World of Coffee San Diego, a strong show for specialty coffee — and specialty tea
Credit: HARIO North America
Touting a new name and taking place in a new city, the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) annual specialty coffee show – now known as World of Coffee – took place in San Diego, California, 10-12 April, at the convention center downtown. The North American show, once known as the Specialty Coffee Expo, has adopted the ‘World of Coffee’ moniker, in-line with the SCA’s other global World of Coffee (WOC) events.
Adhering to the axiom displayed at the entrance, “Where specialty coffee gets down to business,” World of Coffee San Diego delivered a comprehensive program providing ample lectures, skills workshops, and special events, and of course, multiple product launches. SCA CEO, Yannis Apostolopoulos, stated, “World of Coffee San Diego was a true milestone moment. We brought together our largest and most diverse coffee audience yet, with people from every corner of the industry showing up to exchange ideas. The conversations were real, the innovation was exciting, and the energy was undeniable. This is the future of coffee taking shape.”
The new city – and show itself – received rave reviews from both exhibitors and attendees, including specialty tea exhibitors. The number of tea companies, both brands and wholesalers, exhibiting at World of Coffee (North America) continues to grow each year. This year, tea exhibitors included Arteao, Den’s Tea, Firsd Tea North America, Hankook Tea Company, Harney & Sons Tea Company, Numi Organic Tea, Rishi Tea & Botanicals, Royal Teamaker, Smith Teamaker, and Two Leaves and a Bud, to name just a few.
QTrade officially launched its new division, Sungarden Matcha, at WOC San Diego (it had a soft launch at the NCA Convention in March). HARIO North America also debuted its first organic ceremonial matcha, made in Japan and created exclusively for the US market. This is HARIO’s first product offered as matcha itself, expanding the brand beyond coffee and complementing its established lineup of matcha and other tea ware products. (The matcha was blended for HARIO by the Sugimoto Tea Company, a long‑established Japanese tea company.)
The tea companies T&CTJ spoke with all reported having a “strong and productive” show and all planned to register to exhibit at the 2027 World of Coffee in New Orleans.
More specialty tea companies are turning to non-tea focused shows to display their products and procure new business. Tea brands are exhibiting at expos like Natural Products Show West (annually in Anaheim, Calif., in March), and the National Restaurant Show (annually in Chicago in May), and of course, retail focused events. However, more and more specialty tea companies (including wholesalers/co-packers) are exploring coffee shows like World of Coffee and Coffee Fest (four regional shows each year), which have high foot traffic and quality attendees.
We will likely see more specialty tea companies exhibiting at World of Coffee and other coffee shows, particularly as the annual World Tea Expo (WTE), sadly, has dwindled dramatically in terms of exhibitors (and attracting mostly ‘mom and pop’ and start up attendees), and is essentially being incorporated into the Bar & Restaurant Expo rather than having its own pavilion within it as there has been since Questex acquired WTE in 2019, and if the coffee shows continue to be strong, highly productive events for them.
Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal: [email protected]
