Raising the Bar: Escondido Specialty Coffee Wins 3rd Place for Best Espresso in the U.S. & Canada
A Celebration of Craft and Quality
The specialty coffee world thrives on precision, passion, and innovation; and this year, Escondido Specialty Coffee has proven once again that dedication pays off. Our Espresso Reserve Blend was awarded third place (Bronze) in the Espresso Category at the 2025 Global Coffee Awards – U.S. & Canada Edition, one of the most prestigious competitions in the coffee industry.
For us, this isn’t just a medal, it’s a reflection of our mission: to craft coffees that bridge the gap between exceptional farming and outstanding roasting.
The Global Coffee Awards: A Benchmark of Excellence
The Global Coffee Awards (GCA) is a global competition that celebrates excellence across the specialty coffee industry, highlighting the collaboration between roasters and producers that make every great coffee possible. The competition’s judging process is conducted blindly, ensuring that reputation doesn’t influence results, only quality does.
Judges include industry professionals, Q-graders, and sensory experts who evaluate coffees on aroma, balance, flavor clarity, mouthfeel, and overall harmony. As stated in the 2025 GCA Winners Guide, each medal “celebrates genuine excellence and the collaboration between roaster and producer”.
This year’s event took place in Texas, where roasters from across the United States and Canada submitted their best espressos for evaluation. After two full days of tasting, Escondido’s Espresso Reserve Blend stood out for its refined complexity and smooth finish.
Behind the Award-Winning Espresso: Our Espresso Reserve Blend
Our Espresso Reserve Blend is the result of years of dedication to perfecting the espresso experience. Crafted with beans sourced from various origins and produced by Oscar E. Henríquez in our farm Finca San Jose, Ataco, El Salvador. This coffee brings together the best attributes of Latin American terroirs, balanced sweetness, depth, and chocolate undertones.
At Escondido, espresso is more than just a beverage, it’s a symbol of craftsmanship. Each batch is small-batch roasted in Miami, Florida to maintain precise temperature control and flavor development. The result is a blend that delivers a rich crema, bold aroma, and perfectly layered notes of chocolate, nuts, and caramel, making it ideal for both straight espresso shots and milk-based drinks.
A Win for Specialty Coffee and Traceability
One of the defining aspects of this award is that it not only recognizes our roasting skills but also fills us with pride for our own production on our family farm, deeply rooted in El Salvador's coffee tradition, which is an example of that commitment.
This award is shared with every farmer, picker, and roaster who contributed to the creation of this coffee. It stands as proof that quality starts at the source and continues through every step of the process.
Why This Matters for Our Customers and Partners
Winning at the Global Coffee Awards is not only an honor but also a validation of the values that guide Escondido Specialty Coffee: transparency, quality, and sustainability.
For our wholesale partners, cafés, and restaurants, this award represents the reliability and prestige that comes from serving a coffee recognized on an international stage. Every espresso brewed with our beans now carries a seal of excellence, a mark that signifies world-class quality.
As the Global Coffee Awards team wrote in their winners’ statement:
“Each seal represents proof of quality, authenticity, and collaboration, awarded solely on merit.”
This distinction strengthens our mission to deliver specialty coffee that inspires trust, whether you’re an espresso aficionado, a café owner, or a roaster who values integrity and flavor.
The Journey to the Podium
Reaching this level wasn’t easy. From refining our roast profiles to continuously improving quality control, our team’s commitment to perfection has been relentless.
In 2025, Escondido expanded its roasting capabilities, optimized its green bean sourcing, and deepened its sensory training practices. Every element of our espresso process, from bean selection to final roast curves, was designed to enhance flavor consistency and balance.
Espresso: The Heart of Specialty Coffee
Espresso is often described as the purest expression of a roaster’s skill. It’s a brewing method that magnifies both excellence and flaws, where temperature, pressure, grind size, and extraction time must align perfectly to produce a harmonious shot.
The best espressos in the world share three characteristics: balance, body, and clarity. Our Espresso Reserve Blend achieved this harmony by combining carefully curated origins and a roasting profile that accentuates the sweetness and crema without overpowering acidity.
As the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) notes in its sensory guidelines, espresso is “a complex beverage defined by its concentrated extraction and textural depth” achieving that balance is what sets Escondido apart.
Looking Ahead: What This Means for Escondido
This award is not an endpoint, it’s a milestone. Our vision remains focused on elevating the standard of specialty coffee by continuing to innovate, educate, and connect coffee lovers around the world.
Next year, we’ll be participating in the Producer & Roaster Forum (PRF) in El Salvador (March 26, 2026), where the overall Global Coffee Awards winners will compete for the title of World’s Best Roaster. It will be an opportunity to showcase not just our espresso, but the collaboration between our Salvadoran roots and our U.S. roasting expertise.
For Escondido, this recognition reaffirms our belief: great coffee begins with purpose and ends with passion.