Beyond the Medal: What Really Defines Australia's Best Coffee?
Are coffee roasting medals and awards the most important factor when choosing your coffee?
The simple answer is no.
As industry veterans, we believe genuine quality comes from freshness, daily roasting consistency, and premium sourcing—not a medal that's easy to win. While competitions were popular from 2012-2017, the industry's view has changed. Here’s an inside look at why awards aren't the ultimate sign of quality.
The Inside Story: Why We Stepped Away from Competitions
Like many top-tier brands, Carlini Coffee chose to discontinue participation in commercial coffee competitions in 2016. The industry's interest has significantly declined, and for good reason.
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Easy Manipulation: It is a prevalent and hard-to-regulate practice for brands to enter "bait and switch" coffees. They submit expensive, exotic, and non-commercial beans to win a medal, then sell a completely different, lower-grade coffee under that "award-winning" label.
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Medal Saturation: Many events have become "pay-to-play." Organizers prey on the insecurities of brand owners by handing out an excessive number of medals. In some events, over 400 Bronze medals are awarded, effectively giving one to anyone who pays the entry fee.
When a "win" can be bought or faked, the award itself loses its meaning for both the roaster and the customer.
Our Awards Were Won with Our Actual Daily Coffee
We are proud of the awards we received for our engineered blends and precisely-roasted Single-Origin coffees.
Why? Because those wins were achieved before the widespread "bait and switch" tactics took over. More importantly, we won with the exact same coffees we roast every single day and ship fresh to our customers.
Our team was even honoured as "Event Champions"—an honour for the best overall roaster. We earned these accolades with integrity, using the same high-quality, consistent coffee that you receive at your door.
What to Look for Instead of a Medal
If awards can be misleading, what really signals a premium coffee brand?
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Roasting Freshness: We roast daily in our Melbourne facility and ship high volumes across Australia. Freshness is the #1 factor for a great-tasting coffee.
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Roasting Consistency: Our coffee is roasted on the world's most advanced infrastructure, ensuring every batch is identical. We don't need a medal to prove our quality; you can taste the consistency in every cup.
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Sourcing & Transparency: We use traceable, specialty-grade beans, including FAIRTRADE, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance coffees.
Experience Genuine Award-Winning Quality
Don't just trust a sticker on a bag. Our award-winning coffees are the real deal—freshly roasted in Melbourne, available at competitive prices, and shipped directly to your door.
Experience the consistency and freshness that earned us our reputation.