The session dedicated to capsules and waffles of International Coffee Tasting 2024, the competition between coffees organized by IIAC - International Institute of Coffee Tasters took place on 1 and 2 October last. The session dedicated to the capsule and waffle segment was held at Nestlé Coffee Academy at the Nestlé Italiana headquarters in Assago (MI).

The products awarded were (in alphabetical order by farm):

• Caffè Cagliari S.p.a., Papua New Guinea Caffitaly capsules
• Dacatè S.r.l., Cialda Alunni Luigina
• Ekaf S.p.a., Wild
• Mokador S.r.l., Mokador Diva Sophia
• Mokador S.r.l., Mokador Diva Brigitte
• Nespresso Italiana S.p.a. - Benefit Company, Galapagos

"We decided to dedicate a special space to the single-serve coffee segment so that we could evaluate it even more specifically and identify the best products within it -explains Carlo Odello, president of IIAC-. The distribution of products shows a net prevalence of capsules, a sign that perhaps a reflection is needed in the segment waffles by the roasters. Capsules have made really huge progress over the years and the quality of the best of them is now close to that of the best espresso at the bar".

The next session of International Coffee Tasting will be dedicated to the segment of coffee beans and will be held from 5 to 7 November at the Factory Food Designers within the headquarters of Autogrill in Rozzano (MI). A session particularly expected by the roasters because historically able to attract the great national and international brands in comparison to award the Gold Medal to the best products.

International Coffee Tasting is based on strict rules of sensory analysis. It uses tasters who work blindly, therefore without knowing the product. In addition, the tasting data (more than 120,000 in 2023) are processed through a large number of statistical tools to assess their quality and arrive at statistically validated sensory profiles. To demonstrate the maximum transparency of the competition, the formula for calculating the score given to the products in the tender is public, available on the International Coffee Tasting website with a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the weight attributed to individual sensory characteristics.