Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award

The Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award is a recognition that illycaffè gives to the best coffees chosen from among the ones grown in the regions that make up illy’s unique blend. After years working side-by-side with Brazilian farmers and in view of the excellent results that have been achieved, the company extends these opportunities to all the growers with whom it works.

The Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award will recognize top quality growers who sustainably produce the best beans in the coffee paradises across the world. Over the past 12 months, the illy quality Lab in Trieste, Italy has identified 3 different coffee lots representing the best coffees from the 2019-2020 crop from 9 distinct and important coffee producing Countries – Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India and Rwanda. An external Jury comprised of coffee experts, international chefs, and coffee lovers will choose the best coffee lot among the 9 finalists of the total 27. During the Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award, that this year will take place digitally, will be announced the 9 finalists and celebrated the winner of the  ‘Best of the Best’ as well as the winner of the “Coffee lovers’ choice”.

The award is also a tribute to Ernesto Illy, illycaffè’s late, visionary leader, who deeply believed in scientific research as an unimpeachable source of truth, making possible advances in human development and promoting adherence to the highest ethical standards.  For the industry he so loved, science gave Dr. Illy the power to sustain and grow coffee culture in every positive aspect.

The winner was Cooperativa Cocabel in Honduras, which won in both categories: “Best of the Best” and “Coffee Lover’s Choice”, after a series of blind tastings by two independent juries, one comprising experts and the other consumers.

Cocabel is a cooperative with about a hundred or so partners, located in the municipality of Belen in the department of Lempira, in south-western Honduras. The partners deliver coffee cherries to the cooperative, which then removes the pulps, rinses them, and dries them out in the sun on the patio. Cocabel works closely with BICAFE, a company that runs a coffee warehouse and dry mill near Santa Rosa de Copan and selects high-quality batches of coffee.