Could a fungus prove the key to improving coffee quality? Plus, Brazil’s harvest is in full swing, but farmers are reluctant to sell their coffee. And breaking: Science says a couple of espressos can make you run faster.
‘Here Are the Winners of the 2026 US Barista Championship’ – via Sprudge
The United States Barista Championship took place last weekend in Denver, Colorado. Thirty baristas from all around the country converged on Denver’s Huckleberry Roasters headquarters for several days of spirited coffee competition. It was a stacked lineup: Eight of the competitors had competed in previous finals, and three were former US Coffee Champions.
In the end, as Sprudge reports, Jak Michael Ryan of the Austin, Texas-based Proud Mary Coffee took the top spot. Ryan will go on to represent the U.S. at the World Barista Championship during World of Coffee Panama in October. Jason Yeo of San Francisco’s Saint Frank Coffee came second, while Ziah Bloom of Lamppost Coffee, also based in Austin, placed third.
In Panama City, Ryan will compete against Monogram Coffee’s Jill Hoff, among other contestants. Hoff recently won the Canadian Barista Championship, which took place at Monogram’s roastery in Calgary, Alberta. Congratulations to Ryan and Hoff, to all the finalists, and to everyone who competed!
Read the full story on the US Barista Championship here.
‘Coffee Traders Await Brazilian Beans as Farmers Hold Back’ – via Bloomberg
Brazil’s coffee harvest is in full swing. Analysts predict a record crop, with estimates ranging from 66 million 60kg bags to more than 75 million bags. The scale of Brazil’s coffee sector—the country is the world’s largest coffee producer—means its harvests have an outsized impact on global coffee prices. The coffee futures market has been falling in recent months in anticipation of a bumper crop.
However, as Ana Mano, Ilena Peng and Mumbi Gitau report for Bloomberg, farmers are in no rush to sell their harvests. The commodity price has fallen around 40% from the highs of the previous two years, and farmers who earned good money during that time are willing to wait for it to rise again. Simão Pedro de Lima, CEO of the cooperative Expocacer, said producers are “not feeling pressured” to sell. “The winds are blowing in favor of farmers,” he said.
Usually, Brazilian farmers presell a percentage of future production to pay for the costs of growing and harvesting their coffee. This year, instead of 30–40% of that production being presold, the figures are closer to 15–20%, according to analysts. Farmers in major coffee-producing countries like Vietnam and Indonesia are also holding off from selling, in hopes that the market might rise again.
The market has already reacted. In response to lower supplies, as well as unexpected rain in Brazil at a key moment for the harvest, the commodity price rose nearly 3% over the past week. Despite the record-breaking yield estimates, farmers and agronomists are now concerned that the recent rain could impact both the size and quality of Brazil’s coffee harvest.
Read more on Brazil’s coffee harvest here or via the Daily Herald here.
‘Chinese Study Finds Native Fungus May Lift Conventional Coffee Into Specialty Range’ – via Daily Coffee News
Fermentation is a key step in post-harvest coffee processing, and can have a significant impact on the cup’s flavor, depending on the microorganisms and methods used.
One out-there approach is co-fermentation: The process sees fruits or spices added to fermentation tanks alongside coffee cherries, which impart some of their flavor to the final coffee. Such practices are considered controversial among some coffee purists, although they have gained more widespread acceptance in recent years.
As well as its effect on flavor, researchers are also interested in how fermentation can improve coffee quality. A 2025 study from Brazil found that self-induced anaerobic fermentation was able to bring underripe cherries up to specialty standards. Earlier this year, trials in Colombia showed that CO2 fermentation could boost the quality of natural-processed coffees. And now, researchers in China have conducted a similar study, using a naturally occurring fungus found in coffee cherries.
As published in the journal Food Chemistry (and reported by Daily Coffee News), scientists from the Kunming Institute of Botany isolated more than 650 fungal strains from five arabica cultivars grown in Yunnan, China’s main coffee-producing region. Of these, six strains proved especially promising and one, Talaromyces funiculosus KQ2, stood out for its positive impact on coffee quality. When added to fermentation tanks, the fungus was able to increase commodity-grade coffee’s score by an average of 1.5 points, enabling it to reach specialty grade.
Additionally, the fungus produced distinctive cinnamon and vanilla notes in the coffee. Minghua Qiu, the study’s lead researcher, told China Daily that their findings could play a role in elevating Yunnan-grown coffee. “Yunnan coffee has long been relatively weak in floral and fruity notes,” Qiu said. “But endophytic fungi contain many aroma-producing microorganisms. By identifying strains with stronger flavor expression, we can enhance these characteristics.”
Read more on the fungal processing transformation here.
More News
‘UK Government Proposes Deforestation Policy’ via Global Coffee Report
‘Best of Congo Cooperatives Returns With 34 High-Quality Traceable Lots’ via Daily Coffee News
‘One in Five Coffees Sold in Europe Laced With Pesticides, Report Says’ via DPA International
‘DOJ Probes Coffee Shop Chain in New York After It Bars Pro-Israel US Lawmaker’ via Reuters
‘Women-Powered Coffee Coalition Launches With Focus on Chiapas, Mexico’ via Daily Coffee News
‘Kauaʻi Coffee Co. Secures 15-Year Lease, Ensuring Future of the Largest U.S. Coffee Farm’ via Kaua‘i Now
Is Coffee Good For You?
Coffee may be the original performance-enhancing drug. For years, athletes have utilized caffeine to get a slight edge on their opponents—so much so that, between 1984 and 2004, it was on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned drugs.
There has been plenty of research into coffee’s impact on sports performance, some of which we’ve previously covered in the Coffee News Club. Now, as reported by Science X, a team of Brazilian researchers has looked at exactly how much caffeine one should imbibe to ensure peak athletic performance. As is true of most coffee health benefits, the key seems to be moderate consumption.
For the meta-study, published in the journal Nutrients, the researchers examined 48 clinical trials conducted on the subject of caffeine and athletic performance between 1995 to 2022. They focused specifically on time-trial sports, such as cycling, running, and swimming, and found that low-to-moderate caffeine intake was the most beneficial. Around 1.3–3mg of caffeine per kilo of body weight—that’s roughly one espresso for a 70kg (154lb) runner—gave about a 2% boost in speed.
Moderate consumption was even more effective, with 4–6 mg/kg (two double espressos) resulting in a 2.18% boost. The authors noted that very few studies have investigated the impacts of high caffeine doses in time-trial scenarios. With that in mind, they concluded that “the present findings suggest that low and moderate caffeine doses may represent effective supplementation strategies for improving aerobic time-trial performance.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘Coffee Tech Stacks: Mnemonic Coffee Wants To Use As Little Tech As Possible’ by Garrett Oden
‘Voices of Coffee Farmers From Conflict-Affected Eastern Congo’ by Anicet Shamavu
‘Specialty Coffee Is Now Mainstream. Is That a Good or Bad Thing?’ by Chloé Skye Weiser
