Siheung to Host World Coffee Bean Festival on October 31... Recruiting Participants for 'World Coffee Championship'

Participation from Producers, Youth, Baristas with Disabilities, and Citizens
Eight Competition Categories to Be Held

Ahead of the 2026 Siheung World Coffee Bean Festival, which will be held in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province this coming October, the World Coffee Championship will kick off, featuring participation from producers, baristas, roasters, and citizens.

The 4th 2026 Siheung World Coffee Bean Festival's preliminary event, the 2026 World Coffee Championship (WCC), will hold qualifiers and finals for eight categories from August to October. Provided by Siheung City

On August 10, Siheung City announced that it is recruiting participants for the 'World Coffee Championship (WCC) Summer-Fall Season', which is a side event for the 4th 2026 Siheung World Coffee Bean Festival.

The World Coffee Championship is a competition held before the World Coffee Bean Festival, which will run from October 31 to November 1 at Eungye Lake Park in Siheung. It comprehensively evaluates coffee quality, technique, sensory skills, and knowledge. Preliminary and final rounds by category will be held sequentially from August to October.

This year's competition consists of eight categories: the '2026 K-Coffee Award', an international green bean competition; the Barista Championship for People with Disabilities; the Junior Coffee Making Championship; the Roasting Championship; the Latte Art Championship; the Tasting Championship; the Cafe Grand Prix-Siheung 2026; and the Coffee Quiz Championship.

The event is characterized by lowering barriers so that, beyond expert-level technical competition, coffee producers and farms, youth and athletes with disabilities, local cafes, and citizens can participate.

In the '2026 K-Coffee Award', green beans submitted from around the world are evaluated in four categories: Traditional Washed, Traditional Natural, Traditional Honey·Pulped Natural, and Anaerobic·Co-fermented. Among the winners in each category, a consumer preference assessment will determine the final grand prize winner, which will be titled ‘BEST OF THE BEST 2026 K-COFFEE’.

The 'Cafe Grand Prix-Siheung 2026,' which targets cafes in Siheung, selects three finalists through expert evaluation, and then the final ranking is determined by festival attendees through blind tasting and voting.

The Barista Championship for People with Disabilities and the Junior Coffee Making Championship are held without entry fees. The aim is to provide a stage for athletes with disabilities to showcase their professional skills and to offer young people the opportunity to develop as future coffee talents.

For the Coffee Quiz Championship, up to 70 participants, including 50 who pre-register and 20 who register onsite, will compete. Their knowledge of coffee history and culture, varieties, origins, processing, roasting, extraction, and tasting will be tested.

Demos and interviews with winners from each category, consumer evaluations for the Cafe Grand Prix, the Coffee Quiz Championship, and the grand awards ceremony will be held at the Eungye Lake special stage and festival site on October 31.

Kim Kyungmin, director of the Siheung World Coffee Bean Festival, said, "The World Coffee Championship is not a competition just for some professionals; it is an open stage for coffee producers, baristas, roasters, youth, athletes with disabilities, local cafes, and citizens to come together and create a vibrant coffee culture. We hope the diverse talents and stories discovered through the preliminary events will meet citizens at the festival venue, helping Siheung grow into Korea's leading city of coffee culture."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.