About me

My name is Davide Cobelli. I was born in Verona and I come from the restaurant industry: I started in hospitality over thirty years ago, and for the last fifteen I have been completely devoted to coffee.

In the first half of my career my devotion went to the beverage itself: first by competing, then as an international judge for barista championships. From there I expanded into sensory analysis, roasting and the supply chain — to the point of opening a roastery and travelling to origin countries to deliver sensory training.

Today I am the founder of Coffee Training Academy, the coffee training school based in Verona.

Coffee Value Assessment

When the Specialty Coffee Association created the Coffee Value Assessment — the new high-resolution system for evaluating coffee — I was the first Trainer in the whole of Europe, Africa and the Middle East to teach it. In 2024 alone I trained over 150 CVA students; to date they are more than two hundred worldwide.

In September 2025 I became the first Evolved Q Instructor to pass the Onboarding exam in that same region, among the very first worldwide, with a perfect 100% on the written exam. It is an exam that allows no margin for error: fifty correct answers out of fifty.

I criticised the old 2004 Cupping Form publicly back in 2021, before that became a comfortable position to hold. The CVA changes something fundamental: a coffee’s value is no longer left to a single subjective score, but is distributed across multiple attributes. For farmers, that means being able to discuss value instead of submitting to a number with no explanation.

Specialty Coffee Association

Since 2012 I have been training in Italy and abroad: Asia, the Middle East and Northern Europe are some of the areas I have been called to.

Since 2013 I have been an Official SCA Trainer for the Introduction to Coffee, Barista Skills, Brewing, Green Coffee, Sensory Skills and Roasting modules. I was SCA National Coordinator for the Education sector from 2015 to 2019, a member of the SCA Advisory Council and of the Barista Guild of Europe Education Committee.

From 2016 to 2018 I was part of the SCA global education “Dream Team” as Education Chapter Ambassador. I then joined the Roasters Guild of Europe: I like to always have new stimuli.

Competitions

In 2020, two years after I started roasting, I won the Italian Roasting Championship in Rimini. I had gone there hoping not to finish last. I later placed seventh at the World Championship in 2022 and second at the nationals in 2023.

I took part in five Italian Barista Championships (WBC circuit) with excellent placings. I am a national judge for Barista, Latte Art and Brewers Cup, and a judge at some of the most prestigious national finals abroad: Slovakia, Greece, Portugal. Since February 2016 I have been a Certified International Judge for World Coffee Events in the World Barista Championship category.

Part of my work is advising and coaching those who want to aim high. In 2015 Alessio Vabres took 5th place overall at the Italian Finals and Veronika Galova Vesela 3rd place at the Slovak National Finals; in 2017 Simone Cattani became three-time Italian Ibrik Champion and 4th at the World Championship in Budapest; in 2020 Niki di Landa won the Italian Ibrik/Cezve title with my support.

Do you want to be the next one to make it to the top?