Two years ago, Passenger’s green-buying team had the privilege of joining the inaugural ‘Copa de Oro’ regional cupping event in Huila, Colombia, put on by our import partners at Osito Coffee. For a number of years prior, Passenger had participated in a similar cupping competition from this region in Colombia known as the ‘Copa Suaceña’. Each annual edition of the "Suaza Cup" pursued the goal of identifying and recognizing the highest quality coffees produced by the Divino Niño producer group: a community of farmers that has been one of Passenger's Foundational Partners since 2018. It was with the first Copa de Oro event that the Suaza Cup grew into a broader and more ambitious regional cupping event, and we were delighted to once again participate as cupping judges during this most recent harvest year.

In addition to remaining open to submissions from all the familiar names we've come to know and love in Divino Niño, the larger Copa de Oro competition features an expanded regional scope in order to welcome entrants from other sub-regions of western, southern, and central Huila that are areas of particular focus for our partners at Osito. Twenty lots from each of these broad geographical regions were screened and pre-selected by Osito's Colombia-based cupping team. The 60 lots that were entered into the competition were rigorously evaluated by an international team of judges (from Colombia, Japan, Canada, Ireland, and the U.S.) across three days of blind cupping. At the end of competition week, the top 20 lots were cupped one final time to determine the ranking for the top 5 coffees from each of the three regions. And when all was said and done, the highest-scoring coffee among these regional champions was ultimately recognized as the overall winner of the inaugural Copa de Oro.

After quietly climbing the ranks of regional competitions in Huila over the past number of years, those familiar with the striking quality of coffees produced by Ivan Camilo Lopez were delighted to see him take home the first-place overall prize at Copa de Oro last fall with this outstanding washed pink bourbon selection. With extremely high altitudes at his family’s farm, El Calamar, as well as a meticulous processing approach, and a competition-winning producer in his father before him, it is no surprise that Ivan found himself atop the rankings with this entry. Watching Ivan and his father, Gildardo, share the stage at the award ceremony this year, with the first and second-place overall titles, was a truly special moment. The Lopez family farm is located in the municipality of Paicol in the west of Huila, adjacent to the municipality of Cauca - another producing region known for its extreme altitudes and high-quality coffee production. For this coffee, Ivan used the same processing approach as his father: whole ripe cherries were first fermented for 30 hours before being pulped, after which the coffee was dry fermented for an additional 48 hours before being washed and finally dried on raised beds.