Cup of Excellence is one of the most essential auction series presenting the best coffees produced at the national level. Founded by Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), Cup of Excellence events were held in nearly 20 producing countries, as well as private collections and pilot events in emerging regions such as Yemen (2022-2025) and Yunnan (2025), respectively. Since 2010, Sprudge has covered Cup of Excellence events around the world.
Last week, ACE surprisingly announced the cancellation of Taiwan Cup of Excellence 2026.
Held annually since its pilot in 2023, the Cup of Excellence Taiwan competition is a joint venture of ACE, Taiwan Coffee Laboratory and the Coffee Industrial Alliance of Taiwan. May 28 this year ACE issued a statement making public the cancellation of the 2026 event. From the statement:
As Cup of Excellence programs continue to expand internationally, ACE believes it is essential that long-term governance structures include broad participation, clear communication, shared responsibility and robust representation from the entire coffee community. This includes producers, specialty coffee associations, public institutions and industry leaders working together within a producer-focused steering committee structure…
While significant efforts have been made along the way, ultimately ACE believes that more time is needed to build a structure that reflects broader industry participation and long-term alignment on a shared mission to serve Taiwan’s coffee producers.
We hope that this work will allow Cup of Excellence Taiwan to return in 2027 with stronger foundations, broader industry support, and a governance structure that can serve producers and the Taiwanese coffee community well into the future.
In response Cup of Excellence Taiwan issued its own statementstating in part:
Since 2021, Taiwan Coffee Laboratory (TCL) has been collaborating with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) to organize and conduct international competitions and auctions, during which Taiwanese coffee has proven its quality in over 20 countries around the world, with a total auction weight of 4,165 kg and an average price of NT$5,760 per kilogram during one event. This incredible achievement belongs to our coffee producers, our local and international buyers, our sponsors and every volunteer who helped with the competitions or their promotion. Congratulations on putting Taiwan on the coffee origins map!
However, Taiwanese coffee currently faces challenges from abroad. Since January, ACE has demanded the suspension of the Taiwan Cup of Excellence five times. In response to ACE’s requests and advocating for the continuation of the program, TCL provided industry data, agricultural analysis and explanations of the protocol. In the US and Thailand, TCL approached ACE’s executive director directly on behalf of Taiwanese manufacturers twice… Unfortunately, we were ultimately unable to influence ACE’s wishes to suspend the competition.
The timing of the cancellation comes just a month after World Coffee Events, the for-profit arm of the Specialty Coffee Association, quietly and retroactively replaced all mentions of Taiwan with Chinese Taipei on its website and social media accounts. In its Cup of Excellence statement, Taiwan alluded to something similar: “Even as the spirit of cooperation between ACE and TCL deteriorated and the conditions for continuing the program continued to change, we never once stopped fighting to ensure that Taiwan could compete internationally under its own name.”
Co-organizer Taiwan Coffee Lab announced that it is in the process of creating an independent competition and auction. Sprudge has reached out to both ACE and relevant organizations in Taiwan for additional comment. This story is developing.
