2026 2nd Yunnan Treasure Coffee Green Bean Competition (Cup of Excellence Pilot) Concludes

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): On June 25, the 2026 2nd Yunnan Treasure Coffee Green Bean Competition (Yunnan Cup of Excellence pilot) concluded successfully by Dianchi Lake. Three Geisha lots from Lincang and Menghai took the top three, all scoring above 90 points, in a CoE-standard pilot that brought Yunnan coffee onto the world’s specialty map.

(Source: Maguan Release) On June 25, the 2026 2nd Yunnan Treasure Coffee Green Bean Competition (Yunnan Cup of Excellence) pilot concluded successfully. Senior international judges and coffee lovers from multiple countries and regions gathered by the shores of Dianchi Lake to witness the birth of the 2026 2nd “Yunnan Treasure.” Three Geisha coffee lots from Lincang Gengxia Manor Co., Menghai Yunle Coffee Co., and Lincang Linxiang District Songfeng Coffee Planting Farmers’ Cooperative took first, second, and third place, with scores breaking 90 points.

The Cup of Excellence (CoE), known as the “Olympics of green coffee,” is the world’s most credible and industry-recognized specialty green-bean competition, and the authoritative passport for coffee regions worldwide to enter the map of world-class specialty coffee. This “Yunnan Treasure” green-bean competition, as a CoE pilot, strictly followed CoE’s unified international standards; professional judges conducted multiple rounds of cupping screening and independent scoring on the competing beans across 8 core dimensions—cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, body, flavor, aftertaste, balance, and overall impression—ensuring compliance and unified standards under the full supervision of chief judge Stephen Vick.

It is understood that this edition was hosted by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) and the Yunnan Specialty Coffee Society, organized by the Kunming Dianchi National Tourism Resort Management Committee and the People’s Government of Xishan District, Kunming, with the Tropical and Subtropical Cash Crops Research Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming Cultural Tourism Group, and other units participating in coordination. The event’s level and participant scale were comprehensively upgraded; 169 competing green beans were collected, and after compliance quality inspection and warehousing verification by professional institutions, 162 qualified green beans advanced to the domestic round.

The event lasted two weeks, divided into domestic and international rounds. From June 15 to 19, led by CoE chief judge Stephen Vick, 12 domestic professional judges conducted multiple rounds of cupping screening and independent scoring; the quality green beans reaching the advancement cutoff entered the international round. From June 22 to 24, 9 senior coffee practitioners from the United States, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, and Australia, together with 2 excellent domestic cuppers, formed a professional international jury to conduct the ultimate tasting of 40 advancing beans.

The international jury spoke highly of the overall quality of this edition’s competing beans, calling it “China speed.” Boom, a judge from Vietnam, said the Yunnan coffee tasted this time showed a wide range from delicate floral types to high-altitude mountain flavors, and its progress far outpaced the normal development cycles of other producing regions. He specifically pointed out that experimentally processed coffees hold significant potential, and suggested maintaining a balanced development of varieties and processing techniques in the future.

Luo Xinping, chairman of the Yunnan Specialty Coffee Society, pointed out that after ten years of deep cultivation, Yunnan coffee’s specialty transformation has achieved fruitful results. Bringing the world’s top judging mechanism to Yunnan helps farmers and manors clearly recognize the market value of their products, conveys Yunnan’s unique terroir and flavor to more consumers, and continuously injects professional momentum into Yunnan coffee’s specialty transformation.

Yunnan is the core heartland of Chinese coffee, with coffee planting area and output accounting for over 98% of the national total. Yunnan coffee’s specialty rate has risen from 8% in 2021 to 41.7%, and its deep-processing rate has surged from 20% five years ago to 85%. As of 2025, the province’s coffee planting area reached 1.495 million mu, with total output of 170,000 tons.