Genuine Observations from World of Coffee San Diego

Every April, the coffee industry descends on a new city, taking over convention halls and caffeinating the local population in the process. This year marked a major milestone: the first U.S. edition of World of Coffee (formerly SCA Expo) was has held in San Diego. From April 10–12, the Genuine Origin team joined the global coffee community at World of Coffee to explore, connect, learn, and celebrate everything that makes this industry tick.

This was only my third World of Coffee, and each year it gets a little easier to navigate the chaos – and pace myself. My first rule of any coffee convention: DON’T DRINK THE HOTEL COFFEE. WAIT FOR THE SHOW. The second: always have a banana handy (Caffeine can deplete your potassium levels. And, trust me, it helps.). The third – and maybe most important – rule is to explore the farthest corners of the convention center. Go end to end with the show. It may feel like no man’s land, but those booths at the edge of the show floor often display hidden gems and the most interesting people.

The scene from the World Latte Art Championship at World of Coffee

The Birthplace of California Hosts World of Coffee

Coming off an exceptionally harsh winter, I was excited to trade Chicago in for a week in San Diego. The weather was perfect. The beaches were perfect – and everywhere. The West Coast moves at a different rhythm – it’s slower, more relaxed. Coffee in paradise. What more could a coffee industry professional ask for?

Over the past five years, World of Coffee (EXPO) has rotated through cities with wildly different personalities: New Orleans, Boston, Portland, Chicago, Houston. This year, the show finally made it back to the West Coast in San Diego. I had not been to San Diego in 15 years, so I arrived thinking: sunshine, beaches, good tacos. That assumption barely scratched the surface. San Diego is a vibrant cultural hub with a deep food scene, a lively nightlife, and an intense love of Padres baseball. The city is shaped by its proximity to the Mexican border, as well as a strong military presence driven by the nearby naval base and defense contractors.

“Sun City” is a true melting pot – and it delivers in food, craft beer, history, culture, and, yes, coffee.

La San Marco showcases the transluscent La Leva Luxury

Industry Interests at World of Coffee 2026

If there’s one constant in coffee, it’s that trends come and go.

A few years back, brewing agitation was all the rage. Now? The opposite. At World of Coffee, I saw an influx of tools designed to eliminate agitation altogether. The Ceado Hoop brewer was surprisingly popular, as well as the Melodrip pour-over tool. Both of which eliminate excess agitation from the force of the pour from the kettle. This is supposed to prevent “micro-fines” (very small particles) from the grinder migrating towards the bottom of a paper filter and choking the flow of water in the brewing process.

This philosophy is showing up in grinders, too. Fast grinding and fine-heavy profiles used to be considered advantageous. Now, manufacturers are targeting low-RPM grinders that reduce heat buildup and produce a more consistent grind with fewer fines. I had the chance to try (geek out) the Weber EG-1 at Sey Coffee’s pop up event. At $4,000, it’s a big ticket item, but it made me a believer!

Another trend I noticed had changed at this year’s World of Coffee was that larger roaster manufacturers were putting less emphasis on electric roasters. In 2023, Probat launched their 12-kilo P12E electric model and Mill City launched its 2 kilo electric. Diedrich followed suit in 2024. This all seemed to be a wave in the direction of more electric roasting equipment, but this year’s trade show has indicated that the electricity around electrics may have died down.

Sunday Coffee Project kicks off the show with our Colombia Finca Betulia

Is Flavored Coffee Back?

There was a time when peak specialty coffee meant minimal intervention – let the origin, terroir and variety speak for themselves. Now we’re co-fermenting coffee with fruit and feeding yeast carefully curated sugar blends. People can’t get enough, and producers and roasters are clearly excited to push the envelope. It’s a sign of changing definitions of what counts as “specialty coffee.”

Wandering the aisles of World of Coffee San Diego I found myself sampling more rare, exotic, and exciting coffees than anyone probably should in a single weekend. But Co-Ferments, Anaerobics, and expressive Naturals were out in force. So much so that finding a straightforward washed coffee became almost a challenge.

The industry seems obsessed with pushing flavor boundaries – making coffees taste like heightened versions of themselves, or sometimes like something else entirely. That sparked more than a few hallway debates: is manipulating flavor through processing any different than adding flavor at the roastery ten years ago? The jury’s still out.

Celebrity Coffee is Here to Stay

World of Coffee 2026 delivered a few unexpected moments, courtesy of celebrity cameos. Six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler made a brief appearance on Saturday, pouring lattes at the Fellow booth and promoting his specialty coffee company, Big Face. The brand is roasted in partnership with Onyx Coffee Lab, with café openings planned for Miami and San Diego in the coming years.

Another surprise was tucked away in the far corner of the convention center: WWE stars Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch were at the Dayglow booth for the launch of their coffee brand, Amo (Dayglow is their roaster). It was my first – maybe the first ever? – tag-team latte art throwdown, complete with wrestling ropes to enter the squared circle.

Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch flexing on the World of Coffee crowd at the Amo launch

What We Loved at World of Coffee San Diego

Between near-constant coffee tasting and nonstop movement, it’s hard to process everything in real time. Thankfully, taking notes – and a lot of photos – helped. Here’s what stood out.

Fun Games & Gimmicks

• Brewista built their booth entirely out of milk crates and boasted a claw machine that quickly became one of the most popular stops on the floor. There were also old-fashioned toy dispensers that took tokens you earned by following them on Instagram.
• Mahlkonig hosted a money booth! Contestants tried to catch Mahlkonig cash, which could be redeemed for swag, of course.
• Oatly went all in with their “House of Oatly,” a 20-foot tall booth that pumped out mystery drinks on a conveyor belt. There was everything from their vanilla cold foam cold brew to mango matcha. They also had soda fountain style dispensers for chocolate milk.
• Nearly everyone seemed to have a DJ this year  – from MHW-3Bomber to Tenzo Matcha.
• Metric Coffee sent World of Coffee attendees on a scavenger hunt that had a bingo game built in. Participants could enter into a raffle for prizes if chosen.

Roasters Village

• Local favorites, Blank Space Coffee, were serving delicious micro-lots from a very stylish, notebook themed booth.
• Orange Handle Coffee were exclusively serving decaf coffee — a very welcome sight in a highly caffeinated environment.
• Night Swim Coffee from Charlotte stole the show with an EA Decaf cold brew infused with cherries and mandarin orange. Tropical, balanced, and definitely something I will try to replicate at home.
• Ilse Coffee – always one of my favorites – served up delicious washed geshas, as well as other hard-to-find selections.

Ilse always wows with presentation at Roaster’s Village

Sey Coffee Hosts a Pop-Up Lab

Genuine Origin headquarters is located in Irvington, NY, about 20 miles north of NYC. Whenever us remote folk visit HQ, it means we get to spend some time in NYC. I always make a point of tasting all that NYC’s coffee has to offer. One of my go-to shops is Sey Coffee in Brooklyn. It’s widely regarded as one of the best in the US, if not the world. When they announced a pop-up event in San Diego for World of Coffee, I knew I had to attend.

Sey partnered with Hyunah Coffee Club, a brooklyn based program which allows members access to their space housing the best brewing equipment and coffee that you can get your hands on. This collaboration brought an event that was coffee through and through, but sometimes felt like a chemistry lab. In the center of the room was a fixture holding samples of every coffee Sey had to offer, surrounded outward by every dripper, espresso machine, and grinder under the sun.

I start by brewing on the Hario V60 and a Brewista kettle because I was familiar with them. Then I branched out and used the Decent espresso machine, xBloom Studio, and the new Flower Dripper. The latter three were new to me. The Decent DE1 is basically a fully customizable espresso machine with a built-in iPad that would impress even the most seasoned barista. A brewer can control any part of the process from pre-infusion, pressure profiling, temperature, flow and more, all from a tablet.

The xBloom Studio, boasts quality brewing results from an auto-pourover machine, and it delivered. The xBloom grinds and brews all by itself, featuring a cool mechanical process which moves the filter from under the grinder segment to under the brewing section without human intervention.

Lastly, I fell in love with the Flower Dripper. It was crazy good looking; essentially its a very long version of a pourover cone. It features a deep 27 degree angle, which allows for brewers to make smaller amounts of coffee at time without sacrificing flow rate.

Sey hosts a pop-up lab featuring the best gear on the market

New Products Unveiled

• We said we were going to get to the bottom of it and we did! Soup Latte is a new product that takes a powdered soup base and combines it with the steamed milk of your choice. Their goal: give cafes a beverage option that doesn’t involve sugar or caffeine. We enjoyed the Coconut Curry and Mushroom options.
• Slow Pour supply debuted a new mineral concentrate KONFLUX by Apex Labs. Brewer’s can now enhance the depth of their brewed coffee by adding a few drops of this solution. It was developed for the World Brewer’s Cup and is now available to all. I tried several demonstrations at various brew booths and was impressed by the level of clarity it provided in the cup.
• Even at World of Coffee we couldn’t escape a heavy dose of AI technology. I saw machines that used AI to improve their optical color sorting tech. SOVDA even won best new product for one of their machines.
• An impressive innovation in coffee traceability, Ecotact showed us their new Trace IQ tracking device. This gadget sticks on the inside of a coffee container where it tracks location, temperature, moisture, and lets a logistics agent know if a container has been opened in real time during transit via a light sensor. This could be a game changer for those of us who move large volumes of coffee around the globe.
• La Marzocco’s booth is always a party, and it’s easy enough to find. You just look for the biggest crowd of people and you’ll find roasters pulling shots from a fleet of  La Marzocco machines at the center. This year La Marzocco showed off their new and improved Modbar systems, with all equipment installed under the counter. Both the Modbar Pour-Over 2.0 and the Jay grinder seemed to be the hits of their new product line up. The Pour-over allows for hands off single serve programmable brewing, while the Jay features a new magnetic portafilter holder and grind-by-weight.

Genuine Origin’s own, Jay, tries Soup Latte

What I Saw in Roaster’s Row

One of the goals I had this year was to talk to the roaster manufacturers in an effort to be better educated for the customers at Genuine Origin. I talked with Mill City, Loring, Probat, Coffeecrafters, Stronghold, and Yoshan about what they had to offer consumers in 2026.

Mill City showed off its new M-series. The machines are built entirely in the US, they feature full automation, and have a double-wall drum design for more efficient storage of energy during roast cycles.

Stronghold unveiled working models of their new Stronghold S2. They offered a sneak peek of this new, compact machine last year in Houston, but now they’re ready to launch it in earnest. The new machine is a smaller version of their other roaster models, with a 300g capacity (perfect for a Genuine Origin sampler!), mostly targeted at home roasters and those looking for a sample roaster that offers levels of control and data logging not available on other machines.

Yoshan Coffee Roasters, one of the new favorites in the industry, was showing off its YS-15. These roasters ship from China and look similar to machines from Giesen and Probat. They feature cast iron construction, a proprietary gas burner, and increased customer support in the United States. My opinion: Yoshan roasters are an unbelievable value for the size and quality.

Shoutout to Genuine Origin Brewers

World of Coffee would be nothing without the ability to meet with and see the Genuine Origin customers. We are always glad to engage with our wild community of coffee mavericks, entrepreneurs, and trailblazers. It was great to see everyone, and we want to give a special shoutout to those who brewed at our booth. Thank you to Sunday Coffee Project, Push x Pull, Fogline, Nilaa, Yellow Brick, Elevator Coffee, Lima Coffee, Compa, Percussive, Fluid Roasters, Midnight, Pair Cupworks, and Exo Coffee.

Midnight Coffee Roasters serving up a PNG Natural

See You in NOLA in 2027

After a week of travel and heavy caffeination, I have more than a few great memories from World of Coffee. We’re already looking ahead to 2027 in New Orleans – bigger booth, more roasters, and plenty of chances to brew our finest coffees together.

The Genuine Origin team getting ready to pack up

Steven Edwards

A former roaster and QC guy, now working for a green coffee importer. Located in Chicago and when not doing coffee related activities, he is probably fixing guitars or coaching basketball.

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