Making the world a tastier place

Food and Drink products awarded by top chefs & sommeliers

Discover awarded products

What is the Superior Taste Award?

Life is too short not to eat and drink well. At least, that's what we believe at the Taste Institute. That is why we created the Superior Taste Award.

The Superior Taste Award is a certification granted by the International Taste Institute to food and drink products that went trough a positive taste evaluation by a panel of world-class chefs and sommeliers.

Since 2005, we have evaluated thousands of products from over 100 countries. Thanks to our jury of top-notch gastronomy experts, the Superior Taste Award is widely recognized in the Food & Bev industry. It is probably the most prestigious taste certification worldwide.

What does the award say about the product?

“Taste” is a multi-sensory human experience that is extremely powerful and complex. It combines input from an array of sensory criteria, including visual, aromatic, flavour, and textural aspects, as well as final mouth feel.

A product that is granted the Superior Taste Award is a product that has gone through a sensory evaluation of each of the above 5 criteria by professional taste-experts and achieved an average score above 70%.

This means that the product is well made, balanced, and delicious. Every year thousands of products are evaluated, but only the best are certified.

Exceptional products
scoring above 90%
Remarkable products
scoring between 80% and 90%
Notable products
scoring between 70% and 80%

Who evaluates the products?

The jury is composed of more than 200 professional chefs and sommeliers.

Each jury member is carefully selected based on their tasting experience; they’ve been spotlighted by chef and sommelier competitions or top institutions such as Le Guide Michelin and Gault & Millau.

Hailing from over 20 countries, Taste Institute jury members are all external and independent. Their knowledge of taste and their ability to provide relevant feedback is constantly evaluated and monitored by the Taste Institute’s tasting committee.

Gabi Lucas
Bernard Vaussion
Fabrice d’Hulster
Pino Lavarra
Octávio Ferreira
Gabriel Biscay
Antoine Lehebel
Cristina Figueira
Konstantinos Stravroulakis
Tom Smet
Stijn Roelandst
Manuel Jimenez
Pascal Niau
Ferran Centelles
We are very proud of our world-class jury and rigorous methodology, making our evaluations and award the most serious and respected in the market

Ferran Centelles

Master Sommelier at El bulli Fondation

President of the Sommelier Jury

How are the products evaluated?

Evaluations are performed blind and in complete silence. Jury members never see the packaging and know neither the brand name nor the producers’ names.

The chefs and sommeliers never make judgments based on their gut feelings; they follow an objective methodology based on the 5 International Hedonic Sensory Analysis criteria.

First impression

Vision

Olfaction

Taste

Final sensation

Texture

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