Coffee Masters crowns Sharon Ip and Alejandro Griffin-Diaz at London's biggest festival
The 2026 Coffee Masters final at The Truman Brewery drew the largest crowd of the four-day festival. Sixteen baristas competed across seven disciplines in a knockout format that is the closest thing specialty has to appointment television. La Marzocco's Roasters Village gathered European independents including Kiss the Hippo, Clifton Coffee, and Terraform Coffee.
Will represent Colombia at the World Barista Championship in Panama City, 23–25 October.
A community learning space with Kavi Coffee and Dhan Tamang, blending Italian engineering with London specialty.
Lincoln & York research confirms the shift from trend to generational default.
Kew Gardens names a new coffee hybrid that farmers have grown for decades without knowing it
Coffea × libex — a fertile hybrid of liberica and excelsa — was formally named after examining 113 accessions from three continents. Libex yields more than liberica, processes more easily, and shows strong climate and disease resilience. Sarawak is positioning itself as the world's leading libex region; Blue Bottle has already visited to explore sourcing.
Urea fertiliser up 47% since February, from $465/t to $685/t, directly hitting farm economics.
USDA attributes growth to robusta recovery and a 2% expansion in cultivated area.
The ICO Composite fell to its lowest in 19 months as Brazil's record harvest outlook outweighs rising logistics costs from the Hormuz closure. Green prices are softening — but US retail hit an all-time high in April, showing how slowly that relief travels to the shelf.
Regional offices in Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta close. $400m in restructuring charges. No store-level roles affected; international review underway.
ECOM projects producers will sell quickly given an inverted market — spot prices above futures.
Cold coffee is no longer a trend — it's the default. Specialty hasn't caught up.
93% of under-35 drinkers consume cold coffee weekly. The cold brew market hits $8.4bn by 2031 at 17% annual growth — driven by mass RTD brands filling a gap specialty is leaving open. The roasters who bring origin rigour and traceability to a canned format are sitting on the clearest white space in the market right now.
Sources
Perfect Daily Grind · Daily Coffee News · Sprudge · World Coffee Portal · ICO · Scientific Reports / Kew · CNBC · Barchart