Coffee from Capitolium (MG) is the best of Cooxupé’s 2020 harvest

The Arabica coffee produced by the member, Wilson Vicente Soares, in the city of Capitão (MG), is the champion of the Cooxupé Special Program (Regional Cooperative of Coffee Growers in Guaxupé) and revealed as the best quality batch of the 2020 harvest in the area of performance of the Minas Gerais cooperative, which covers the South and Cerrado of Minas Gerais and the middle of Mogiana in the state of São Paulo. Soares was awarded R﹩ 25 thousand.

"I was hoping for classification, but winning first place is a big surprise. I would like to thank Cooxupé, including the Piumhi team, for the work carried out with us and for always encouraging us to produce quality coffee. It's a lot of emotion!", defines the champion of the Very special.

The runner-up coffee comes from Caldas, also a city in Minas Gerais, from cooperative member Edir José de Carvalho, who won the prize of R﹩ 20 thousand. The third best-rated batch of coffee is from Nova Resende, in the south of Minas Gerais, from cooperative member Ricardo Bachião D'olivo, awarded R﹩ 15 thousand.

"It's an immense joy. The cash prize is important, but the most special thing is to be among the selected coffees and win second place with the score I had. We feel valued for our work and we thank Cooxupé and SMC for helping us help us to understand the quality level of the coffee we produce", says producer Edir.

In total, Especialíssimo selected and awarded 50 lots of coffee from cooperative members. Coffee produced with a quality index above 83 points participated in the cooperative's program. The final result was declared by a team of 12 tasters from Cooxupé and SMC Specialty Coffees, led by professor at the Federal University of Lavras, Flávio Borém, a professor with extensive experience in the specialty coffee niche. Coffee attributes such as acidity, sweetness, body, balance and aftertaste and aromas such as fruity, enzymatic, caramel and floral were analyzed through blind tasting.

"Cooxupé's members are finding better opportunities in the specialty coffee segment to add value to their coffees and achieve greater profitability in the activity. Especialíssimo was born with this objective. The cooperative, through its Technical Development Department, has increasingly encouraged more of our producers produce with higher quality and every year we are reaping good results due to their commitment", says the president of Cooxupé, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo.

This year, Especialíssmo received 49.985 bags of specialty coffees (Cooxupé + SMC), delivered by 431 members. The number of lots also exceeded expectations, totaling 771 in 2020.

"All our efforts and actions are aimed at improving the income of our members and the quality of life of the producing families associated with Cooxupé. It is also important to note that this year during the harvest we had absolutely favorable weather, with rain occurring until the month March and with drought during the harvest. This situation, combined with the good agricultural practices that the producer has been developing in his crops, has brought greater benefits to the quality of the coffee produced", highlights vice-president Osvaldo Bachião Filho.

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For fourth place the prize was R﹩ 10 thousand; fifth place R﹩ 9 thousand; sixth place R﹩ 8 thousand; seventh place R﹩ 7 thousand; eighth place R﹩ 6 thousand; ninth place R﹩ 5 thousand; and tenth place R﹩ 4 thousand. The lots that occupied 11th to 50th place were awarded R﹩ 3 thousand each. The total prize pool this year was R﹩ 229 thousand.

The lots selected by Especialíssimo also had the opportunity to compose the blend of Safra Especial and Prima Qualità Raízes coffee (launched at the awards ceremony), produced by Torrefação da Cooxupé. The Safra Especial is a limited edition produced at the end of the year to celebrate the period.