Macizo Café and DeLa Finca Specialty Coffee were named the outright Filter and Espresso category winners at the 2026 Global Coffee Awards’ Latin America regional edition, judged blind in Houston, Texas on August 12. But Filter and Espresso are each split into subcategories, from Gesha to Decaf, and every gold medal awarded within them is a real, standalone competition win: eight other roasters also took Filter or Espresso gold this year, and we cover all of them below. EspressoDrop tracks the Filter and Espresso categories specifically, since they’re the closest thing the GCA has to a standardized head to head brew comparison; the competition’s other categories (Flat White Dairy and Flat White Plant Based Milk) and its overall roastery title aren’t covered here.
The Coffees & Where to Buy
Filter was judged across eleven subcategories at this edition (Gesha, Single Origin, Single Origin Experimental, Washed, Natural, Honey, Experimental Blend, Robusta, Blend, Classic Roast Profile, and Decaf); Espresso across five (Single Origin, Single Origin Experimental, Experimental Blend, Blend, and Classic Roast Profile). Each subcategory awards its own gold, and ties are explicitly allowed: when two entries receive identical scores, both are awarded gold rather than one being forced out. Separately from these subcategory golds, competition coverage names Macizo Café and DeLa Finca Specialty Coffee as the outright Filter and Espresso category winners; exactly how that title is calculated on top of the subcategory results isn’t documented anywhere we could find. Treat every roaster below as a genuine gold, or in one case silver, medalist in its own right, not a runner up to Macizo or DeLa Finca.
Macizo Café — Filter Gesha, Natural, and Honey; Espresso Blend
Macizo Café, a Bogotá based specialty roaster, won four Filter and Espresso golds this year, more than any other Latin America entrant. Its Filter wins came from two coffees: a Washed Geisha grown by Luis Gabriel Romero at Hacienda Misiones, gold in both the Gesha and Natural subcategories, and a Java Honey grown by Luis Eduardo Moreno at Finca Villa Hermosa, gold in Honey. Its Espresso win, an 82 percent washed Caturra and 18 percent Java Honey blend also grown by Moreno, took gold in Espresso Blend and was the single highest scoring coffee entered anywhere in the competition. Both farms are in Cundinamarca, Colombia.
Macizo Café normally sells its microlots through its own online shop, priced in Colombian pesos, with shipping outside Colombia unconfirmed. As of September 27, 2026, macizocafe.com is returning an account suspended error; check back once the site is back up.
Mugen Coffee Project — Filter Single Origin and Single Origin Experimental
Mugen Coffee Project, a café and roastery in La Paz, Bolivia, won two Filter golds: an Osmanthus Gesha grown by Oscar Crespo in Samaipata, gold in Single Origin, and a Catuai the roastery calls Mr. J, grown by Juan Boyan in Uchumachi, gold (tied with Academia Barista Pro) in Single Origin Experimental.
Mugen Coffee Project doesn’t appear to run an online shop; its website is built around its La Paz café menu. As of September 26, 2026, we couldn’t confirm a way to buy this coffee outside Bolivia.
Academia Barista Pro — Filter Single Origin Experimental and Robusta; Espresso Single Origin Experimental and Experimental Blend
Academia Barista Pro, a coffee school and roastery in San Salvador, El Salvador, won four Filter and Espresso golds, tied with Macizo Café for the most of any Latin America entrant. Its Filter wins were a Washed Yeast Gesha grown by Diego Baraona at Los Pirineos (tied with Mugen Coffee Project in Single Origin Experimental) and a Natural Robusta grown by Michael Trung in Lam Dong, Vietnam. Its Espresso wins were another Baraona lot, Gesha Los Pirineos, in Single Origin Experimental, and a blend of carbonic macerated honey and washed Gesha from Baraona and Rafa Silva at Finca El Ángel, in Experimental Blend.
Academia Barista Pro runs its own online shop, but as of September 26, 2026 it only ships within El Salvador.
Café Cultor — Filter Washed
Café Cultor, a Bogotá roaster already featured on our Global Coffee Awards page as a 2026 World Championship bronze medalist, won Filter gold (tied with Colo Coffee) in Washed with a Pink Bourbon grown by Estrella del Macizo at El Mirador, Huila. A separate Café Cultor entry, a washed Geisha grown by La Argentina in Huila and entered in Espresso Single Origin, was the third highest scoring coffee in the whole competition, one spot behind DeLa Finca’s gold winning entry in that same subcategory; that ranking suggests, though doesn’t explicitly confirm, an Espresso Single Origin silver.
Café Cultor sells its coffee through its own online shop. As of September 26, 2026, international shipping isn’t confirmed.
Colo Coffee — Filter Washed
Colo Coffee, another Bogotá roaster, won Filter gold (tied with Café Cultor) in Washed with a Geisha grown by Andres Felipe Realpe in Nariño.
Colo Coffee runs a US facing shop that ships to the US and carries other Geisha lots, though not confirmed to be this exact one.
Gento Coffee Roasters — Filter Experimental Blend; Espresso Classic Roast Profile
Gento Coffee Roasters, based in Guatemala City, won Filter gold in Experimental Blend with a Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai blend sourced from three producers, Petrona Perez, Ellen Prentice, and Genaro Juarez, across Huehuetenango, Fraijanes, and San Marcos. Its Espresso gold came in Classic Roast Profile with Finca de Dios, a Caturra and Bourbon lot grown by Ellen Prentice in Fraijanes.
Gento Coffee Roasters sells both coffees through its own online shop, priced in US dollars.
Café Baluarte de Veracruz — Filter Classic Roast Profile
Café Baluarte de Veracruz, a café and roastery in Veracruz, Mexico, won Filter gold in Classic Roast Profile with a Sarchimor and Caturra blend grown by Graciela Cuevas Panzzi in Chocamán. The same roastery was also named the competition’s overall winner across all categories, on the strength of Flat White wins EspressoDrop doesn’t track.
We couldn’t find an online shop for Café Baluarte de Veracruz as of September 26, 2026, only a café location and a Facebook page.
DeLa Finca Specialty Coffee — Filter Blend; Espresso Single Origin
DeLa Finca Specialty Coffee, based in Managua, Nicaragua, and ranked among the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, won Filter gold in Blend with a Maragogipe and Caturra House Blend. Its Espresso gold, and the outright Espresso category win, went to Maragogipe Uva, a lot produced, processed, and roasted by co-founder Heberto Rivas, a fourth generation coffee producer; the same coffee placed second overall, the highest score of any single Espresso entry.
DeLa Finca sells the winning Maragogipe Uva alongside its other single origin lots through its own web shop, priced in US dollars. As of September 26, 2026, international shipping to the US isn’t confirmed.
Pergamino Café — Filter Decaf
Pergamino Café, based in Medellín, Colombia, won Filter gold in Decaf with a Washed Lomaverde Descafeinado grown by the Echavarría family at Finca Lomaverde in Santa Bárbara, Antioquia.
Pergamino sells the same Decaf Lomaverde lot through its US facing shop, which ships to the US and Canada.
Spirit Origin — Filter Single Origin Experimental (Silver)
Spirit Origin, a Roatán, Honduras roaster previously featured in our Honduras Cup of Excellence coverage, took Filter silver in Single Origin Experimental with Paraideli, a washed Parainema grown by producer Oscar Ramírez at Finca Paraideli.
Spirit Origin sells its coffee online with confirmed international shipping.
What We Couldn’t Confirm
Available results coverage reports a gold medalist for every Filter subcategory but only five of Espresso’s six (Single Origin, Single Origin Experimental, Experimental Blend, Blend, and Classic Roast Profile). No Espresso Decaf winner was reported, and we couldn’t determine whether that means no one entered it, no one qualified for gold, or it simply wasn’t covered in the sources available to us. We also only know about one silver medal, Spirit Origin’s, because that roaster issued its own press release. Silver and bronze medals exist for every subcategory above, but aren’t published in the results coverage we could find, so most of them are currently invisible to us and, by extension, to readers.
The Win
The Global Coffee Awards is an independent world roasting championship organized by Perfect Daily Grind and Coffee Intelligence. Unlike roasting competitions where competitors are handed standardized green coffee lots to roast on site, the GCA judges evaluate each roaster’s own commercially available lineup, the actual coffees roasted and sold to consumers every day, scored double blind by international panels.
Regional Gold, Silver, and Bronze category winners from the US & Canada, Asia, MENA, Africa, Europe, and Latin America circuits qualify for the annual Global Coffee Awards World Championship, held at the Producer & Roaster Forum (PRF). This year’s Latin America results advance to the 2027 World Championship, set for March 18 and 19 at PRF Mexico in Tuxtla, Chiapas, the forum’s first time in Mexico.
For more on the Global Coffee Awards and past Filter and Espresso champions, visit our Global Coffee Awards page.