They Didn’t Know It Was Tempeh: Our Garlic Chips Score 84% in a Blind Tasting
The judges never saw the packet
The International Taste Institute’s tasting process runs blind and in complete silence. The chefs and sommeliers on the panel know nothing about the product in front of them except its category. No brand name. No producer. No packaging. They don’t speak to each other during the session, and they never score one product against another — each sample is judged only on its own characteristics.
So nobody in that room in Brussels knew they were eating a tempeh chip made in Malaysia by a company most of them had never heard of.
They scored it 84.0%, which earned our Garlic Tempeh Chips a 2-star Superior Taste Award for 2026.
Five criteria, one score
Every product is evaluated against the five International Hedonic Sensory Analysis criteria, following the AFNOR XP V096A standards. For a food product those are: first impression, vision, olfaction, taste and texture.
Here’s the full breakdown for our Garlic:
| Criterion | Score |
|---|---|
| First impression | 82.6% |
| Vision | 83.7% |
| Olfaction | 80.9% |
| Taste | 87.1% |
| Texture | 89.8% |
| Total score | 84.0% |
First impression is the spontaneous overall judgment a taster gives before beginning the systematic analysis, and it carries significant weight in the total. Vision covers colour, shape, size, glossiness and whether the product looks consistent with its category. Olfaction assesses aroma, which is also where a panel would detect rancidity or defects. Taste covers what registers in the mouth across sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Texture is assessed as a combination of mouthfeel, sight and hearing: crispness, consistency, the size and shape of the particles.
Texture and taste did the heavy lifting
Our two highest scores were Texture at 89.8% and Taste at 87.1%.
That’s the same pattern we saw in a completely separate assessment this year. Monde Selection’s jury, working to its own methodology, also rated texture as the strongest parameter on this product. Two independent panels, two different scoring systems, same conclusion about what a Truly Gourmet Garlic chip does well.
Texture is not a soft compliment on a snack. It’s the whole proposition. A tempeh chip that doesn’t snap has failed at the only thing it was designed to do, and it’s the one quality you can’t fix with seasoning.
What a 2-star result means
The Superior Taste Award is a certification with a threshold, not a competition with a winner. Products scoring above 70% are certified, and the star level follows the score: one star for 70–80%, two stars for 80–90%, and three stars for 90–100%. Taste-institute
At 84.0%, our Garlic sits in the two-star band. Worth being precise about a few things:
- This is a 2026 result for the Garlic flavour, assessed as one product. It doesn’t carry across the rest of the range.
- The Institute is explicit that it evaluates the intensity of gustatory pleasure. It is a taste assessment, not a nutritional or ingredient assessment.
- It is also not a preference study against other brands. Products are tested monadically, on their own merits.
About the jury
The panel is made up of more than 200 professional taste experts from over 20 countries, all external and independent, drawn from chef and sommelier associations. Membership alone doesn’t get anyone a seat: jurors are selected on tasting experience, typically people recognised through professional competitions or by institutions such as Le Guide Michelin and Gault & Millau. Their feedback quality is monitored by the Institute’s own tasting committee.
Products are served under natural lighting on standard transparent or white chinaware, presented identically to every juror, following the producer’s own preparation and serving instructions. The Institute also reserves the right to have accredited laboratories test samples, to confirm the sample matches what a consumer would actually buy.
The same chips, in a bag, on your desk
Garlic Tempeh Chips are gluten-free, vegan, suitable for vegetarians and a good source of fibre, made with real ingredients. Halal by JAKIM. Manufactured in a FSSC:22000 FSMS certified facility.