World of Coffee Brussels 2026 Wrapped

Introduction

We arrived in Brussels wondering how we would survive 3 days on the trade floor with the heat wave, but left with a happy heart after reuniting with our clients and tasting delicious coffees. 

Last week, the IVL Creatives team attended World of Coffee Brussels 2026, one of Europe's largest speciality coffee events, hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association. Between reuniting with coffee friends and tasting way too many delicious cups, there was plenty to enjoy in the heat.

In this blog, we share some of our highlights from World of Coffee Brussels 2026.

Reuniting with coffee friends

The main objective in Brussels was to meet our clients, refresh connections (at a room temperature of 38 °C) with our coffee friends, and discuss exciting new projects and growth opportunities.

We kicked off the show with the Women-Powered Coffee Stories event at Jackie Coffee & Magazines. Over the years, the Bean Voyage team has become friends, and their events are fixtures on our agenda. Hearing heartfelt stories about full-circle moments of female coffee producers, researchers and barista world champions was truly inspiring.

World of Coffee Brussels 2026 was the first speciality coffee show we attended purely as visitors. While we shot content for Vuna in Copenhagen in 2024 and supported Bext360 in Houston last year, this year we could really take in the whole event on our own. This way, we could reunite with Michael from MST Pack, Carolina of Digital Coffee Future, and Sara and Winnie of Vuna.

What we learned & loved

One of our highlights this year was the presentation of Costa Rican coffee farmer Margoth Rivera at Green Coffee Connect, who has been part of Bean Voyage’s Behind the Cup program. She talked about her life as a female coffee producer and showed the documentary “Stronger Than Coffee”. It features her and four other women sharing what it takes to produce coffee in an industry that often makes them invisible. Their stories were deeply touching, and everyone left with tears in their eyes. It has been a while since we witnessed such strong storytelling in this industry. 

At night, we joined the Standart Magazine Release Party at Stella Coffee & Pastry shop. After securing our limited-edition magazine and a cooling soft ice, we mingled among the crowd, enjoying good music, better conversations, and an incredible vibe. Well done Standart team!

People and brands we especially loved in Brussels:

The God Shot‍

We met Mina and Sara of The God Shot at the Stronghold booth and had several good conversations with them during the event. Both are super nice people, and we are looking forward to meeting them again next year. We won’t say no to an invite to Brazil!

Timemore & MHW-3BOMBER ‍

We couldn’t help but buy some goodies and upgrade our own barista equipment. We got an electric grinder from Timemore and two new distribution tools from MHW-3BOMBER, which we are excited to try now.

Spojka Roastery‍

We had a great chat with Lukas of Spojka Roastery in Slovakia about the different flavour profiles and the importance of water quality. We treated ourselves to their award-winning Hummingbird beans and can’t wait to brew a cup.

Gscheid Haferl

Meeting roaster Johannes of German speciality coffee roaster Gscheid Haferl at the Standart Party was a coincidence after we both didn’t get lucky with the Mahlkönig fortune cookie lottery. However, it turned into one of the most engaging conversations of the night about the challenges of selling speciality coffee locally in the Bavarian Forest.

Skinny Dip Coffee

We met Dean and Skinny Dip Coffee through Nico of Mountain Harvest and tried some of his anaerobic, natural and washed brews while chatting about the challenges of focusing on craft while also growing a business.

Loveramics‍

With one of the biggest and prettiest booths at the event, the ceramics and glass manufacturer truly stood out in Brussels. We met the Loveramics team at the party and stopped by the booth the next day, admiring their colourful cups.

The Madness Coffee Shop

We met the Madness founder and head barista queuing for the Standart Mag Release Party. We will definitely stop by his shop in Gràcia next time we are in Barcelona.

Coffee Pirates‍

The Vienna-based, women-owned Coffee Pirates roastery had some of the brightest packages of the whole event and backed up the attention with delicious coffee. We could not help but bring a bag home. 

Coffee & Tea Journal‍

Already before the event, we connected with Chris Meer at Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, an industry publication reporting on the global coffee and tea industries from ‘seed to cup’. With him, we discussed that B2B shouldn’t stand for boring-2-boring and that journals can be fun AND informative.

Barú‍

The Barú booth struck us with its colourful, striped design, immediately grabbing attention. It was interesting to get their insights on what will follow the “Matcha Hype” and where they see the market going.

Building a sustainable coffee brand? Let's grow it together.

After three days at World of Coffee Brussels 2026, we were once more reminded that the coffee industry is full of inspiring people building amazing sustainable brands that deserve to be seen.

From traders and roasters to packaging and machinery manufacturers, we left inspired by the people innovating the industry and the coffee we love.

If you're a sustainable coffee brand that needs help with your branding, website, social media, advertising, and more, we'd love to hear your story.

Contact us or plan a call to grow your coffee brand together.