On July 16th, the final of the 2026 World Coffee Brewing Competition in China officially kicked off in Guiyang. More than 40 top players from the 9 major competition areas across the country will compete at their peak in four days. This is the first time that this top-level event has settled in the Southwest region.
Why did the world's top coffee competition choose Guiyang, which does not produce a single coffee bean?
Let's take a look at a set of data: Guiyang, with a permanent population of over 6 million, has over 3000 coffee shops and an average of one shop per 2000 people, making it one of the cities with the highest density of coffee shops in the country. During this year's May Day holiday, the service consumption of coffee shops in Guizhou increased by 232.6% year-on-year, with Guiyang and Zunyi accounting for nearly 90% of the province's invoiced sales. This is not a heat that emerged out of thin air. As early as around 2000, independent coffee shops quietly appeared on the streets of Guiyang, and decades of deep cultivation and accumulation have deeply rooted coffee in the daily life of the city's fireworks.
Merely having quantity is far from enough. What truly sets Guiyang apart is its unique taste in coffee. Relying on the karst landform, cave coffee, cliff coffee, and sinkhole coffee are blooming everywhere here. The deeper the coffee shop collection is in the air raid shelter, old factory buildings, and residential buildings, the more enthusiastic young people are chasing after it. Prickly pear, folded ear root, and wood ginger, these local delicacies that Guizhou people are familiar with, have been boldly incorporated into coffee specialties, forming a unique "mountain flavor". A cup of coffee brings a dual flavor of the spiritual energy of mountains and rivers and the hustle and bustle of the city. This irreplicable locality cannot be learned by any first tier city.
More importantly, 'people'. Guiyang is known as the "City of Coffee Champions", with 6 World Coffee Championship champions in the city. From local brands such as Captain George and Right Coffee achieving excellent results on the national stage, to the strong industry atmosphere of cup testing communication and skill exchange maintained by local practitioners all year round, generations of baristas have persisted in deep cultivation and united to move forward, and the professional level polished has long accumulated a full reputation in the industry. Last August, Guiyang Coffee Industry College was officially established in Guiyang Vocational and Technical College, building a full chain talent training system.
The landing of the final of the 2026 World Coffee Brewing Competition in China was also the result of Guiyang's initiative. By adopting the model of "government matchmaking, enterprise stage singing, and industry participation", the Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Commerce successfully facilitated the cooperation between the organizers of the competition and local commercial entities. Prior to this, Guiyang had already released two coffee group standards covering the entire chain of business management, service processes, and quality evaluation. What Guiyang needs is never just the short-term traffic of a competition, but through this highly valuable "industry open course", it can build an efficient channel for top practitioners in the country to exchange ideas, and ultimately gradually build its own coffee standard system, steadily advancing towards the high ground of the Southwest coffee industry.
The true competitiveness of an industry lies not in what you have, but in how you use it. Transforming karst landforms into coffee scenes, turning everyday fireworks into consumer attraction, and turning champion talents into industry confidence, Guiyang has created its own "coffee spot" with a cup of coffee. And the arrival of this competition may just be the beginning of Guiyang Coffee's transition from a "consumer hotspot" to an "industrial highland".
Produced by AI Guiyang Studio
Planning by Wang Dongwei
Text and images are generated with AI assistance