Awards
Juan Peña’s coffees have been selected
by world championship competitors,
recognized by leading specialty coffee
organizations, and awarded aacross
multiple continents. These results
reflect a decade of work pushing
Ecuadorian coffee onto the global stage.
Hacienda La Papaya ballooned in popularity after the 2018 US Barista Championship
When Cole McBride and Kay Cheon placed first and third respectively — both with
coffees from La Papaya. This was not a coincidence. It was a statement: in the most
competitive barista championship field in the world, the same producer’s coffee
was chosen independently by two finalists who both reached the podium. Both
competitors visited the farm shortly after in an origin trip featured in Barista
Magazine, with Cole McBride selecting a new lot to take to the World Barista
Championship in Amsterdam later that year.
That moment in 2018 was not the beginning. It was a crescendo. Hacienda La
Papaya boasts consecutive annual top-3 placements in brewers, baristas, and/or
roasters championships in the US circuit beginning in 2016
AWARDS LIST
Year
Competition
Result
2016
US Barista Championship
1st Place
2016
US Roaster Championship
1st Place
2017
US Roaster Championship
2nd Place
2018
US Roaster Championship
1st Place — Cole McBride, Dune Coffee Roasters
2018
US Roaster Championship
3rd Place — Kay Cheon
2020
US Roaster Championship
2nd Place — Kay Cheon (all Juan Peña´s lots)
2021
Ecuador Cup of Excellence
1st Place — Typica Mejorado
2022
Singapure Barista Championship
1st Place
2022
World Barista Championship
Semifinalist
2023
Korea National Barista Championship
1st Place
2023
Canadian Brewers Cup Championship
1st Place
2023
China Barista Championship (Shanghai Division)
1st Place
2024
Malaysia Barista Championship
2nd Place
2024
Singapore Barista Championship
2nd Place
2025
Coffee Review Top 50
8th Place — Geisha Natural
2018
Notable Coffee Producer by Sprudge
2019
Notable Coffee Producer by Sprudge
2020
Notable Coffee Producer by Sprudge
Awards confirm what cupping data already shows. They are not vanity — they are validation from the most rigorous sensory environments in the world. When a competitor chooses a coffee for a 15-minute world championship performance, they have spent months dialing it in, stress-testing its consistency, and evaluating whether it will hold up when it matters most. The fact that Juan Peña’s coffees have been chosen for this purpose — repeatedly, across countries, across disciplines, across years — tells roasters something that no marketing language can replicate.
These coffees perform when performance is everything