Addis Abeba — Ethiopia's Tracon Trading, a private company mainly engaged in Coffee Export & Real Estate development, has won the Best Award of the "Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award 2022", a prize that celebrates the finest coffee Arabica variety sourced from all over the world.

According to the organizers, every year, an external jury made up of coffee enthusiasts, experts and international chefs chooses the finest coffee lot from the competing countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India and Nicaragua. The award is now in its seventh year.

Nine finalists, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, and Rwanda, competed to be crowned victor in the "Best of the Best" and "Coffee Lovers' Choice" categories. Accordingly, "The Best of the Best" award for this year was presented to Ethiopia's Tracon Trading through its representative Elias Omer Ali from the hands of Andrea Illy, chairman of Illycaffè, at the event held on the evening of 17 November at Palazzo Colonna in Rome.

The award given by an independent jury of 9 experts examined the best batches of 2021-2022 production through a blind tasting of the 9 coffees from the 9 countries that made it to the finals-Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, and Rwanda.

According to the Italian publication, lacucinaitaliana, Costa Rican cooperative CoopeAtenas won the Coffee Lovers' Choice award, given by a jury of consumers who, in the weeks leading up to the event, blind-tasted the same samples at Illy cafes in Trieste, Milan, Paris, London and San Francisco, expressing their preference. AS