Who’s purchasing a US$680 cup of espresso?

• Dubai’s Roasters Area of expertise Espresso Home is promoting the arena’s most costly espresso at AED2,500 (US$680) in step with cup, incomes it a Guinness International Document.
• The washed Gesha bought for US$30,204/kg on the 2025 Highest of Panama public sale – the best possible worth ever paid for espresso.
• Naturally, this espresso is inaccessible to the vast majority of shoppers, however some community are appearing pastime.
• Taiwan’s Easy Kaffa introduced US$635 cups of Gesha previous this past, promoting a mean of 1 in step with while.
• As premiumisation drives the area of expertise espresso marketplace in areas just like the Heart East and East Asia, we will be able to be expecting costs for ultra-rare and unique coffees to arise even additional.

In August 2025, the Highest of Panama public sale surpassed all expectancies, incomes a record-breaking US$30,204/kg for a washed 98-point Gesha.

This espresso – these days bought at Dubai’s Roasters Area of expertise Espresso Space for AED2,500 (US$680) in step with cup – is the world’s most exclusive and expensive, according to the Guinness World Records.

Consumers in international locations such because the UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Taiwan continuously utilise ultra-exclusive festival and public sale coffees to distinguish their manufacturers. Premiumisation drives this development in those hyper-competitive markets, the place an ingrained tradition of exclusivity prevails for sure meals and beverage merchandise. 

Espresso this is infrequent and dear is nearest perceived as reliable, which activates a mini selection of community to pay extremely top costs. However who precisely is purchasing those coffees – and the way are they ingesting them?

Kirk Pearson from Project Zero Coffee and Konstantin Harbuz from Roasters Specialty Coffee House percentage their insights.

You may additionally like our article on why coffee quality is no longer a differentiator for roasters.

Highest of Panama continues to split data

Public sale-winning espresso loads promote for upper costs each unmarried past. Former checklist top costs – like US $21/lb in 2004 for a Panama Gesha – now faded compared to what some consumers are prepared to pay for remarkable espresso.

On the 2025 BoP auction, Hacienda Los angeles Esmeralda won US$30,204/kg for its washed Gesha – surpassing the former global checklist of US$13,518/kg prepared at a personal public sale in 2024. 

The farm additionally earned US$23,608/kg for its herbal Gesha, breaking the checklist two times and reflecting the ultra-premium costs those unique loads command. Moreover, Esmeralda gained the Varietal section, marking the first-ever triple win at BoP and culminating in a espresso public sale for the ages.

The espresso that positioned first in each the washed and herbal sections, Nido, came from a plot that took 13 years to develop. It’s exactly those ranges of exclusivity, status, and shortage that power costs to astronomical ranges.

“There were a variety of factors that pushed this coffee to this height,” says Kirk, the founding father of Project Zero Coffee and the host of The Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson. “First of all, it scored 98 points in what is recognised as a credible assessment in the Best of Panama International judging. Second, there is no guarantee that a coffee will ever score this highly again.

“Third, Esmerelda is the most recognised brand in terms of a coffee producer in the world. They’re the Dallas Cowboys of coffee farming, and because they achieved this grade of coffee, it reached this price.”

A complete of 549 bids had been positioned at the 20kg washed Nido batch. Julith Coffee, a brand that was only a week old at the time of the auction, placed the highest offer.

Roasters Area of expertise Espresso Space, which operates 12 luxurious all-day eating cafés throughout Dubai, now serves Nido. Brewed the usage of a Hario V60 and offered in a bespoke Edo Kiriko crystal glass, this espresso is a strategic differentiator within the highly competitive and exclusive UAE market, where luxury products thrive, driven by demand from affluent customers.

This espresso’s restricted availability way it may possibly’t be served like all alternative.

“Today, our Panama Esmeralda experience is available via pre-booking only,” says Konstantin, the founding father of Roasters Area of expertise Espresso Space. “We have already received many requests from celebrities, bloggers, and coffee enthusiasts.”

Why Dubai is house to the arena’s most costly espresso

A espresso with this kind of top ticket will inevitably draw in prestigious clientele – nevertheless it additionally is helping power pastime on a far greater scale.

Based by means of Turkish Barista and Espresso Blazing Champion Serkan Sagsoz, Julith Espresso, an omakase-style idea, made headlines upcoming buying the BoP-winning espresso. Just a while upcoming its settingup, community world wide related the logo with the arena’s most costly espresso – and sought after to understand why.

“We have matured as an industry to the point where we now have a ‘luxury’ or ‘reserve’ category,” Kirk explains. “What is clear, given the prices of not only this coffee, but also some of the others at auction, is that there is an emerging market for luxury coffee.”

Nido’s house in Dubai is sensible. Like alternative prestigious markets, corresponding to China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Japan, shoppers correlate exclusivity with worth. Worth is a mirrored image of this, and they’re prepared to pay upper costs for what they imagine extra reliable. This phenomenon is referred to as premiumsation: the method of leveraging exclusivity, shortage, and superb property to power up logo enchantment and costs.

The full economic growth and emerging expendable source of revenue in those areas favour this intake mentality.

“Clearly, ultra-wealthy people, which is an ever-increasing cohort in today’s world, are buying these coffees,” says Kirk. “Let’s not forget that Dubai is a tax haven for many of the world’s richest people, so there are wealthy people there with money to spend, and this is probably just an activity for them on any given day. They want to say they tried the most expensive coffee in the world.

“I imagine there is also a large number of corporations that are wining and dining their clients, and buying them coffees like this.”

In Taiwan, another market that values luxury, Simple Kaffa – founded by World Barista Champion Berg Wu – recently sold an Elida Estate Gesha for US$635 per cup. Berg informed Meals and Wine that the espresso store bought two to 4 cups of the espresso in step with while when it was once first introduced in October 2024. Via March, orders had dropped to at least one cup in step with while, nonetheless indicating a gentle stage of call for.

The luck of auction-winning coffees in those markets underscores that almost all of customers who acquire them are indisputably rich. 

“I don’t think a barista would spend a week’s or more salary on one coffee, and I would never encourage them to do so,” Kirk says. “You can still drink coffee close to this quality for under US$30 a cup.”

On the other hand, there could also be a psychological aspect behind luxury purchasing – even if it’s unaffordable. Community purchase pricey merchandise to put across their social condition and categorical their private id, pushed by means of a need for emotional delight and the word of upper property.

Australian and US roaster Proud Mary sold cups of Gesha for US$150 in 2023, noting that three people would sometimes share one cup to split the cost, creating a luxurious enjoy extra inexpensive.

When it comes to Nido, then again, paying over US$230 to drink more or less 100ml of espresso way the advantages would possibly not justify the prices. Extra importantly, even this cheaper price remainder out of the budgets of maximum consumers; those coffees will all the time be inherently inaccessible.

Be expecting to peer unused checklist costs for espresso

Paying just about US$700 for a cup of clear out espresso might appear unfathomable to maximum community, nevertheless it highlights converting perceptions of property and price. 

“A cup of coffee for US$680 won’t be popular in some countries; it’s very rare, but we think it should be more popular,” Konstatin says. Alternative top class merchandise, corresponding to whiskey, wine, and sure sorts of tea, that have traditionally been valued extra extremely than espresso, promote for considerably extra at auctions.

“I only see demand increasing in the future as wealth concentrates to a smaller percentage of the population and scarcity increases because of climate change,” Kirk says. “The demand for coffee is rising globally because interest is at an all-time high. Prices for all coffee will likely only go up, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it rise higher than US$30,000/kg.”

However as a result of they distinguish the “best of the best”, worth discovery mechanisms at auctions continuously a long way exceed the ones via extra conventional business platforms. In decrease, public sale costs hardly ever replicate the realities of the wider marketplace, the place thousands and thousands of smallholder farmers effort to become profitable salary and are trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Moreover, the inherent exclusivity of those coffees way the vast majority of manufacturers won’t ever be capable to develop them – another way, they might lose their sense of status and shortage. Additionally, the marketplace for those coffees will all the time stay mini and hyper-competitive, which means the chance of suffering to recoup funding is top.

However unused, albeit nonetheless in large part inaccessible, alternatives might emerge going forward.

“The BoP scoring system allows Washed and Natural Gesha to thrive, while not allowing experimental coffees to score as high,” says Kirk. “I think we will see mind-bending prices for coffees from producers like Lost Origin in Panama, Mikava in Colombia, and Daterra in Brazil. These are experimental producers that I think will shatter records for experimental coffees.

“I expect Takesi in Bolivia to break records if they ever try. They grow the most scarce, luxury coffee in the world that only sells to a handful of international roasters, and they’re every bit as good as Esmerelda,” he provides. “If I had millions to drop on coffee, that would be the first farm I would go to.”

Areas such because the Heart East and East Asia will proceed to be the objective markets for record-breaking coffees – the place just a handful of consumers will be capable to struggle those coffees.

Given their historical past of premiumisation with alternative meals and beverage merchandise, there’s refuse telling how top the associated fee for a cup of espresso may just exit.

Loved this? Next learn our article on why roasting deserves more attention at coffee auctions.

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