Cafe Chatter: New Cafes, Global Coffee Awards & Tech Trends

Hey coffee lovers! Your weekly dose of cafe news is here. Let's dive into what's brewing.

New Cafes & Openings

Jaipur welcomes Café Nola, offering an all-day cafe experience with a food-first approach. Meanwhile, downtown Salem has a new spot called The Forge, serving coffee and matcha. Wolverhampton gets a unique cafe aimed at gamers and geeks, promising coffee that's "better than Costa." Anchorage is seeing new eateries, including a game board cafe. And in Salt Lake City, Mother opens as a cafe by day and bar by night.

However, it's not all openings. Sadly, Delaware is losing two beloved spots, one a bakery and the other a restaurant. In Eugene, Laughing Planet will close one of its cafes. Oakland is also facing the potential loss of a community fixture and coffee shop owner.

Awards & Competitions

The Global Coffee Awards (GCA) World Championship has crowned its winners for 2026. The event, held ahead of the Producer & Roaster Forum in El Salvador, recognized top roasters globally. Sprudge is also calling for nominations for its Sprudge Twenty awards, celebrating coffee heroes. Nominations are open until April 19th.

Roaster News

Sprudge is highlighting a curated selection of coffees from their Roaster's Village. Meanwhile, MauiGrown Coffee is celebrating a comeback with its 2025/2026 harvest. In a surprising turn, Iran has shut down a Tehran coffee shop chain, with reports suggesting it was due to "suspicious" cup designs that might have been interpreted as celebrating the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Industry Trends

Boulder, Colorado, is being recognized for its exceptional coffee scene. The state of specialty coffee in India is being explored, looking beyond the bean to its agricultural roots. Vietnamese coffee is getting a spotlight with a feature on how "Every Half" delivers a complete experience. And for those who love a unique treat, Social Specialty Coffee in Cairo has dropped a croissant dough pizza.

There's also a discussion about coffee prices in Australia, with some finding them "ridiculous." In a different vein, a new drive-thru coffee concept, "Groovy Sips," has opened.

Sustainability

Cameroon has opened its first Robusta coffee post-harvest processing center, a significant step for its coffee industry. Ecotact is making waves with the unveiling of Trace IQ, a new real-time smart monitoring solution for the coffee industry designed to improve preservation during transit. This technology marks Ecotact's expansion into data-driven supply chain solutions.

That's all for this week. Keep exploring and enjoying your coffee!