The first World Coffee Championship of 2026 is in the books. Taking place over the weekend at World of Coffee Dubai, the 2026 World Cezve/Ibrik Championship kicked of the 2026 WCC season by crowing the first champion: Jane Espante representing the United Arab Emirates.
Per her competitor profile, Espante is a Barista Training Manager with Family First Cafe and last year represented the UAE as the Coffee in Good Spirits champion. This year, Espante turned her attention to Cezve/Ibrik. For both courses in her routine, Espante used a blend of two coffees, a carbonic macerated Colombia Gesha and a natural processed Panama Gesha. For her signature course, she combined them with a coffee cryoconcentrate made from the same blend and cryofermented strawberries.
This is the UAE’s third win at the World Cezve/Ibrik Championship and their first since Karthikeyan Rajendram and Michaela Ruazol-Recera went back to back (sort of) in 2017 and 2022, respectively; there were no competitions held between in the interim years.
The results for the 2026 World Cezve/Ibrik Championship are as follows:
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Jane Espante, United Arab Emirates
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Angel Kotsifakis, Greece
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Wael Hachem, France
That’s one World Coffee Championship in the books with six more to go before it’s all said and done. For more information or for a full list of the results, visit the World Coffee Championship’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
