Helina Tress Marini (El Ocote)

Description

2nd Place Winner of the 2025 Cup of Excellence Mexico Honey Category (90.75 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.

At El Ocote, coffee is grown organically, with soil nourished by compost made on-site and no chemicals used. Only the ripest cherries are handpicked, then naturally fermented to develop rich flavors. After pulping without water, the coffee is dried gently on raised beds to preserve its unique character. This is their first time placing in Cup of Excellence, and they have set a new standard with their high scoring lot.

We serve whole bean coffee for maximum quality and freshness.

El Ocote earned 2nd place in the 2025 Cup of Excellence Mexico Honey Category with 90.75 points, recognized for its organic, handpicked, naturally fermented coffee dried on raised beds in its first-ever placement.

Text from Cafe Kreyol's listing.