2nd Place Winner of the 2025 Cup of Excellence Mexico Experimental Category (89.39 points)
Cup of Excellence is a world renowned annual competition, organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. The several hundred entries for each origin are judged by a team known as the “National Jury”, who proceeds to select the top 40 coffees, based on a scoring sheet that is unique to Cup of Excellence, but similar to the Specialty Coffee Association form. The scoring consists of evaluating attributes such as flavor, aftertaste, sweetness, clean cup, mouthfeel, acidity, uniformity, and balance, all measured separately, and totaling them up to obtain the coffees final score. These final 40 coffees are then judged by a combination of two lead judges from the National Jury, along with a dozen or so renowned members of the worldwide coffee community known as the “International Jury”. These jury members are long time coffee professionals who have experience in Quality Evaluation, cupping, and scoring (among a wealth of other coffee knowledge), and Cafe Kreyol was selected for the international jury during this 2025 Mexico Cup of Excellence competition. These jurors spend the next week cupping, blind scoring, and judging these coffees. All scores are finally averaged to bring us the Top 10 Cup of Excellence Winners, of each respective category (washed, honey/ naturals, experimental) and the remaining national winners.
Keep in mind that all scoring systems are different (Cup of Excellence, Coffee Review, and Q Grading using the Specialty Coffee Association form), and judge coffees on separate scales. This is why you may see a 93 from Coffee Review, that might not be as good of a coffee as a 87 from Cup of Excellence. When the scale is harder, the score becomes more impressive.
Finca “El Río” was acquired in 2001, and since then, Gema Magali Posadas Manzano’s family has dedicated themselves to improving the land. As the third generation of the family, and with her mother serving as a great example, they have always been taught to work with love and give their best. In 2015, along with her husband, they decided to renovate the plantation with the Marsellesa variety, as it previously only had Typica and Garnica. They have implemented a series of procedures that allow them to monitor the coffee’s evolutionary process, which is crucial for food security. These procedures include managing organic and chemically endorsed inputs sustainably, selective harvesting, water conservation, and drying through shade mesh and African beds.
Currently, they are working on innovations in fermentation processes, having undergone training in controlled anaerobic fermentations. Additionally, they are conducting experiments with the inoculation of microbial consortia during fermentations to further enhance the coffee’s quality potential. The land is worked by families from neighboring communities, and there is a rich biodiversity of trees such as peaches, oranges, limes, lemons, chalahuites, pahua, bananas, cedars, kites, cempalegua, as well as a variety of birds and wild animals that help maintain shade and contribute to environmental conservation.
In 2022, they achieved third place in the Cup of Excellence and won the Presidential Coffee award, as well as the Women’s Coffee award. In 2023, they secured the twenty-first place in the Cup of Excellence. While in 2024 they placed 9th! Their objective and goal are to continue improving their work to achieve consistency in producing excellent quality coffees.
We serve whole bean coffee for maximum quality and freshness.
