Many specialty espresso retailers, equivalent to Proud Mary, Rosslyn, and ONA, to call just a few, provide uncommon or high-end heaps as a part of their reserve menus. However there’s a steadily rising variety of cafés which can be constructing their branding round completely serving public sale and competitors coffees.

Most just lately, Lohas Café opened in Bogotá, Colombia. The espresso store affords a range from notable native producers, together with Néstor Lasso, Jhoan Vergara, and Jonatan Gasca, whose coffees are sometimes a fixture within the World Espresso Championships.

Understandably, menu costs at “competitors cafés” can attain nicely over US $20 for a cup of espresso, attracting a distinct segment however steadily rising viewers. Though they could not at all times cater to mainstream espresso drinkers, these espresso retailers serve a necessary objective: to convey customers nearer to innovation and excellence.

I spoke to Christophe Servell at Terres de Café and Juan Pablo Campos at Lohas Beans to be taught extra about what it takes to run a profitable competitors café.

You might also like our article on how roasters could make high-end espresso stand out.

How competitions have influenced the espresso business

Many think about occasions just like the World Barista, Brewers Cup, and Espresso in Good Spirits Championships the top of excellence in specialty espresso. 

The developments seen on the competitors levels – whether or not it’s a rediscovered” selection or the newest espresso gadget – have an effect on the broader espresso business. Many roasters, baristas, and prosumers try to duplicate the outcomes of notable profitable routines in skilled and residential settings, pushing competitors developments into the specialty espresso mainstream.

Even past the context of the specialty espresso sector, occasions just like the World Barista Championship have garnered consideration. The Street to Milan docuseries – which follows Onyx Espresso Lab’s Andrea Allen coaching for the 2021 WBC – gained the Greatest Collection Award on the 2023 Oregon Documentary Movie Pageant. The docuseries was additionally chosen for the 2023 New York Unbiased Movie Pageant.

The Street to Milan targets an viewers exterior of specialty espresso, an indication of the competitors’s rising attraction to a wider vary of individuals. Information shops equivalent to Enterprise Insider and USA At this time have additionally spotlighted US Barista Champions Kyle Ramage and Sam Spillman, introducing specialty espresso and occasional competitions to an even bigger viewers.

Espresso big Starbucks additionally hosted its first-ever International Barista Championship in June 2025. Nobuki Shimode, a Starbucks retailer supervisor in Japan, was introduced the winner. 

On the three-day competitors, 12 Starbucks workers from around the globe showcased their expertise in latte artwork, storytelling, and customer support, competing for the possibility to be topped champion. An viewers of 14,000 Starbucks retailer managers and workers watched from the stands in the course of the firm’s Management Expertise occasion on the stylish Las Vegas Sphere venue.

The competitors was a transparent nod to the World Barista Championship, drawing inspiration from its format and guidelines, together with signature drinks and storytelling scoring.

The regular rise of competitors cafés

Given the affect of espresso competitions, it’s inevitable that extra individuals are pushing to duplicate related elevated experiences in a espresso store setting.

Countless roasters and cafés provide a small number of high-end, distinctive, and limited-edition coffees. These heaps are sometimes extremely small in dimension, and generally frozen to protect freshness and flavour as a lot as doable, as seen in Proud Mary and ONA espresso retailers, for example.

Different cafés, equivalent to London’s Rosslyn, provide off-menu coffees by way of a programme that features a few of the rarest heaps from the world’s main roasters. Clients have to scan a QR code to entry this menu, creating a way of exclusivity and status that drives additional curiosity in these coffees.

“Competitors” cafés and roasters, equivalent to Particular Visitors in London, UK, Standout Espresso in Stockholm, Sweden, and the just lately opened Lohas Café in Bogotá, Colombia, additionally exemplify this development. These companies focus completely on competitors and award-winning coffees, bringing customers nearer to the best requirements of high quality and innovation.

“We need to provide Colombian customers and occasional lovers passing by way of Bogotá an opportunity to take pleasure in our competitors coffees,” says Juan Pablo Campos, the founder and common supervisor at Lohas Beans, a B Corp inexperienced specialty espresso exporter in Colombia, which focuses closely on competitors heaps. “It is a distinctive alternative, as these coffees have been beforehand unavailable within the home market.

“Curiosity in competitors coffees is clearly rising. Colombian espresso customers, in addition to educated and educated worldwide patrons, have gotten extra conscious of processing strategies and are opening as much as new profiles,” he provides. “They’re curious and need to expertise extra subtle flavours.”

Why curiosity in competitors and auction-winning coffees is rising

Reviews of record-breaking public sale costs and US $635 cups of espresso spur shopper curiosity in what makes these coffees so distinctive – and what warrants such a excessive price ticket.

“From the start in 2009, we believed that specialty espresso is a mirrored image of various terroirs, which we showcase on our menu,” says Christophe Servell, the founding father of Terres de Café, a specialty espresso roaster in France that gives over 30 of the world’s most unique coffees. 

“On one hand, there’s loads of hype round these coffees. However, an rising variety of individuals are discovering and appreciating the style of remarkable coffees. It’s nonetheless a distinct segment market, however consumption is on the rise,” he provides. “For this reason we serve competitors coffees, however we even have a wide range of 84 to 88-point coffees, sourced immediately from farms.”

At competitions and auctions, we frequently see a phenomenon often called “premiumisation”. That is the follow of utilizing rarity, exclusivity, and superior high quality to drive up model attraction and worth, usually to an astronomic stage. When these heaps are restricted in dimension, costs and sense of worth solely improve.

In sure markets, equivalent to Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, there’s a shared cultural appreciation for high-quality merchandise as a part of the consumption expertise, together with espresso. Patrons are prepared to pay larger costs 12 months after 12 months, frequently looking for the most recent high-end specialty coffees to characteristic on their menus. 

A rising variety of customers need to attempt these coffees, tapping into the will for standing, a way of belonging, and a sense of specialness. The exclusivity and shortage of competitors heaps are methods for espresso drinkers to sign their social standing and create a way of belonging amongst like-minded customers who share a mutual appreciation for the nuanced flavour profiles of “pure” filter espresso and espresso.

The rising curiosity in unique coffees and competitors cafés is extending past markets sometimes related to premiumisation, pushed by the growth of the center class and rising disposable incomes.

“We’re within the early levels of a brand new market section that presents espresso as an alternative choice to spirits and permits customers to socialize over a singular cup of espresso. Understanding these profiles and making a particular setting to take pleasure in them is a helpful proposition,” says Juan. “We consider that is one thing we’ll proceed to see increasing in markets the world over.”

A degree of differentiation

Sure markets will at all times be extra famend for looking for out high-scoring, ultra-expensive coffees at auctions. However as specialty espresso consumption booms in nations and areas like India, Jap Europe, and the United Arab Emirates, we’re more likely to see extra competitors cafés seem throughout the globe, albeit at a sluggish and regular tempo.

Exclusivity and shortage drive model attraction; nevertheless, they will also be limiting components within the sustainable progress of those companies. When sourcing small portions of remarkable high quality espresso, roasters and café operators should be versatile and agile, growing robust, trusting relationships with a spread of producers and exporters who specialize in experimental processing strategies, distinctive varieties, and farming greatest practices.

Product consistency is completely important relating to serving competitors and auction-winning coffees, particularly once they make up the majority or entirety of a menu. 

“Our roasting philosophy is identical for an 85-point espresso or a contest lot, balancing and preserving all of the aromas,” Christophe says. “The first problem is to keep up excellent consistency, particularly as a result of the batch dimension between micro heaps and competitors coffees can differ.

“We have to make customers perceive that espresso shouldn’t be solely espresso, and that it’s higher to drink much less however higher espresso.”

The eye to element additionally wants to increase past espresso. Competitors cafés should provide an distinctive expertise in each sense, from the gear they use to the best way they make prospects really feel once they stroll by way of the door.

“Within the context of Colombia, choosing a competitor-minded barista to steer the espresso expertise bar was difficult,” Juan says. “In our nation, we’re not used to respecting the barista. It’s, after all, a two-sided equation. The barista must have a competitor mindset, and the corporate must deal with the barista with respect.

“You might want to supply and put together the opposite substances required to ship a differentiated beverage and expertise,” he provides. “There are a number of components, as everyone knows, which can be behind a correctly served espresso.”

There’s a restrict to the expansion of competitors cafés, however they serve a necessary objective in specialty espresso: to convey customers nearer to distinctive flavour experiences.

To realize this, operators have to take a specifically curated strategy to inexperienced espresso sourcing, roasting, espresso preparation, customer support, and extra. Meticulousness, care, and precision are non-negotiable if cafés and roasters need to showcase the total potential of their coffees.

Loved this? Then learn our article on why espresso devices have change into so well-liked.

Picture credit: L’imagerie, Lohas Beans

Excellent Each day Grind

Wish to learn extra articles like this? Join our publication!