While the World Coffee Championships, produced by the for-profit branch of the non-profit Specialty Coffee Association, remains embroiled in a self-inflicted controversy over the renaming of Taiwan to Chinese Taipei, scheduled events continue on. And the most recent is the 2026 World Cup Tasters Championship.
Taking place over the weekend at the Asian stop of the World of Coffee tour, over 40 national champion Cup Tasters descended upon Bangkok, Thailand to cup, slurp, triangulate, differentiate, and hopefully, find that red dot. This years’s roster includes competitors from all six inhabited continents. (C’mon Antarctica, get it together.) Over the course of four round in three days, the field was winnowed down, from 46 to 16 in the Quarterfinals, eight for the Semis, then down to just four for the Finals on Sunday.
But, as is the case with competitions, there can be only one winner. So without further ado, here are the results for the 2026 World Cup Tasters Championship that took place at World of Coffee Bangkok.
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Champion: Le Quang Cuong (Nicky) — Vietnam
Runner-Up: Catherine Queiroz — Switzerland
Third: Mehmet Sogan — United States
Fourth: Mizuki Tagami — Japan
Congratulations to all the Finalists!
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
