6 Coffee Trends We Saw at the Specialty Coffee Expo 2024

This year’s Specialty Coffee Expo took place in Chicago, where a number of now-famous coffee names originated, such as Intelligentsia and Metric.

Each year, we see new innovations being showcased at the exhibition. From bean processing methods to new coffee tools, this year’s show gave a ton of industry insight on what to look for in the coming year. Here are some of the biggest trends we saw. 

Coffee companies are coming up with new solutions to help consumers enhance their coffee experience while traveling. Toddy is releasing a compact cold-brew coffee maker that’s the size of a Stanley cup. From brewing to sipping, you can prepare a small batch of your favorite cold brew coffee in one device.

Renowned coffee equipment maker Brewista has a stainless-steel pour-over coffee maker that comes with a carabiner attachment for hikers and campers to take their pour-over routine on the go. The company is also releasing a pour-over travel kit, which includes a drinking vessel and other accessories to let you make pour-over coffee wherever you are.

Breville continues to bet on the home espresso game; it unveiled a brand new (and pricey) espresso machine, the Breville Barista Pro ThermoJet, which promises to get the machine ready to make espresso in mere seconds. There are also traditionally commercial companies in the home espresso field now, such as La Marzocco and its Mini Linea, a $4,000 espresso machine made for diehard hobbyists.

And it wasn’t just machines. We saw a ton of home espresso-related products, including a milk jug that maximizes latte art customization by integrating three spouts as opposed to one. Grinder professional Baratza is set to release an updated version of its flagship Encore grinder, with 20 more precision espresso grind settings than its current ESP version. 

We noticed a lot of companies putting out products to help people brew coffee without the need for a paper filter. This year, we noticed an Oregon-based company called Able that makes reusable coffee filters. The lineup features two main stainless-steel coffee filters commonly seen in drip coffee makers, the cone-shaped and the basket-shaped ones. We also saw a stainless steel disk filter that’s supposed to work with the popular AeroPress coffee makers. We also saw a Japanese company introducing a pour-over coffee maker made from porous ceramic, which doesn’t require paper filters to make coffee. 

Coffee makers and accessories that boast connectivity were the talk of the show. Fellow unveiled its first-ever coffee maker, called Aidan, which calculates the best brewing temperature and time after users select the type of roast on its touchscreen, which goes from light to dark. We also spotted an automatic pour-over coffee maker that calculates the water temperature and brewing time and then dispenses water automatically into a pour-over dripper to extract coffee. 

Coffee, just like chocolate, goes through a brief period of fermentation. This year we saw experimental “co-ferment” beans stealing the spotlight. The process introduces additional ingredients, oftentimes fruits and vegetables, to fermentation to add another depth of flavor to the coffee beans. The most outstanding one we tried at the show was a co-ferment made with tropical fruits and Mosaic hops, with the latter adding hoppy beer notes to the coffee.

This year we noted a number of roasters made for home use. They’re smaller and much more compact than their commercial counterparts, holding about 1 to 2 kilograms of beans in a batch. These sensor-packed machines are equipped with bluetooth connectivity that transfers real-time temperature data to a laptop so that home roasters can monitor the darkness of the roast and roast coffee to their liking.