Photo courtesy of the Specialty Coffee Association and DXB Live
The first World Coffee Championships in 2026 are already on the books. The Cezve/Ibrik 2026 World Championships taking place over the weekend at World of Coffee Dubai kicked off the 2026 WCC season by selecting the first champion: Jane Espante representing the United Arab Emirates.
According to her competitor’s profile, Espante is the barista training manager at Family First Cafe, and last year she represented the United Arab Emirates as the Coffee in Good Spirits champion. This year, Espante turned its attention to Cezve/Ibrik. For both dishes, Espante used a mixture of two coffees: Colombian goose macerated with charcoal and naturally processed Panama goose. For her signature dish, she combined it with cryoconcentrate coffee made from the same mixture and cryofermented strawberries.
This is the UAE’s third victory in the Cezve/Ibrik World Championships and first since Karthikeyan Rajendram and Michaela Ruazol-Recera faced off (sort of) in 2017 and 2022 respectively; no competitions were held in the transitional years.
The results of the Cezve/Ibrik 2026 World Championships are as follows:
Jane Espante, United Arab Emirates
Angel Kotsifakis, Greece
Wael Hachema, France
This is one World Coffee Championship for the books, with six more to come before all is said and done. For more information or a full list of results, visit the World Coffee Championship official website.
