Brazil, with São Mateus Agropecuaria, is the winning country of the Best of the Best Award, presented to José Eduardo Dominicale during the 8th edition of the International Ernesto Illy Coffee Award.
The award, named in honor of the visionary leader of illycaffè and son of the company’s founder, celebrates the work the company has been doing every day for the past 30 years, alongside coffee growers, to offer the best sustainable coffee possible. The award was presented to the winner by illycaffè president Andrea Illy during an event held at the New York Public Library, in New York.
The award was given by an independent panel of 9 experts who examined the best lots from the 2022-2023 harvest through a blind tasting of 9 coffees from the 9 finalist countries: Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua and Rwanda.
Before being evaluated by the panel, each coffee lot was analyzed in the quality control laboratories of illycaffè and assessed in terms of richness and aromatic complexity, elegance and balance of flavor, and intensity of aroma.
“The absolute victory of Brazilian coffee from regenerative agriculture – chosen blindly among the nine best coffees in the world – fills me with joy. In fact, the story of the Ernesto Illy Award began in Brazil in 1991, and this confirms that the rewards received by illycaffè for transforming Brazil from a leader in quantity to a leader in quality are well-deserved,” says Andrea Illy. “After more than 25 years of tireless and endless work by our team of agronomists and the Coffee University, the leap finally happened thanks to regenerative agriculture, which we decided to develop in 2018 for the benefits it brings to the environment and the health of all.”
The International Ernesto Illy Coffee Award is also an unmissable networking opportunity for everyone involved in the coffee industry, from producers to exporters, traders to institutional representatives. In the morning, everyone gathered at the United Nations headquarters to participate in the roundtable “How to Protect the Future of Coffee.” Alongside illycaffè president Andrea Illy, speakers included Vanusia Nogueira (Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization), Jeffrey Sachs (economist and co-chair of the Regenerative Society Foundation), Oscar Schaps (President of the Latin America division of Trading Stone X Financial Inc.) and Glaucio de Castro (President of the Federation of Coffee Growers of the Cerrado Mineiro).