Don't think your coffee won the championship, in fact, this competition doesn't even have silver or bronze awards
Open the ordering mini program of any coffee brand, and the logo of "IIAC Gold Award Coffee" can be seen almost everywhere in the product introduction. Recently, some netizens roast about the selling point of "IIAC Gold Award Coffee" promoted by some brands. In fact, there is no silver award or bronze award in this competition.
The netizen introduced that one-quarter of the coffee participating in the evaluation can meet the standard and win the award. He bluntly said, "As long as it meets the standard, it's a gold award. Don't be fooled by this gold award!" Some people in the comment section said, "I thought the gold award meant winning the championship." "What's the difference between not drinking the gold award and ordinary coffee?" Some people questioned the gold award everywhere, how high is its value?
On May 12th, a reporter from Qilu Evening News and Qilu Yidian searched the menus of several well-known catering brands and found that many coffee product promotional pages did indeed have the relevant logo of "IIAC Gold Award". Among them, Luckin Coffee has products labeled as "IIAC Gold Award" in its American family, Master Coffee and other series of beverages, and some coffee is also labeled as "IIAC Highest Platinum Award". The promotional page after clicking on it contains information about the award-winning coffee beans. The same goes for Kudi coffee. Not only coffee brands, but also the two major fast food giants KFC and McDonald's, as well as some milk tea brands, have labeled their coffee drinks with the words or logos of "IIAC Gold Award" certification. In KFC's menu, a separate "Gold Award Bean K Coffee" series has been set up.
What is the difference between "Gold Award Coffee" and regular coffee? What is the value of this award? The reporter consulted customer service of multiple brands on related issues. Kudi Coffee customer service responded to the reporter, saying that "marking the IIAC Gold Award means that the product uses award-winning beans, and the specific information is subject to the product's page promotion. The customer service of multiple other brands did not provide a positive explanation.
Further search by reporters revealed that the so-called "IIAC Gold Award" refers to the gold award in the IIAC International Coffee Tasting Competition. According to data, the International Coffee Tasting (ICT) is a global coffee competition organized by the Italian International Coffee Tasting Association (IIAC), aimed at recognizing coffee that meets the competition standards in planting, processing, screening, roasting, and blending worldwide. It is known as the "Oscar level competition for international coffee beans". The competition sets up gold and platinum awards, with products scoring 85 points or above and ranking in the top 25% winning the gold award. The top 20% of the gold award can compete for the platinum award.
According to public information, Luckin Coffee has won the IIAC Gold Award for 8 consecutive years; Since its establishment in October 2022, Kudi Coffee has won the IIAC Gold Award for three consecutive years, and in 2025, it won eight certifications for this award.
On the 12th, the reporter called the relevant person in charge of the IIAC International Coffee Tasting Association in China to inquire about the situation. She said that the competition does indeed only have gold and platinum awards, and does not have silver or bronze awards.
According to the person in charge, the International Coffee Tasting Competition was established in Italy in 2006, and the competition format was designed accordingly. It has a set of logic in it, where products ranked at 25% can win a gold award, and products that qualify for the gold award will then participate in the platinum award, "she further said. The coffee products participating in the competition speak with data, and" the competition rules are open and transparent, written very clearly.
Reporter Zhou Xiaohan
Source: Qilu Evening News