Cherrybook · Monthly data report · July 2026 edition
The State of Specialty Coffee 2026
What 6,443 in-stock coffee listings from 471 of 502 active roasters in 36 countries cost, how they were processed, and how their roasters describe them. This is a point-in-time census of the online shelves Cherrybook tracks, not a sales-weighted market survey; each listing counts once.
In-stock listings
6,443
Roasters represented
471
Origin countries
44
Median $/oz
$1.80
Key findings
- 01
The median specialty coffee costs $1.80 per ounce: a $21.60 twelve-ounce equivalent. Half of priced in-stock listings sit between $1.49 and $2.26. Fig. 1 ↓
- 02
Geisha-labeled listings carry a 2.7x median price ratio over everything else (4.0x on means, because the Geisha price distribution has a long right tail). Fig. 2 ↓
- 03
Listings explicitly labeled anaerobic run 27% above washed on unadjusted medians, and listings labeled anaerobic or experimental make up roughly 1 in 9 of all process-labeled listings. Fig. 3 ↓
- 04
Chocolate is the most frequent descriptor on specialty bags, and the most-named fruit note is cherry. Fig. 5 ↓
- 05
In this snapshot, the median decaf listing costs $1.72 per ounce against $1.81 for regular; an across-shelf comparison that does not hold each roaster's lineup constant. Fig. 6 ↓
Fig. 01 · Price
What specialty coffee actually costs
Every price in this report is normalized to US dollars per ounce (international lots convert at European Central Bank reference rates) and counted on retail bags from 100 g to 1 kg; samplers and bulk formats are excluded. The median listing works out to $1.80 an ounce, a $21.60 twelve-ounce equivalent. Half of priced in-stock listings sit inside the shaded band between $1.49 and $2.26.
The expensive tail is visually loud and numerically small: one priced listing in ten sits above $3.40 an ounce. All results are listing-weighted; each in-stock listing counts once, regardless of the roaster behind it.
n = 6,082 priced in-stock listings in retail bag formats (100 g to 1 kg); listings below $0.50/oz are excluded as implausible unit-price parsing or currency-conversion failures. Data as of July 14, 2026.
Fig. 02 · Varietals
The Geisha price gap, and widely listed alternatives
Geisha (also spelled Gesha) is specialty’s marquee varietal, and the shelf prices it accordingly: Geisha-labeled listings have a median price of $4.72 per ounce, compared with $1.77 for other priced listings; an unadjusted ratio of 2.7x. The Geisha mean is higher still ($7.97, or 4.0x) because its price distribution has a long right tail.
Among the other widely listed varietals, Sidra and Chiroso command $3.59 and $2.67 medians respectively; a second price tier is visible below Geisha.
- Geisha / Geshan 340$4.72
- Sidran 37$3.59
- Chiroson 21$2.67
- Pink Bourbonn 126$2.37
- Pacamaran 79$2.34
- Javan 24$2.27
- 74158 (JARC landrace)n 43$2.24
- Kurumen 16$2.19
- SL28n 224$2.08
- Batiann 84$2.06
- Ruiru 11n 98$2.06
- SL34n 143$2.00
| median of all non-Geisha listings, $1.77
Median price per ounce among widely listed varietals (at least 15 priced in-stock listings naming the varietal); rarer varietals are excluded by construction. Multi-varietal listings count toward each named varietal; “gesha” spellings fold into Geisha.
Fig. 03 · Processing
What process labels cost
Listings explicitly labeled anaerobic have a median price 27% above washed listings; the experimental group (carbonic maceration and kin) runs 47% higher. These are unadjusted shelf differences: they do not isolate processing from origin, varietal, producer, or lot positioning. Listings labeled anaerobic or experimental account for 12% of process-labeled listings; roughly 1 in 9.
Among listings with mapped tasting notes, fruit is the primary flavor family for 84% of anaerobic listings and 58% of washed listings.
- Washed55% of labeled$1.87
- Natural21% of labeled$1.92
- Anaerobic9% of labeled$2.37
- Honey6% of labeled$2.16
- Experimental3% of labeled$2.75
| washed baseline, $1.87
Median price per ounce by processing method among priced in-stock listings with a normalized process label. The five groups shown cover 94% of process-labeled listings; share percentages use all process-labeled listings as the denominator.
Fig. 04 · Origins
Where the price ladder lives
Panama tops this snapshot’s ladder at a median $7.05 an ounce. Panama’s average ($11.43) runs well above its median ($7.05); evidence of a long right tail. The data behind this report does not identify which listings, if any, came from auctions. The United States appears near the top at $4.21 an ounce on 31 priced listings; the sample is too small to treat its exact rank as stable.
At the volume end, Colombia is the most common stated origin on the shelf: 1,148 of 4,834 origin-labeled listings, or 24%, at a median of $2.05 an ounce. That is listing share, not sales, production, or consumption share.
- Panaman 139$7.05
- United Statesn 31$4.21
- Ecuadorn 80$2.70
- Kenyan 217$2.06
- Colombian 1115$2.05
- Bolivian 41$2.04
- Ugandan 35$2.03
- Burundin 101$2.00
- Rwandan 139$1.98
- Hondurasn 171$1.97
- Ethiopian 610$1.95
- Costa Rican 214$1.93
| catalog median, $1.80
Median price per ounce by origin country among origins with at least 20 priced in-stock listings; ranks for origins under 50 listings should be treated as unstable. Averages and listing counts shown on hover.
Fig. 05 · Flavor
How roasters describe coffee in 2026
Among 6,160 in-stock listings whose published tasting notes map to the SCA flavor vocabulary, chocolate is the most frequent descriptor, and the three most frequent descriptors all come from the chocolate-and-sweet side of the mapped vocabulary. These are roasters’ own descriptions normalized by Cherrybook, not blind sensory observations; counts measure published vocabulary, not sales or intent.
Among fruits, the most-named note on the specialty shelf is cherry. We are aware of how convenient that sounds coming from a site named Cherrybook; the count is right there in the chart.
- Chocolaten 125020%
- Carameln 91515%
- Overall Sweetn 81413%
- Dark Chocolaten 71412%
- Cherryn 65011%
- Floraln 64110%
- Milk Chocolaten 61210%
- Orangen 61110%
- Citrusn 60910%
- Peachn 60210%
- Applen 5339%
- Honeyn 5078%
Share of flavor-tagged in-stock listings naming each note. Notes are mapped from roasters’ published descriptions to the SCA flavor wheel vocabulary (LLM-assisted, post-filtered to the official lexicon); counts measure how often a note is named, not its intensity. A manual validation audit of the mapping is on the methodology roadmap before this cut is pitched alone.
Fig. 06 · Decaf
What decaf costs
In this snapshot, decaf listings have a median price of $1.72 per ounce versus $1.81 for regular listings; an across-shelf comparison that does not hold each roaster’s lineup constant. Decaf is 9% of priced in-stock listings (534 listings).
Within-roaster paired estimates (comparing each roaster’s decaf against its own regular lineup) are the stricter test and arrive in a future revision of this report; until then, this figure reports raw shelf medians and makes no parity or superiority claim in either direction.
Median price
$1.72/oz
vs $1.81/oz for regular; across-shelf medians
Share of priced listings
9%
534 decaf listings in the sample
Priced in-stock listings, decaf vs all other beans, same retail-format sample as Fig. 1.
Methodology
Universe. Cherrybook indexes 502 active public roasters and 14,109 non-archived bean listings, stocked or not. This report’s sample contains 6,443 qualifying in-stock listings from 471 of those roasters (based in 36 countries) in the July 14, 2026 extract. The remaining 31 active roasters had no qualifying in-stock listing in the extract. Roasters enter the catalog through competition and award lists, editorial city guides, community mentions, and reader search demand; inclusion is editorial, never paid. Merchandise and equipment are excluded throughout. This is a census of the specialty web-retail shelf Cherrybook tracks, not a survey of the whole industry.
What in-stock selection misses. In-stock-only selection omits sold-out, seasonal, and fast-moving lots that were unavailable when a source was checked. The report measures shelf availability, not product introductions, demand, sales, or consumption.
Observation window. Listings in this sample were present in Cherrybook’s source-catalog checks between May 19, 2026 and July 14, 2026 (median July 13, 2026); source-check timestamps cover 100% of the sample. The as-of date above records when the aggregate was computed; it does not imply that every source was checked simultaneously.
Prices. All prices normalize to USD per ounce from each roaster’s published price at standard bag weight; international currencies convert at European Central Bank reference rates (via the Frankfurter API), refreshed with the catalog. Price statistics cover retail bag formats from 100 g to 1 kg; samplers, capsules, and bulk formats distort per-ounce math. Listings with implausible prices below $0.50 an ounce are excluded as unit-price parsing or currency-conversion failures. Shipping, tax, and subscription discounts are not included. Medians are quoted in preference to means wherever a market has a long tail; all results are listing-weighted.
Cherry’s Index. Cherry’s Index is a 0-to-100 evidence composite. Depending on availability, its base combines roaster-published SCA scores; third-party Coffee Review scores and buyer ratings; Cherrybook community tastings; roaster-level Reddit and YouTube sentiment; and disclosure completeness. Competition and editorial signals can add bonuses, while stale-stock evidence can subtract points. Missing components are reweighted, and thin evidence is pulled toward 50. It is not a blind cup score, and this report does not use it to make cup-quality claims. How the book works.
Buyer ratings. Star ratings aggregate public buyer reviews from the review platforms Cherrybook tracks; they are third-party ratings, not Cherrybook reviews. 772 of 6,443 in-stock listings (12%) carry at least one, averaging 44 ratings per rated listing. Because review coverage is selected (who reviews, and where, is not random), this report does not publish buyer-preference findings; paired within-roaster estimates are on the roadmap.
Flavor language. Tasting descriptors come from roasters’ own published notes, mapped to the SCA flavor wheel vocabulary (LLM-assisted, then post-filtered against the official lexicon). Counts measure how often a note is named. They are descriptions of marketing language, not blind sensory observations.
Cadence. This report is a point-in-time census, re-taken monthly; each edition freezes at publication so citations stay reproducible. Every number on this page derives from the frozen July 2026 extract; the downloadable file below is that exact artifact, published with a checksum and a data dictionary defining every field and denominator. Each edition also keeps a permanent archive URL (in the citation block below), while the report’s main address always carries the latest edition. The catalog keeps moving after the freeze; the next edition re-censuses it. This is the inaugural July 2026 edition; from the next edition onward, each issue reports month-over-month movement against the prior snapshot.
Cite this report
Cherrybook, “The State of Specialty Coffee 2026,” July 2026 edition. cherrybookcoffee.com/editorial/state-of-specialty-coffee-2026/2026-07-r2. Data as of July 14, 2026.
That address is this edition’s permanent archive URL; it keeps serving the July 2026 numbers after later editions publish.
Spot an error, want to challenge a number, or want something measured in the next edition? Email the editor; corrections and reader questions are addressed in the next monthly edition.
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