Highlights From the 2025 Specialty Coffee Expo
In April, SG had the privilege to attend the 2025 Specialty Coffee Expo (recently rebranded as the World of Coffee) in Houston, Texas.
We dusted off our cowboy boots, grabbed our passports and dove head first into all things coffee. We learned A LOT, hung out with some amazing folks and ate some pretty good BBQ (when in Texas...)
It was our first time attending the SCA event and now we know what to expect at Specialty Coffee Expo 2026.
Exhibition Hall
The Exhibition Hall is organized in many sections including Roaster's Village, the Vendor Hall, Cupping Exchange and the Green Coffee Connect. We spent most of our time in the Exhibition Hall checking out all the cool gear and latest technological innovations in coffee. Spoiler alert: robot baristas are a real thing.
There were also a lot of awesome coffee companies like Cropster, La Marzocco, Loring and our pals at Swiss Water Process. All the heavy hitters were there. Smoking Gun even got to brew our decaf at the Swiss Water demo booth!
We also drank an OBSCENE amount of coffee in Roaster's Village.
Lectures and Workshops
Other than schmoozing and checking out cool stuff, our primary intention for visiting was to take part in all of the wonderful educational opportunities presented at Expo. There were dozens of workshops and over 50 lectures. Yeah, it was a lot! We were basically in "school" for 6 hours a day.
It was more than worth it! We attended workshops about Brand & Marketing, Innovations in Coffee Roasting, Green Coffee Sourcing, and Leadership & Training. These workshops were lead by some of the brightest minds in the coffee space and were intensive 4-hour sessions including group work. We're still downloading and planning how to implement these lessons into our operations.
We also attended almost a dozen lectures. We really wanted to soak it all up!
Quality Time with Coffee Pals
As mentioned, we got to meet a lot of our coffee heroes at the Expo and hang with some of our favourite people, and we met a lot of new pals too! It served asa great reminder that the heart of the coffee industry really lies in human connection. Farmers, importers, roasters, baristas, service providers - sure we're all in this doing "business," but it's the relationships that matter. That's what keeps us going.
We got to hang with our pals from Swiss Water Process, Hasty Coffee Company, Ally Coffee Trading, Eight Ounce Coffee, Cropster, The Colombian Coffee, Ace Coffee Roasters and a bunch of other rad folks!
We also learned a lot of great business and marketing strategies from Pomelo Consulting, Axios Growth Consultants and Black Sheep Collab. If you're in the coffee biz, check them out!
To watch a highlight reel of all the cool stuff we saw, click here.
It was our first time attending the SCA event and now we know what to expect at Specialty Coffee Expo 2026.
The 2025 Specialty Coffee Expo, held from April 25–27 at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, was a landmark event for coffee enthusiasts and professionals alike. With over 17,000 attendees from 89 countries, it marked the final gathering under the "Expo" name before transitioning to the "World of Coffee" brand. The next World of Coffee event will be held in San Diego in April, 2026.