Going...going...almost gone...Tazo Dorado 2015
Carrie Masek
What is the Tazo Dorado? It's Ecuador's version of the "Cup of Excellence." Ecuador is a very new origin for specialty grade coffee. Each year, the whole country of Ecuador produces less specialty grade coffee than the island of Kona in Hawaii. Ecuador's coffees are rare, relatively unknown, and absolutely delicious!
Last year, we were lucky enough to snag a bag of coffee from the 2015 Tazo Dorado competition. Ecuador Tazo Dorado 2015 is everything a good coffee should be, sweet, rich, smooth, creamy, with soft citrus topnotes and a chocolaty richness that reminds us of chocolate covered Brazilnuts. Yum!
It's also almost gone. We're down to less than a bag. Even worse, we're not certain when, or even if, we'll be able to buy more Ecuadorian coffee of this quailty.
Why? Because most competition winners are sold at auction. As Ecuador's specialty grade coffee becomes better known, more of it, particularly the Tazo Dorado winners, will be purchased by very high bidding European and Japanese importers. Less and less of it will come to the US. This has happened before to some of our favorite coffees, and we expect it to happen Tazo Dorado winners soon.
But not today! If you'd like to taste a coffee rarer than Kona, that ranks up there with Cup of Excellence winners from Central and South America, there's still time to give Ecuador Tazo Dorado 2015 a try.