A Look at the 2025 SCA Expo Product Award Winners

Every year, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) at their Annual Expo has judges walking the floor, assessing booths, products, and services to determine which deserve recognition as the best in show. I took part in this process during the early 2000s when I served on an SCAA committee. Companies submit products for consideration, and judges make a point of visiting each one and recording detailed evaluations.

This year, the SCA announced the 2025 Best New Product Awards and the Coffee Design Awards. These awards aim to celebrate innovation and excellence across the specialty coffee industry while also spotlighting products that claim to drive new trends in coffee.

“We are proud to recognize these outstanding products that reflect our industry’s passion, creativity, and forward-thinking spirit,” said Yannis Apostolopoulos, CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association. “This year’s winners are truly setting new standards in specialty coffee and inspiring the entire coffee community.”

Most of the award winners this year are not in the main focus of a website like CoffeeGeek, but we’ll list all of them, starting with the ones that have the most consumer focus. I’m also aiming a bit of a critical eye at the choices, which I think could have been a lot better this year.

People’s Choice Award

Probably my favourite award of the show, and one that each year usually goes to a worthy product. This year the winner was Time100 Inc. | Mago Maga Smart Home Coffee Bean Roaster, a pioneering home coffee roasting with one-touch automatic or manual professional modes, 300g capacity, auto-cooling, and a sleek, transparent design.

I love it, and want to reach out to this company soon to talk about us possibly reviewing the device.

Consumer Coffee Preparation & Serving Equipment Winner

This year, OXO won for their OXO Rapid Brewer, a concentrated cold and hot brew device, which can make a brewed cup of either in less than 5 minutes. OXO claims their device makes the same tasting coffee that a 24 hour steep does in traditional cold brew methods. It includes a built in stainless steel tamper, and a carafe that all nest together for storage.

This probably wouldn’t be my top pick, knowing what is being shown this year at SCA (I’d probably give it to the Baratza Encore ESP Pro grinder). I’ve had some hands on with the device, and while it’s interesting, I don’t quite know how it scored best of show. 

Coffee Accessories Best of Show

This one went to ICOSA Brewhouse for their Avensi Wave Sensory Drinkware Collection, including the Cyclone Sensory Carafe, Aeresso Espresso in Glass and Ceramic, and the Alto Tasting Glass.

So this one is very confusing to me because of two things. First, I thought ICOSA won this award for the several of the same products from SCA in 2021 – can they win it twice? They even have the 2021 badge on their website to prove it. And I gotta be honest here: these products seem to borrow very heavily from Kruve’s Propel and EQ glasses, which were launched in 2018 and 2019. The Kruve Propel in particular pioneered the whole “swirl and agitate” thing and was a Kickstarter project in 2019; the Aeresso cup came out last year.

If I sound critical, it’s not because Brewhouse makes interesting products (they do, even if they did borrow heavily from Kruve). It’s mainly because I don’t think the same product should win this award twice; and I think there were a lot of other way cool coffee accessories at the show that deserved consideration. 

Open Class (Open Category)

Squeaky, a company I’d never heard of (but want to know more about now!), won for their HOM Chubby a training device which, according to them, revolutionizes aroma sampling with a hygienic, eco-friendly design, perfect for coffee shops, training, and competitions.

It’s certainly interesting! And quite “home made” looking, but I’m all for things that help with aroma training in understanding the nuances of coffee. They also won last year for their $160 “Espresso Ball Cooler” device.

Other Award Winners

Other categories are not really within the scope of what we cover on CoffeeGeek, but are still very much worth mentioning.

Commercial Coffee Preparation & Serving Equipment

A real game changing manufacturer in the coffee roaster world, ROEST, won for their ROEST P3000, an automated production roaster with a 1–3 kg capacity, roasting in under 7 minutes with just 5 minutes of labor/hour with a small footprint. It features automated roasting, between-batch protocols and advanced sensor technology.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this company and their products, (including the cute and tiny ROEST S100) so kudos to them!

Specialty Coffee Beverage Additive

Hacco, Inc. for the KOJI BARISTA (Fermented Rice Beverage), a naturally fermented, plant-based rice beverage for baristas. Koji fermentation creates subtle sweetness and a creamy, frothable texture: dairy-free, sugar-free, and allergen-free. Perfect for coffee, enhancing flavor and mouthfeel.

Specialty Non-Coffee Beverage Standalone

Harris Woolf Almonds, for their Almond Milk 2.0, which differentiates itself from other almond milks with its flavor, mouthfeel, and frothiness. Well, that’s a big promise!

Coffee Design Awards

The SCA also recognizes excellence in design and marketing within the specialty coffee arena. These are the winners in select categories. I’ve left SCA’s own descriptions intact.

The Award for Spaces was presented to Puelo Coffee Roasters, Santiago de Chile. A recognition of the work behind the effort, focus on customers and making experience part of new way to understand the specialty coffee culture,

The Award for Packaging was presented to Ember Goods, Olympia Washington. The primary reference was a vintage matchbox and playing on the company’s name, Ember Goods. Believing that any good idea or conversation starts with an “Ember” before it turns into a fire.

The Award for Branding was presented to Yettu. Yettu is a green coffee exporter specializing in high-quality Indian coffee, carefully sourced from the fertile lands of Tamil Nadu. Yettu embodies a journey from earth to cup, honoring ancient farming traditions and sustainable practices.

It Could Be Better

Having participated in this judging process in the past, and seeing how it’s been trudging along since, I think the SCA should seriously consider revamping this entire awards process, modernizing it and having some pretty strict rules in place so the same products (just packaged differently or with an addition or two) cannot win more than once. 

I’d certainly like to see more specific categories in the consumer and commercial gear space. Things like innovations in espresso, in manual coffee, grinder categories, a wider range of coffee accessories (perhaps one for espresso focused, one other brew methods, etc).