Estimated studying time: 9 minutes

Key takeaways

• James Beard nominations sign that specialty espresso is incomes wider recognition from outdoors its personal business.
• However a long time of low cost commodity espresso educated customers to underprice it.
• Hospitality, not espresso high quality alone, now differentiates the perfect cafés.
• Producers should share within the recognition for the shift to have true affect.

Specialty espresso has at all times offered itself on excellence. The very best roasters and cafés supply high-quality beans, roast them with care, brew with precision, and serve prospects with distinctive hospitality.

For years, these requirements have been outlined by the business. More and more, nevertheless, customers are those pushing to lift the bar: almost half of American adults now drink specialty espresso daily, in keeping with the Nationwide Espresso Affiliation.

With specialty espresso consumption reaching report highs in mature markets just like the US, there are indicators that recognition is extending past the business itself. Earlier this 12 months, Onyx Espresso Lab was nominated for Most Excellent Bar on the James Beard Awards, an honour historically reserved for eating places and cooks.

The nomination hints at a future wherein the perfect espresso retailers sit alongside Michelin-starred eating places. Nevertheless it additionally raises an vital query for an business constructed on a traditionally undervalued product: if specialty espresso needs wider recognition, how does it actually earn it?

For cafés, the reply will depend upon sustained funding in hospitality, a willingness to assist prospects higher perceive the coffees they drink, and a dedication to making sure producers share within the recognition.

You might also like our article on whether or not desk service may be the differentiator that espresso retailers want.

Worth perceptions in espresso limit its worth

With specialty espresso consumption rising in key markets, customers are demonstrably keen to pay extra for higher-quality, better-sourced espresso. On the floor, this implies the product is lastly being valued.

Nonetheless, a long time of romanticised storytelling obscure that the market has at all times underpriced espresso. It entered mass consumption as an affordable staple, coaching customers to see it as an interchangeable commodity, nearer to flour or sugar than to wine.

Client psychology reinforces the issue. Individuals choose whether or not espresso is “costly” relative to what they paid final week, to not the price of manufacturing. A long time of low cost commodity espresso have set this reference level low.

Every day consumption compounds it additional, making espresso really feel like a routine somewhat than a thought-about buy.

Andrew Kent is the founding father of Stamp Act Espresso in Seattle, Washington, winner of the Gold Filter award on the 2025 World Espresso Awards US & Canada version. He says the comparability with different premium merchandise reveals a structural drawback.

“Wine and craft beer have consumption events constructed round slowing down: a dinner or a tasting. Individuals nonetheless overwhelmingly eat espresso for utility: it’s a behavior, the factor you seize on the best way to work or college,” he says.

“You possibly can have a genuinely distinctive cup and nonetheless drink it on autopilot. That’s a structural problem, not only a storytelling one, compounded by the truth that entry to the supply is more durable to return by than it’s with wine or craft beer,” he provides.

“So, the specialty espresso business’s job isn’t solely to coach individuals; it’s to create extra events the place individuals really pause lengthy sufficient to note what they’re ingesting and the place it got here from.”

Recognition is beginning to come from outdoors the business

Coinciding with rising specialty espresso consumption, Onyx Espresso Lab earned a nomination for Most Excellent Bar on the 2026 James Beard Awards. Jack Benchakul of LA’s Endorffeine additionally grew to become the primary espresso skilled to earn a nomination for Excellent Skilled in Hospitality.

The importance lies in the place recognition comes from. The James Beard Awards have honoured distinctive eating places and cooks for greater than three a long time, and a nomination locations a espresso model in direct competitors with them. Espresso has lengthy celebrated its personal by way of barista championships and business awards; exterior validation from meals and hospitality establishments is a special, and arguably extra invaluable, type of recognition.

“Espresso will get extra recognition now, however there’s nonetheless a whole lot of room to develop,” says Norberto (Norb) Peña, co-founder and head roaster at subject examine espresso, a reservation-only espresso store in Brooklyn, New York. “Persons are beginning to recognise good espresso and perceive that there’s an enormous distinction between coffees, however a whole lot of the work behind it’s nonetheless invisible to people who find themselves not within the business.

“Specialty espresso has performed a very good job speaking about high quality, however we may do a greater job serving to individuals perceive the total chain behind high quality with out making it really feel overly technical or intimidating.”

This invisibility isn’t incidental. Espresso’s worth has traditionally been assessed on the level of consumption, with little reference to the labour and experience behind it. Wine addressed this with appellations, vintages, and a shared vocabulary that lets customers join worth to provenance, whereas specialty espresso is simply starting to construct the equal infrastructure.

Spending habits are shifting in espresso’s favour 

McKinsey describes a “small indulgence impact”: customers purchase much less however spend extra as costs rise, and low sits inside the pattern. As customers consolidate their spending into fewer, higher purchases, espresso retailers that justify a premium can seize it

“Persons are extra keen to spend extra once they perceive why a espresso prices what it does and when the standard is noticeable,” Norb says. “We’ve served coffees which are far more costly than what most individuals are used to paying for a cup of espresso.

“We lately had a Panama pure Gesha from Hacienda La Esmeralda on the menu for US$66 a cup, and folks have been nonetheless curious sufficient to order it,” he provides. “Not everybody goes to spend that a lot on espresso, in fact, however I feel it reveals there’s an viewers that sees espresso extra like wine or one other specialty product and desires to expertise one thing totally different.”

Hospitality is what earns recognition

Specialty espresso is incomes extra recognition past its personal business by way of hospitality. Establishments just like the James Beard Awards honour the total expertise of service and hospitality, and extra espresso retailers at the moment are investing on this.

Espresso costs are excessive and set to rise additional, which places strain on cafés to supply one thing definitely worth the cash. Analysis suggests 78% of millennials want to spend on experiences somewhat than items, and a few specialty manufacturers have responded, changing typical counter service and shouted orders with desk service. Starbucks has moved in the identical route, coaching baristas to greet each buyer on arrival.

The shift displays a more durable fact: serving espresso alone could not be sufficient. Dwelling brewing gear has improved significantly, and prospects more and more need one thing they’ll’t replicate of their kitchens.

“There are such a lot of cafés serving good espresso now that simply making a technically good pour over or espresso isn’t at all times sufficient to make one thing memorable,” Norb says. “The area, service, pacing, menu, glassware, presentation, and the best way somebody talks to you concerning the espresso all have an effect on the way you expertise it.

“We needed to gradual issues down and create extra of a hospitality expertise round espresso as a substitute of treating it like a fast transaction. Company reserve a time, sit down, and have an opportunity to truly discover the menu and discuss with the particular person getting ready their espresso.”

For Andrew, the implication is that high quality has grow to be the entry ticket somewhat than the differentiator.

“Expertise is what really earns loyalty: the hospitality, the area, the individuals, the sense of being identified,” he says. “Nice espresso will get somebody to strive you as soon as. All the things else is what will get them to return again. So, it’s not that espresso issues much less, it’s that it’s stopped being the factor that differentiates you.”

Producers must share recognition

None of this occurs with out producers, whose work provides the espresso served in cafés worldwide. But they continue to be the least seen a part of the chain. Recognition, like income, accumulates on the level of consumption: the café wins the award, the roaster builds the model, and the farmer who grew the espresso not often seems in both story. 

Connecting producers and customers by way of the café expertise is a method specialty retailers can keep away from this, and a few within the business body it as extra structural.

“On the manufacturing aspect, progress seems like entry, extra producing communities and cities having the instruments, infrastructure, and area to serve a high quality cup of their very own espresso to their very own prospects, as a substitute of their greatest beans solely ever being seen in majority-consuming nations,” Andrew says.

For many of espresso’s historical past, producing nations exported their greatest tons, however thriving café scenes in cities like Bogotá, Addis Ababa, and São Paulo counsel that sample is beginning to shift.

Formal recognition for producers can be creating. Competitions such because the World Espresso Awards, launched in 2025, now instantly recognise their experience and information. The more durable activity is carrying this recognition past the business, to the broader public now discovering specialty espresso.

Award nominations, rising demand, and shifting spending habits all level to a future wherein the perfect cafés earn the identical respect as superb eating places. 

“The purpose isn’t to make espresso really feel extra unique or sophisticated,” Norb concludes. “It’s to create sufficient area round it that individuals can really discover what makes these coffees particular.”

Reaching it is going to require greater than wonderful beans: retailers should put money into hospitality, assist prospects perceive what they’re ingesting, and guarantee producers share within the recognition.

Excited about making extra gross sales? PDG Media specialises in rising gross sales for espresso companies. Test them out right here.

Specialty espresso FAQs

Why has espresso been traditionally undervalued?
Espresso entered mass consumption as an affordable, interchangeable commodity, and customers choose its worth towards what they paid final week somewhat than the price of manufacturing. Behavioural economists name this reference pricing, and a long time of artificially low cost espresso set that reference level low.

Why do the James Beard nominations matter for specialty espresso?
The nominations for Onyx Espresso Lab and Endorffeine place espresso companies in direct competitors with eating places and cooks. In contrast to barista championships, this validation comes from outdoors the business, suggesting the broader hospitality world is starting to worth espresso’s craft.

How can espresso retailers justify charging increased costs?
Shoppers pay extra once they perceive why a espresso prices what it does and may style the distinction. McKinsey’s “small indulgence impact” reveals individuals consolidating spending into fewer, higher purchases, and cafés that put money into hospitality are nicely positioned to seize it.

Photograph credit: subject examine espresso

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