World Cup Tasters Championship set for Bogotá – BeanScene

The World Cup Tasters Championship will join the World Brewers Cup in Bogotá, Colombia, from 30 September to 2 October 2027, bringing two major international coffee competitions to one of the world’s most recognised coffee-producing countries.

The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has announced that the 2027 World Cup Tasters Championship (WCTC) will take place at World of Coffee Bogotá, alongside the previously announced 2027 World Brewers Cup.

Presented in partnership with the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, FNC), World of Coffee Bogotá will bring the global specialty coffee community together to celebrate coffee production, sensory skill and brewing craft.

The addition of the championship builds on the growing partnership between the SCA and FNC, which have collaborated across a number of initiatives.

SCA CEO Yannis Apostolopoulos says hosting two World of Coffee Championships in Colombia provides an opportunity to celebrate the country’s influence on the international coffee sector.

“Colombia’s influence on coffee reaches far beyond its borders. Bringing two World Coffee Championships to Bogotá gives us an opportunity to celebrate that contribution alongside competitors and coffee professionals from around the world,” he says.

“Coffee consumption in producing countries is one of the most exciting developments in our industry right now. When the people who grow coffee also become its most engaged consumers, it shifts the conversation around quality, equity, and value.”

Yannis says the championships will help build momentum around coffee consumption in producing countries while celebrating the people and expertise behind exceptional coffee.

“Events like this are part of how that momentum grows. Bringing both the World Cup Tasters Championship and World Brewers Cup to Bogotá, together with the FNC, creates an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the skills, knowledge, and people behind exceptional coffee, while connecting our industry with one of the most important producing countries in the world,” Yannis says.

For Germán Bahamón, CEO of Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, hosting the championship also provides an opportunity to highlight the people and knowledge behind Colombia’s reputation as a coffee-producing nation.

“Colombia has built its reputation in the world through the quality of its coffee and the work of its coffee growers,” he says.

“Hosting the World Cup Tasters Championship in Bogotá is an opportunity to bring the global coffee community closer to our origins and to show that behind every cup of Colombian coffee there is knowledge, innovation, transformation, and, above all, people.”

With two World Coffee Championships taking place at World of Coffee Bogotá, sensory evaluation and coffee preparation will be central to the trade show’s programme.

The World Cup Tasters Championship tests competitors’ sensory skills, challenging them to identify differences between coffees through a series of tasting rounds, with speed and accuracy determining their performance. The World Brewers Cup celebrates the craft of manual filter coffee brewing with competitors demonstrating their technical skills and knowledge through the preparation and presentation of brewed coffee.

Competition Body champions from around the world will travel to Bogotá to represent their countries on the World Coffee Championships stage.

World Coffee Bogotá 2027 will welcome exhibitors, sponsor, competitors, and attendees from across the specialty coffee supply chain.

Further details about the World Cup Tasters Championship, World Brewers Cup and opportunities to participate in World of Coffee Bogotá will be announced in the coming months.

Karl Lee represented Australia at the 2026 World Cup Tasters Championship in Bangkok, where he finished 34th in the preliminary round, correctly assessing seven out of eight triangulations in 5:32. New Zealand’s August Hislop finished 22nd with seven correct triangulations in 3:25.

Simon Gautherin came up just short of becoming the World Brewers Cup Champion in Brussels back in June 2026, finishing a close second to Malaysia’s Nas Jaafar. Simon finished the final with a score of 461, just eight points behind Nas.