According to the jury, the winning coffee contains rich and smooth flavors, consisting of a balance of chocolate, caramel, brown sugar and roasted almonds.
Great news from Brazil. The country has won the Best of the Best Award. This award was presented to José Eduardo Dominicale – who in his daily life runs the Sao Mateus Agropecuaria coffee plantation – during the eighth edition of the Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award.
Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award
The award is named after the visionary leader of illycaffé and the son of the company’s founder. This special award equals thirty years of hard work to offer the best possible sustainable coffee.
Critical panel
A critical panel of no fewer than nine panel members allowed them to blindly taste nine coffees from nine countries in the final. The countries that made it to the final were Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvadore, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua and Rwanda.
Before the assessment took place, the coffees were first thoroughly analyzed by illycaffé’s laboratories. They were tested for richness, aromatic complexity, elegance, balance of taste and intensity of aroma.
However, the Best of the Best Award was not the only prize presented this evening. For example, Finca Danilandia di Luis Arimany Mondonico from Guatemala has won the Coffee Lovers’ Choice Awards. This award was given by a panel of consumers who, in the weeks leading up to the event, conducted blind taste tests of coffee samples in illy cafés spread across various global cities.
Winning coffee
The nine-member panel of the Best of the Best Award included professional foodie Silvia Escobar, chairman of Glaucio De Castro, director of CoffeeLab, Sunalini Narayan Menon and chef Ricard Camarena. They ultimately presented the Best of the Best Award to the lucky winner.
According to the jury, the winning coffee contains rich and smooth flavors, consisting of a balance of chocolate, caramel, brown sugar and roasted almonds on a bed of refined brightness with a lingering finish of mild, soft but harmonious sweetness. “It really represents the finest taste characteristics of its origin,” said the jury.
Celebrities
The grand event also attracted many celebrities. Matilda De Angelis, Pat Cleveland, Coco Rocha, Candela Pelizza, Tamu McPherson Carlo Sestini, Simon Ksandr, Nick Lowry and Tesa Pesic were some of the big names present during the award show.
The event is therefore a perfect networking opportunity for everyone involved in the coffee industry. Consider, for example, producers, exporters, traders and institutional representatives.
Image: illycaffe
