They each arrive at a score out of 100 for each brew. As a rule of thumb, 85-and-over means the coffee is destined for the bright lights of Seattle or Seoul. Coffees from Nariño consistently punch at 85 and upwards. For the Master Tasters, that’s where the line between coffee and pure dopamine gets hazy. For Nariño’s farmers, it means they produce some of the finest and most coveted coffee in the world.

That’s a boon for a region renowned for its large-scale production of another high-value, internationally traded stimulant, albeit a less salubrious one, cocaine. You might not realise it from the cosy comfort of a high street café, but war has raged through Colombia’s coffee lands for decades. The growing of coca plants in Nariño and turf wars between armed groups has led to displacement of rural communities, widespread instability and grinding poverty.

Despite this, the region’s coffee trade has weathered the storm quite well. Coffee from Nariño became the country’s first to receive Denomination of Origin status in 2011 – international recognition of its exceptional quality, like Champagne from you-know-where.

But Catholic Relief Services, with funding from the Howard G. Buffet Foundation, felt more could be done to promote gourmet coffee production and support conflict-affected communities struggling to increase their incomes.

They set out to target around 3,000 growers in the restive frontier region of Colombia and Ecuador as part of the CRS-led Borderlands Coffee Project. Researchers from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) joined the team to help analyse the coffee trade, provide advice to farmers, and take stock of some of the challenges and opportunities.

That’s when they spotted an opportunity: the market wasn’t rewarding those who produced truly exquisite coffee – brews that scored over 85. Not just big-time coffee; the best-of-the-best.

That’s because the established system of coffee buying went something like this: Farmers would bring their beans to buying stations scattered across the region, by whichever means available – car, truck, bus, bike or donkey. There, representatives of two of the world’s biggest buyers – Starbucks and Nespresso – would ensure they were of good visible quality as a proxy for great taste. They knew Nariño’s coffee beans were reliably 85s; as long as they passed the physical inspection, all the farmers would get a flat rate. Then the beans would be bulked together, sold as a single lot, and their journey to the coffee bars of the world would begin. About 98% of Nariño’s coffee beans were handled this way, and it was a good deal for farmers who met the quality and sustainability standards.

But what about those whose coffees were a pulse-raising 87, or even a knee-trembling 90-plus? Their beans were getting mixed in with the 85s, receiving the same flat rate.

“We knew that a small number of intrepid buyers had managed to find some very high quality coffees in Nariño, like diamonds in the rough,” says Borderlands Coffee Project director Michael Sheridan. “They bought these at a higher price, showing farmers there were clear financial rewards for differentiating their coffee.”

The team got to work, searching for more of these ‘micro-lots’.

But no so fast. You can’t distinguish an 87-rated coffee from an 85 just by looking at the beans. And that’s where the Master Tasters come in.

Donning branded Borderlands bibs, they worked the tables at the cupping session in Pasto, sampling and re-sampling the micro-lots, noting the minutest quirks and nuances on their clipboards. They represented US gourmet roasters Intelligentsia and Counter Culture, Colombian exporters Virmax and Inconexus, and US importers Sustainable Harvest. If you know your coffee, you’ll know that these guys are living, slurping proof that Nariño’s farmers can get a good shake.

But this was no ordinary cupping session: the famers who produced those coffees were in the room too, a few feet from the action, watching the spectacle.

“Cupping used to be a kind of alchemy that took place behind closed doors,” explains Michael. “The cuppers would emerge like high priests or judges with a verdict on how good the coffee was. For micro-lot coffee, that just doesn’t work. You need trust, transparency and dialogue between producers and buyers. From our earlier work in Central America, we saw that bringing farmers to the cupping table was a key factor in the coffee revolution there. It turned out to be one of the most important acts of farmer empowerment possible.”

In another break from convention, a group of local, trainee tasters keen to master the art of cupping was also present. Coaching this new generation is part of what Michael describes as a long-term calibration exercise. It means that when a cupper in Nariño describes a particular coffee as being earthy, silky or well-balanced, buyers in the United States will know exactly what to expect when the sacks arrive. It also enables the cuppers to blend different beans and achieve the balance of flavours their clients are looking for.

As the session in the Pasto hotel concluded, the Master Tasters delivered their verdicts on the different coffees – 18 in all, with one of them scoring a mind-bending 88.

CIAT’s Mark Lundy concedes that producing micro-lot coffee is not for everyone though. For consistently top quality beans, you have to take care of all kinds of things, from the way the coffee is grown and picked, to the specifics of washing and drying. That’s why the project focuses on “connecting capable sellers with willing buyers,” he says, those able to go the extra mile. People like Carlos and Angela in the village of La Florida:

For those who can do it, there’s the prospect of much better returns, and for those who love coffee, some excellent new brews are emerging. I ask Michael how he personally feels when he sips a top quality coffee from a Nariño micro-lot. While he makes his excuses for not being a cupping expert himself, his response is nonetheless revealing.

“Every lot that’s put on the table is produced by people who want a better future and who hope coffee is a means to that; in their coffee is their aspiration to excellence. So regardless of whether you taste blackberry or citrus or peach in the cup, that desire always adds a little bit of sweetness to the experience.”

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Borderlands Coffee Project partners: Pastoral social de Ipiales; Pastoral social de Pasto.