Brief report: World of Coffee 2026

Brutal heat hit the exhibitors and participants around Europe's largest coffee fair in Brussels, so the areas in front of the hall remained pretty deserted and everyone sought the cooled interior, which was correspondingly well attended.

For us, this year continued to be about "less is more", and so our focus was on personal meetings with partners from Brazil and the EU, whom we usually only see via video calls.

Team "Pacha Mama" who produce Cascara in Peru

Instead of a permanent booth, we booked a sponsorship of the Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, where the best baristas and bartenders create cocktails with coffee ingredients.

World Roasting Championship

At the accompanying bar, we mainly presented cascara infusions, the Coffeecherry Elixir, and Lucas Venturim personally brewed the finest espressos for the visitors who came from all over Europe to the fair and to our bar.

The spirits bar with our setup of Cascara and Espresso.

The new contacts fit perfectly with our new corporate structure in Germany, which allows us to supply customers throughout the EU from Bremerhaven.

We made the following observations, some new and some already known:

• The coffee industry (like many others) loves to celebrate itself. It's a "see and be seen" affair, especially when you consider the barely economically viable cost-benefit ratio of fixed stalls. This is somewhat questionable when you consider the budgets of many, especially smaller, farmers.

• No groundbreaking innovations were observed; rather, there was ongoing evolution of accessories, knowledge transfer, and networking.

• There were about 10 matcha stands alone!

• In contrast, cascara received relatively little attention, except perhaps from representatives of the tea industry and, of course, from us. Since it's a product that has been in development for years, this highlights the still high barriers to entry (keyword: novel food and food safety, awareness, skepticism regarding quality), but also the untapped potential of this segment.

Coffee remains a major trend, as evidenced by the increasing number of trade fairs and festivals, which are nonetheless well-attended. This can lead to a certain dilution and homogenization, although this is probably most noticeable within the coffee community. Finding the right mix of events will continue to be a balancing act for us, but World of Coffee has already become a fixture in Europe.