International Coffee Tasting, the competition organized by IIAC, the International institute of coffee tasters, opens registration for the 2024 edition. This is the sixteenth edition and follows the record of 2023, when 750 products from 14 countries competed, tasted by more than 60 tasters in over 6 months of work. All with the technical support of a team of 15 professionals including sensory, bartenders, project managers and administrative managers.

"International Coffee Tasting was born with the idea of providing a fair and independent test for roasters, to give them the possibility of an objective evaluation of their products and allow them to enhance and improve them in favor of the final consumer -explains Carlo Odello, IIAC-president-. This is really the ultimate goal of the competition: to support the expertise of the industry and its professionals. This is why we are among the most selective competitions in food & beverage: in 2023 we awarded less than 25% of the competing products with the Gold Medal".

International Coffee Tasting uses tasters who operate blindly, therefore without knowing the product. In addition, tasting data (in 2023 more than 120,000) are processed through a large number of statistical tools to evaluate their quality and arrive at statistically validated sensory profiles. As proof of the maximum transparency of the competition, the formula for calculating the score awarded to the products in the tender is public, available on the International Coffee Tasting website with a detailed and exhaustive explanation of the weight attributed to the individual sensory characteristics.

"As always, the competition is also an opportunity to meet the tasters themselves -adds Odello-. A time when different professionals can compare themselves on market trends and practice the Iiac method. The work of sensory judges is also carefully controlled by statistical indicators that allow us to understand how consistent the tasters are, attentive to the smallest details and aligned with each other".

Also about sensory judges, Iiac has also finished the elaboration of the performances of all the tasters who took part in the 2023 edition and attributed to Manolo Marcandalli the title of IIAC Best Taster. "I am very happy with this recognition because I was able to express what I learned and practiced in over twenty years of profession -explains Mercandalli-. Being a sensory judge is like having a large magnifying glass on the best products on the market and on the trends of the moment, an important point for me that I deal with the quality control of the blends and origins in the company".