Canephora production no longer simply lives in Vietnam’s shadow. The country is moving into the fast lane, both in terms of volume and quality. At the same time, Brazil’s research and development ecosystem surrounding Conilon and Robusta is widely regarded as one of the most advanced in the world.

The launch of Best of Canephora is therefore more than just a new competition. It reinforces Brazil’s claim to leadership within the international Canephora sector and, arguably, within the coffee industry as a whole.

Because coffee history is being written right now.

Not simply as the first Canephora competition connected to the Cup of Excellence ecosystem.

But as something that, historically speaking, more closely resembles the original Best of Brazil competition of 1999: the same institutions, the same philosophy, the same combination of national and international juries, and the same focus on visibility, transparency and market development.

The first major international Canephora competition of its kind.

And the first competition of this scale anywhere in the world to consistently refer to the species by its proper name: Canephora.

For many, that may seem like a minor linguistic detail. In reality, it may prove to be the competition’s most important contribution.

For decades, one of the world’s most genetically diverse coffee species has been marketed under the umbrella term Robusta.

Best of Canephora takes a different approach. The focus is not a commercial category, but the species itself. In doing so, the competition creates space for diversity, differentiation and a new conversation about how Canephora should be understood, evaluated and marketed in the future.

Considering that the BSCA and the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) played a pivotal role in shaping the original Best of Brazil model, which later evolved into one of the most influential competition systems in the coffee world, it is hard to overstate just how remarkable this moment is.

Because for the first time, this model is not being applied to a new origin country. Not to a producer group. Not to a region.

But to an entirely different coffee species.

The result brings together two heavyweights of the coffee world: the world’s largest coffee producer and the industry’s most influential competition model.

And now for the big one.

As a member of the International Jury, cumpa founder Lukas will have a front-row seat at this historic moment and the opportunity to help shape it.

Being invited into this circle is a tremendous honor. After all, the competition is breaking new ground not only for producers, but for the jury itself.

We can’t wait.

From November 23 to December 3, 2026, Lukas will travel to Brazil to take part in a new milestone in both coffee competition history and the broader story of coffee itself, contributing to a defining moment for the world’s second most-produced coffee species: Coffea canephora.

If the format succeeds and gains broader adoption, it could open the door to coffee’s highest competitive stage for dozens of producing countries around the world. The real breakthrough would not be a new competition, but a new geography of coffee excellence.

With the launch of Best of Canephora 2026, the coffee industry’s highest competition standard is being brought to its lowest altitudes.