If you’re a coffee lover who didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas, perhaps you can treat yourself to one of the world’s best specialty coffees—a no-calorie treat at that! The Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2008 Roasters Guild Coffee of the Year Competition took place in May. We’ve been meaning to get the top 10 winners to have our own judging, but the year just flew by and we’re still coffee-less. So we can’t give you our own analysis, just the results.

More than 30 coffee professionals selected the winning coffee by cupping, a systematic method of evaluating the aroma and taste of coffee that is used by growers, buyers and roasters to evaluate the quality and flavor profile of coffee. As with wine tasting, a small amount of coffee is slurped and swirled over the palate, then spit out without swallowing.

The judges specifically assessed six distinct attributes of the coffee samples, including fragrance, aroma, taste, flavor, aftertaste and body. While a Columbian coffee took top honors, Guatemala had more entries in the top 10 than any other origin.

The highest-ranked coffees included:

1. C.I. Racafe & CIA S.C.A., Colombia
2. Hacienda La Esmeralda, Panama
3. Volcafe Specialty Coffee (Exported by Alanheri), Ethiopia
4. Sidama Coffee Farmers, Co-Op Union, Ethiopia
5. San Rafael Pacun/ Cafetalera El Tunel S.A., Guatemala
6. Agropecuaria Salfar S.A./ San Sebastian, Guatemala
7. Agoga Plantation Limited, Papua New Guinea
8. Finca La Ilusion-Café de El Salvador, El Salvador
9. Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, Colombia
10. San Jose Ocana, Guatemala
11. Big Island Fine Coffee, Guatemala
12. Kona Coffee Plantation, Hawaii
13. Consejo Dominicano Del Café (Natura Bella), Dominican Republic

– You can download a PDF of all the contestants.

– Learn how to make good coffee.

– Learn coffee terminology in THE NIBBLE’s Coffee Glossary.

– Study the aromas and flavors of coffee.

– Read the history of coffee.

– Take our coffee trivia quiz.

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