Estimated studying time: 9 minutes
Key takeaways
- James Beard nominations sign that specialty espresso is incomes wider recognition from outdoors its personal trade.
- However a long time of low-cost commodity espresso skilled shoppers 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 impression.
Specialty espresso has at all times bought itself on excellence. The most effective roasters and cafés supply high-quality beans, roast them with care, brew with precision, and serve clients with distinctive hospitality.
For years, these requirements have been outlined by the trade. More and more, nonetheless, shoppers are those pushing to boost the bar: almost half of American adults now drink specialty espresso every single day, in accordance 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 trade itself. Earlier this yr, 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 through which the perfect espresso retailers sit alongside Michelin-starred eating places. But it surely additionally raises an necessary query for an trade constructed on a traditionally undervalued product: if specialty espresso desires wider recognition, how does it actually earn it?
For cafés, the reply will rely on sustained funding in hospitality, a willingness to assist clients higher perceive the coffees they drink, and a dedication to making sure producers share within the recognition.
You may additionally like our article on whether or not desk service may be the differentiator that espresso retailers want.
Value perceptions in espresso limit its worth
With specialty espresso consumption rising in key markets, shoppers are demonstrably prepared to pay extra for higher-quality, better-sourced espresso. On the floor, this means the product is lastly being valued.
Nevertheless, a long time of romanticised storytelling obscure that the market has at all times underpriced espresso. It entered mass consumption as an inexpensive staple, coaching shoppers to see it as an interchangeable commodity, nearer to flour or sugar than to wine.
Client psychology reinforces the issue. Folks decide 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.
Each 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 International 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. Folks 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’ll be able to 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 trade’s job isn’t solely to teach folks; it’s to create extra events the place folks really pause lengthy sufficient to note what they’re consuming and the place it got here from.”
Recognition is beginning to come from outdoors the trade
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 barista championships and trade awards; exterior validation from meals and hospitality establishments is a unique, and arguably extra precious, type of recognition.
“Espresso will get extra recognition now, however there’s nonetheless lots of room to develop,” says Norberto (Norb) Peña, co-founder and head roaster at subject research espresso, a reservation-only espresso store in Brooklyn, New York. “Individuals are beginning to recognise good espresso and perceive that there’s an enormous distinction between coffees, however lots of the work behind it’s nonetheless invisible to people who find themselves not within the trade.
“Specialty espresso has achieved an excellent job speaking about high quality, however we may do a greater job serving to folks perceive the complete 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 shoppers join value 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”: shoppers purchase much less however spend extra as costs rise, and low sits inside the pattern. As shoppers consolidate their spending into fewer, higher purchases, espresso retailers that justify a premium can seize it
“Individuals are extra prepared to spend extra after they perceive why a espresso prices what it does and when the standard is noticeable,” Norb says. “We’ve served coffees which might be way 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 may be an viewers that sees espresso extra like wine or one other specialty product and needs to expertise one thing completely different.”
Hospitality is what earns recognition
Specialty espresso is incomes extra recognition past its personal trade by hospitality. Establishments just like the James Beard Awards honour the complete 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 stress on cafés to supply one thing well 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 course, coaching baristas to greet each buyer on arrival.
The shift displays a more durable reality: serving espresso alone could now not be sufficient. Residence brewing gear has improved significantly, and clients more and more need one thing they will’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 house, 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 sluggish 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 really discover the menu and discuss with the individual getting ready their espresso.”
For Andrew, the implication is that high quality has turn into the entry ticket somewhat than the differentiator.
“Expertise is what really earns loyalty: the hospitality, the house, the folks, the sense of being recognized,” he says. “Nice espresso will get somebody to strive you as soon as. The whole lot 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 shoppers by the café expertise is a method specialty retailers can keep away from this, and a few within the trade body it as extra structural.
“On the manufacturing facet, development seems like entry, extra producing communities and cities having the instruments, infrastructure, and house to serve a high quality cup of their very own espresso to their very own clients, as a substitute of their greatest beans solely ever being seen in majority-consuming international locations,” Andrew says.
For many of espresso’s historical past, producing international locations exported their greatest tons, however thriving café scenes in cities like Bogotá, Addis Ababa, and São Paulo recommend that sample is beginning to shift.
Formal recognition for producers can be growing. Competitions such because the International Espresso Awards, launched in 2025, now straight recognise their experience and data. The more durable job is carrying this recognition past the trade, to the broader public now discovering specialty espresso.
Award nominations, rising demand, and shifting spending habits all level to a future through which 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 house round it that folks can really discover what makes these coffees particular.”
Attaining it can require greater than glorious beans: retailers should put money into hospitality, assist clients perceive what they’re consuming, and guarantee producers share within the recognition.
Serious about making extra gross sales? PDG Media specialises in rising gross sales for espresso companies. Examine them out right here.
Specialty espresso FAQs
Why has espresso been traditionally undervalued?
Espresso entered mass consumption as an inexpensive, interchangeable commodity, and shoppers decide its value in opposition to 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 trade, suggesting the broader hospitality world is starting to worth espresso’s craft.
How can espresso retailers justify charging larger costs?
Shoppers pay extra after they perceive why a espresso prices what it does and might style the distinction. McKinsey’s “small indulgence impact” reveals folks consolidating spending into fewer, higher purchases, and cafés that put money into hospitality are properly positioned to seize it.
Picture credit: subject research espresso
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