Strong point espresso roasters of all sizes in the USA, Canada, Europe, and coffee-producing nations can now compete within the World Espresso Awards.
The GCA is a prestigious pageant that addresses an opening within the espresso trade, recognising the arena’s absolute best roasteries and the manufacturers who develop their coffees. Not like alternative espresso championships, the GCA rewards the entire logo instead than a person roaster, permitting firms to make stronger their logo identification.
Strong point espresso roasters can post baggage in their manage coffees throughout outlined sections for aimless judging by means of a panel of professionals. Regional winners will later journey to the worldwide finals, which can be held at Producer & Roaster Forum El Salvador in March 2026, the place the arena champion can be introduced.
Packages at the moment are detectable. Learn on to be told extra in regards to the GCA, competitor necessities, and the way you’ll be able to follow to post your coffees.
Be told extra about GCA here.
What are the World Espresso Awards?
From little independents to regional and nationwide manufacturers, the World Espresso Awards invitations roasters in the USA, Canada, Europe, and coffee-producing nations to post baggage in their maximum outstanding coffees throughout a field of sections.
“This is a truly global coffee competition,” says Henry Wilson, the founding father of GCA. “We’re looking for roasters that take exceptional pride in the quality of their coffee offerings to go head-to-head with the best of the best.”
For the primary spherical, there can be 3 regional competitions:
- US & Canada: 29 & 30 September 2025 in Houston, Texas, hosted at Copan Business
- Starting place division (any roaster primarily based in a coffee-producing nation): 1 October 2025 in Houston, Texas, hosted at Copan Business
- Europe: 28 & 29 October 2025 in Bordeaux, France, hosted at Belco
A panel of certified professionals will pass judgement on all coffees aimless. The panel will come with espresso pros with revel in within the Cup of Excellence and Easiest of Panama competitions. The judges will significance a scoring device this is purpose and clear, designed to serve actionable comments for each entrant.
Global skilled judges will style the coffees and make a choice winners throughout every patch for each division, awarding Gold, Silver, and Bronze honours.
All Gold regional winners will later journey to compete on the world finals, which can be held at PRF El Salvador in March 2026, the place manufacturers who’ve grown their coffees will connect them. The whole champion can be topped throughout the GCA awards rite at the night time of the primary time of PRF El Salvador, incomes the identify of global’s absolute best roaster. There can also be a VIP dinner at the similar night time.
Awarding excellence in forte espresso
“The Global Coffee Awards is the opportunity to increase demand for high-quality coffee and enhance transparency between roaster and producer, where the end consumer ultimately benefits,” says William Dunaway, a dealer at Copan Trade, a inexperienced espresso importer in the USA and a GCA sponsor.
“What excites me the most is being able to connect with people who go the extra mile to deliver great coffee, a compelling story, and transparency,” he provides.
Via its regional pageant layout, the GCA is designed to seek out no longer simplest the most efficient roasters in the USA & Canada, Europe, and coffee-producing nations, but additionally to park the winners to compete in opposition to every alternative – culminating in an international champion.
“This unique format levels the competition playing field, especially with the Origin category,” Henry says. “Roasters in producing countries have an opportunity to go head-to-head with their peers in the US, Canada, and Europe, and win the title of world’s best.”
For week editions, the GCA will increase to incorporate GCC nations and alternative continents, broadening the achieve of the contest.
Why participate within the GCA?
Via filing baggage in their espresso, roasters will connect an international community of cutting edge, forward-thinking trade friends which can be helping elevate quality standards, offering international visibility and popularity for his or her logo.
The Gold winners are formally recognised as the most efficient of their division and patch, and can have the ability to compete to be the worldwide champion. This complements logo credibility and validates sweaty talents and experience.
Gold Division Winners will obtain trophies, and all alternative winners will obtain professional certificate. All profitable roasters can also be incorporated in an the world over allotted virtual catalogue, providing world logo publicity.
Each roaster receives judging comments designed to support enhance roast profiles and week GCA submissions. Skilled judges will ship curated, extremely knowledgeable comments that roasters can follow to their industry operations, together with roast profile construction.
Taking part roasters may even obtain virtual and bodily Gold, Silver, and Bronze World Espresso Awards seals. Those are unique marks of excellence that they may be able to show on their packaging, advertising fabrics, internet sites, social media channels, and menus. This provides credibility and visibility, demonstrating to consumers and wholesale purchasers that GCA competition are eminent world manufacturers.
The GCA workforce will reverse-engineer the profitable coffees to determine the manufacturers answerable for rising them. Which means that when a roaster handovers a bag of espresso, they robotically input the manufacturer who grew the espresso into the contest.
The workforce will later ship complimentary invites to the profitable manufacturers to wait the worldwide finals and awards rite. This recognises manufacturers along roasters and creates actual alternatives for face-to-face connection and dating construction.
Successful manufacturers may even obtain a GCA seal and certificates of excellence, acknowledging their an important position within the trade.
How will the GCA paintings?
Roasters can post baggage in their espresso into 4 major sections and several other subcategories:
- Filter out (roasted in particular for handbook or automatic spill over brewing)
- Herbal
- Washed
- Honey
- Experimental processing form
- Mix
- Unmarried starting place
- Robusta
- Decaf
- Coffee (roasted in particular for coffee to be served with out milk)
- Mix
- Unmarried starting place
- Decaf
- Flat White – Dairy (roasted in particular for coffee to be served with dairy as a flat white)
- Flat White – Supplementary (roasted in particular for coffee to be served with a plant milk as a flat white)
“All categories and subcategories have been carefully curated in line with feedback from some of the world’s best roasters, reflecting core offerings as well as trending coffees,” Henry says. “We wanted to create a competition that encapsulates all the coffees available on the market, from mainstream to niche, so that all roasters feel represented and can take part.”
The coffees can be despatched to scrupulously decided on forte inexperienced importer companions within the respective areas, together with Copan Trade for the USA, Canada, and generating nations, and Belco for Europe.
The GCA’s judging device was once created in partnership with qualified Q graders and CoE cuppers. Sooner than the primary analysis, all entries go through a cupping spherical, which follows the SCA 100-point protocol. The manage 20% of coffees, or as much as 100 according to subcategory, will journey to the overall judging degree.
For the Filter out and Coffee sections, this comprises rankings between 5.00 and 10.00 for 9 standards:
- Aroma
- Flavour
- Aftertaste
- Acidity
- Frame
- Stability
- Defects
- Sweetness
- General
For each Flat White sections, this comprises rankings between 5.00 and 10.00 for 5 standards:
- Sweetness
- Stability
- Espresso presence
- Mouthfeel
- General
Judging on the GCA
The panel comprises a number of judges with distinct obligations:
- One govern pass judgement on: Oversees calibration, guarantees all judges observe protocols and requirements, and leads the analysis procedure
- 4 qualified Q-grader sensory judges: Chargeable for scoring and sensory analysis
- 8 shade judges: Chargeable for making ready the samples in keeping with formal recipes and protocols, and supporting decision-making in tie-breaking statuses
The overall choice of judges according to pageant relies on the choice of submissions, and it’ll be disclosed nearer to the development life.
“My decision to support and take part in the GCA is based on the passion I have for coffee evaluation, especially roasted coffee,” says Jayson Galvis, a former Espresso Constituent Institute trainer and COE pass judgement on, in addition to the Manage Pass judgement on for the Starting place and US & Canada competitions on the GCA. “My first revel in, each non-public {and professional}, was once fascinated by assessing roasted espresso as a completed product.
“I also deeply value the purpose of this event, which seeks to recognise coffee brands and producers who are gaining relevance in the market, both in how they sell coffee and elevate quality standards.”
All judges start with a compulsory calibration consultation and proceed calibrating all over the contest to guard consistency and accuracy.
Taking part in shade judging on the GCA do business in espresso pros the chance to be told firsthand about cupping and low tasting protocols and have interaction with one of the most maximum skilled cuppers within the trade. To be regarded as for this judging place, fill out this form.
The World Finals
All regional Gold winners will journey to the worldwide finals, which can be held at PRF El Salvador in March 2026, the place they’re going to compete for world popularity.
“I have a deep connection with this kind of initiative, one that seeks to highlight and give relevance to the craft of roasting and the commercial efforts of many companies focused on high-quality coffee and niche markets,” Jayson says. “Many of those roasteries are situated in little neighbourhoods, in negligible city disciplines, and even in rural areas of manufacturing nations, the place espresso stores take a seat proper after to the farms.
“The chance to evaluate these types of coffees is a big challenge, but the goal is clear: to support the community, especially roasters and producers who focus on high-quality coffee.”
As soon as profitable coffees are showed, the GCA workforce will ship a personalized invitation to the manufacturers, cooperatives, or associations that grew them to wait the awards rite. This permits profitable manufacturers to talk over with farms, meet roasters and inexperienced espresso consumers, and be told from like-minded farmers.
Who can follow?
All GCA individuals will have to be commercially registered roasters and legally registered firms.
The contest will praise roasters of all sizes, from small-batch micro roasters to increasing separate, regional, and nationwide manufacturers:
- Micro roasters – Smaller roasters, steadily with a unmarried location, that concentrate on high quality rather a lot and direct business relationships with manufacturers
- Independents – Established roasters with a couple of places and an increasing presence in cafés and wholesale markets
- Regional – Better forte espresso roasters with extensive distribution throughout a couple of channels, together with cafés, wholesale, and retail
- Nationwide & world – Massive-scale espresso firms with vertically built-in fashions and expansive buyer bottom throughout nationwide and world markets
Participation permits roasters of any dimension to fix and associate themselves with chief, influential world manufacturers. This opens up alternatives to develop networks, increase into untouched markets, and leverage the experience of well-established firms.
The GCA workforce may even host the What are the Global Coffee Awards? Everything You Need to Know webinar on 30 July at 8:00 AM PST/11:00 AM EST/4:00 PM GMT to give an explanation for extra about how the contest works and the way roasters can follow. There can also be a Spanish webinar.
How can I follow?
To compete within the GCA, roasters will have to first make a selection their access bundle. Candidates will have to make a choice the sections and subcategories during which they need to compete, in addition to the choice of coffees they wish to post. Roasters will have to post no less than one bag of espresso.
To be eligible for the identify of general regional champion, a roastery will have to compete in no less than 3 other sections inside their respective patch. Roasters can compete in all sections and subcategories, and will post as much as 5 baggage of espresso according to subcategory.
As issues for regional winners are allotted in keeping with the choice of division issues awarded, the extra sections you take part in, the upper your possibilities of profitable.
All coffees submitted for the World Espresso Awards will have to be won by means of:
- US & Canada and Starting place sections: 26 September 2025
- Europe: 26 October 2025
To book their spot within the pageant, roasters will have to pay access charges in journey. There can be a normal access rate according to corporate submission, however reductions can be to be had for early-bird registration.
As soon as cost is showed, roasters can fill out their access methods and post their coffees. It is suggested that roasters entire their access methods and send samples effectively in journey of the submission time limit to safeguard suggested arrival.
Access kits
Access kits for the respective regional competitions are under:
Sooner than starting your submission, it’s endorsed to obtain your respective access equipment to be told extra in regards to the sections, judging procedure, and transport closing dates.
To book your spot, talk over with the GCA website.
The World Espresso Awards will recognise the arena’s maximum outstanding forte espresso roasters and the manufacturers at the back of them.
The contest will push the limits of excellence and status within the espresso trade, giving roasters a significance alternative to raise their branding and reach world popularity.
Touch info@globalcoffeeawards.com and the GCA mission supervisor, Emi Rueda, by means of WhatsApp here for more info.
Follow to compete within the GCA here.
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