New 12 months, New Questions
Specialty espresso is evolving quick — quicker than pattern cycles, processing strategies, and high-concept café menus can sustain with. Every year, our tasting stories are our means of pausing the noise and asking: What’s truly taking place within the cup? Not what’s promised, not what’s marketed — what’s there.
Roasted espresso beans. Courtesy of Sergey Kotenev.
All through 2026, we’ll discover areas and roast types, experimental fermentations, the mysterious world of decaf, the taboo of darkish roasts, and the shifting thought of worth in specialty espresso. These stories will not be predictions; they’re fieldwork. We style blind, we examine impressions, and we let the coffees communicate.
Right here’s what we plan to analyze this 12 months.
Pacific Northwest (February–March)
Coava Espresso Roasters in Portland, Oregon.Courtesy of Sean Benesh.
This report examines whether or not the Pacific Northwest — lengthy thought of the religious residence of U.S. specialty espresso — nonetheless has a definable regional identification within the cup. We’ll supply coffees from roasters in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and British Columbia, blind-taste them, and search for widespread threads. Will we nonetheless discover the deep, basic profiles that formed early specialty tradition, or has the area splintered into divergent types marked by experimental processing, lighter roasting, and world sourcing influences? This report asks whether or not “Pacific Northwest espresso” continues to be a unified thought and whether or not the area continues to be main the pack in shaping espresso tradition.
Decaffeinated Coffees (April–Could)
Pour-over espresso. Courtesy of Sean Benesh.
Decaffeinated espresso is now not a compromise for many who can’t have/don’t need caffeine. For a lot of roasters, it has turn into an intentional providing that calls for high quality in each inexperienced choice and processing. This report evaluates the state of premium decaf because it stands in 2026, evaluating Swiss Water, CO₂, ethyl acetate, and different strategies throughout origins, profiles, and roast types. We’ll contemplate cup integrity, transparency round decaffeination, and total efficiency within the cup. The objective is to find out not whether or not decaf may be good, however how typically it truly rises to specialty requirements — and the place the innovation is going on. We’d even style a number of grocery store decafs as factors of comparability.
Darker Roasted Coffees — At or Into Second Crack (June–July)
Darkish-roasted espresso beans. Courtesy of Tyke Jones.
Darkish roasts, as soon as dismissed by many in specialty circles, are quietly returning in additional intentional kinds that intention for richness with out burnt aromas and flavors and construction with out bitterness. This report focuses on coffees taken to the edge of second crack or barely past, evaluating how effectively they preserve sweetness, stability, and varietal character at deeper roast ranges. We’ll examine whether or not darkish roasting can function a stylistic alternative that highlights sure coffees fairly than masking flaws — and determine which roasters are elevating the class. And once more, there could be some grocery store choices on the market that spotlight these distinctions compared.
Worth Coffees Beneath $19/12 oz. (August–September)
Neon espresso signal. Courtesy of Laura Filip.
As the price of residing rises, affordability has turn into a defining query for a lot of espresso drinkers. This report seems to be at coffees priced beneath $19 per 12-ounce bag and asks what “worth” actually means immediately: Is it merely a low value, or is it respectable cup high quality relative to value? The objective isn’t to decrease the bar however to search out roasters demonstrating that glorious espresso doesn’t should be prohibitively costly, whereas nonetheless honoring a provide chain wherein farmers can thrive — as a result of we all know we are able to discover coffees on-line at grocery store chains that don’t take part on this ethos, however that’s not what we’re occupied with. We’ll spotlight what shoppers can moderately anticipate at this value level, the place it’s attainable to offer worth within the context of sustainability.
Co-Fermented Coffees (October–November)
Experimental espresso and citrus co-fermentation in Costa Rica. Courtesy of Kim Westerman.
Co-fermentation — including fruits, botanicals, or different substrates throughout fermentation — is among the most debated improvements in specialty espresso. Supporters see artistic risk and expressive taste; skeptics fear that it obscures terroir and drifts towards flavored-coffee territory. This report sidesteps the talk and asks a less complicated query: How do co-fermented coffees style? We’ll consider as broad a variety as we are able to supply on cup high quality, stability, and sensory readability fairly than novelty alone, and determine the place innovation enhances the cup and the place it overwhelms it. The outcome ought to supply a clearer image of what co-fermentation is changing into, not simply what folks concern or hope it could be.
High 50 Coffees of 2026 (December)
Classic highway signal. Courtesy of Kim Westerman.
This end-of-year report highlights essentially the most distinctive coffees we tasted in 2026, chosen from blind evaluations throughout all classes. Somewhat than merely itemizing excessive scores, we’ll contextualize what made every espresso stand out — rarity, processing innovation, execution, or worth relative to expertise — and discover rising tendencies mirrored within the 12 months’s most compelling cups. The High 50 is each a celebration of excellence and a snapshot of what specialty espresso regarded like at its finest in 2026.
Trying Forward
This 12 months’s calendar displays a specialty espresso panorama in movement: regional identities being examined, pricing pressures redefining expectations, improvements reshaping fermentation, and long-dismissed classes (decaf, darkish roasts, worth blends) asking to be reconsidered on their very own phrases. Our intention isn’t to endorse tendencies, however to separate sign from noise. 2026 will undoubtedly shock us. We look ahead to discovering these surprises within the cup — and sharing what we be taught alongside the best way.
