Taiwan is one of specialty coffee’s most surprising origins, and this October you can bid on its best lots. On October 28–29, the Taiwan Coffee Auction goes live on M-Cultivo.In this episode of The Cupping Table, M-Cultivo co-founder David Paparelli sits down with Leo Liu, Director of International Affairs at Taiwan Coffee Laboratory and coordinator of the Best of Taiwan Invitational. They discuss how the competition works, the new zero-baseline cupping form Taiwan Coffee Laboratory developed, and what’s behind this year’s top 20 coffees.

In this conversation:

– How Best of Taiwan and the Taiwan Coffee Auction work, and what “Winners” and “Selects” mean.

– Why Taiwan Coffee Laboratory created a new cupping form with a zero baseline.

– A 7-Eleven Americano as a quality benchmark.

– The results: the top seven coffees scored above 90, and the 20th place scored 88.9.

– Why SL34 and Red Bourbon are competing with Geisha.

– How Taiwan’s tea-farming heritage shapes its coffee producers.

– Why Taiwan Coffee Laboratory and ACE parted ways.

Chapters:

00:00 – Welcome and the auction

01:05 – How Best of Taiwan works

07:58 – The new zero-baseline cupping form

21:18 – The 7-Eleven baseline

37:45 – Cupping as a conversation

48:50 – The top 20: Geisha, SL34 and Red Bourbon

1:00:02 – Single tree cupping and tea heritage

1:07:39 – Parting ways with ACE

1:25:46 – How to register for the auction

Taiwan Coffee Auction: October 28–29

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Download TCL Cupping form:

📌 Cupping Form

https://lihi1.me/DTGlk

📌 User Guide

https://lihi1.me/4RV6F

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