Climate Data, Women in Roasting, and a Community in Mourning: What's Moving the Coffee World This Week

There's a rhythm to how news travels through the specialty coffee world. Some stories arrive with press releases and launch dates. Others spread quietly through Instagram stories and group chats. And occasionally, something lands that makes you pause mid-pour and remember why this industry feels more like a community than a business.

This week brought all three.

I've been following Barista Magazine's latest industry roundup, and three stories stood out—not just for what they announce, but for what they signal about where specialty coffee is heading in 2026.

CafeClima: Finally, Data That Farmers Can Actually Use

Let's start with the most significant development for anyone who cares about the future of their morning cup.

World Coffee Research and the Alliance of Biodiversity & CIAT have launched CafeClima—a free web platform designed to help farmers and funders make smarter decisions about replanting coffee trees in a warming world.

Here's why this matters: we're not talking about a distant threat. By 2050, suitable coffee-growing land may shrink by 48-97% depending on the region and emissions scenario. That's not a typo. Nearly half to almost all of current coffee-growing areas could become unsuitable within 25 years.

The problem isn't just climate change—it's aging trees. Coffee plants produce their best yields between years 7 and 20. After that, productivity drops. Globally, billions of trees need replanting, but farmers face an impossible question: where should I plant, and what varieties will survive the next three decades?

CafeClima attempts to answer this by compiling climate projections, soil data, and variety performance information into one accessible platform. For a smallholder farmer in Colombia or Ethiopia, this kind of data was previously locked behind academic paywalls or scattered across dozens of research papers.

I've been thinking about what this means for the Balkans. Bulgaria isn't a coffee-growing country, obviously—our winters would kill any arabica plant within weeks. But we're deeply connected to origins that are already feeling the pressure. Ethiopian coffees, which dominate our specialty scene, come from regions where temperature shifts are already altering flavour profiles and harvest timing.

When I cup Ethiopian naturals from DABOV or Better Specialty Coffee, I'm tasting the result of decisions made years ago about where to plant and how to process. Tools like CafeClima could help ensure those decisions remain viable for the next generation of farmers—and the next generation of Bulgarian coffee drinkers.

Women Coffee Roasters Scholarship: Year Five in Medellín

Coffee Project New York has announced that their Women Coffee Roasters Scholarship will head to Medellín, Colombia for its 2026 edition. Now in its fifth year, the programme provides six female-identifying coffee professionals the opportunity to complete the SCA Roasting Foundation course.

Applications open March 1 and close March 31, with recipients announced in April. You can find details on their website.

This programme addresses something I see constantly in our regional scene: the skills gap in roasting, and the gender imbalance behind the roaster.

Walk into most specialty cafes in Sofia, Plovdiv, or Belgrade, and you'll find women working the bar. But step into the roastery? The ratio shifts dramatically. Roasting remains one of the most male-dominated roles in specialty coffee, partly because of how knowledge has traditionally been passed down—through apprenticeships and informal networks that often exclude women.

Scholarships like this one matter because they create alternative pathways. They say: you don't need to know someone already in the industry. You don't need to fund your own training. You just need to apply.

I'd love to see something similar emerge in Southeast Europe. We have talented baristas across the region—many of them women—who could become exceptional roasters if given access to structured training. The Bulgarian Coffee Association (KAB) has been building educational infrastructure since 2022, but roasting-specific programmes remain limited.

If you're a female-identifying coffee professional reading this and considering applying: do it. The worst outcome is a rejection email. The best outcome is a week in Colombia learning from some of the most knowledgeable roasters in the industry.

The Ruskeys: A Loss That Echoes

Some news doesn't fit neatly into industry trends or market analysis.

Jay and Kristen Ruskey, the husband-and-wife founders of FRINJ Coffee and Good Land Organics, passed away unexpectedly earlier this month. They leave behind three children.

For those unfamiliar with their work: the Ruskeys were pioneers in California-grown coffee. They proved that specialty-grade arabica could be cultivated in the United States, challenging assumptions about where coffee can and cannot thrive. Their work wasn't just agricultural—it was a proof of concept for climate adaptation, demonstrating that as traditional growing regions face pressure, new possibilities might emerge in unexpected places.

A GoFundMe campaign is raising funds for the Ruskey children.

I didn't know Jay or Kristen personally. But I've followed their work for years, and their loss reminds me of something easy to forget when we talk about "the coffee industry" in abstract terms: it's built by people. Families. Individuals who take enormous risks because they believe in something.

The specialty coffee community is small enough that losses like this ripple outward. If you can contribute to the fund, please do.

What Connects These Stories

Reading through this week's headlines, I notice a thread: all three stories are about building something that outlasts the present moment.

CafeClima is about ensuring coffee farming remains viable for future generations. The Women Coffee Roasters Scholarship is about creating pathways for professionals who might otherwise never access formal training. And the Ruskeys' legacy is about proving that innovation in coffee doesn't require permission—just conviction and care.

This is what I mean when I talk about slow made culture. It's not about moving slowly for its own sake. It's about building things that last. About process over product. About recognising that the cup you're drinking today is the result of decisions made years ago by people you'll never meet.

The specialty coffee world in 2026 faces real challenges: climate pressure, economic volatility, and the constant tension between growth and sustainability. But it also has tools, communities, and individuals working to address those challenges.

That's worth paying attention to—even if it doesn't fit neatly into a morning scroll.

If you're in Sofia and want to discuss any of these developments over a properly extracted espresso, you know where to find me. The process starts here.