Exhibition post-release.

Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo 2026 became a birthplace of gastronomic trends

From 15 to 17 April 2026, one of the year’s key events for the hospitality industry — the Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo trade exhibition — was held at the modern Timiryazev Centre venue in Moscow.

This year the exhibition announced a major expansion and became a complete gastronomic ecosystem: not only a meeting place for the coffee, tea and chocolate industries, but also a point of attraction for bartenders, cheesemakers, dairy producers, bakers, confectioners and chefs.

Held ahead of the summer season, an important period for foodservice, the event brought together 22,000 gastronomy professionals and more than 260 exhibitors from Russia and other countries.

Over three days, the exhibition welcomed owners and managers of restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, hotels, bars, bakeries and confectioneries, as well as roasters, tea and chocolate producers, equipment and ingredient suppliers, investors, buyers, chefs, technologists and marketers.

Beeline provided stable Wi-Fi for exhibitors and visitors, making it easier to exchange business contacts and find important information online during the exhibition.

Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo featured an extensive business programme with more than 260 speakers and around 200 events, including lectures on current HoReCa topics, presentations, masterclasses, tastings, professional competitions and award ceremonies.

More than ten themed venues were presented: PRO Business, PRO Bar, PRO Beverages, PRO Tea, PRO Education and Projects, PRO Cheesemaking, Mix Bar, Cupping Zone, Café and Mixology Stage, Coffee Bar, Flavour Laboratory and STANFOOD by METRO Gastro Academy. The focus was not on abstract trends but on practical tools addressing how to manage a business, work with products, build teams and adapt to the new economics of the HoReCa market.

This year Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo traditionally hosted the Roaster of the Year award ceremony and twelve championships, including established favourites — Barista of the Year, Aeropress Championship, Insane Latte Art, Tea Preparation, Tea Tasting and the Cocoa Championship — as well as entirely new competitions.

The Coffee Tea Cacao Expo hall hosted Cup Taster of the Year for the first time, a championship in which coffee professionals identify the cup whose flavour differs from the others.

The HORECA Expo hall hosted three cheese competitions for the first time — Best Cheese at HORECA Expo, Cheese as Dessert and Best Cheese Sommelier — together with the Mixologist of the Year championship and the tenth anniversary Chef a la Russe National Culinary Championship.

Chef a la Russe has been held in Russia since 2014. It is organised by METRO together with the National Association of Culinary Specialists of Russia under the auspices of Worldchefs.

The country’s most talented culinary professionals gathered at Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo to compete for the title of Russia’s best chef team.

The Chef a la Russe winners were:

1st place: DREAM TEAM. Penza, Omsk, Moscow

Лясников Тимур, Межевикин Андрей, Корниенко Евгений

2nd place: Altai Culinary Team. Barnaul

Белобородов Руслан, Агафонов Артем, Фисюренко Виталий

3rd place: Polyana Restaurant Company. Samara

Обидин Александр, Ивановский Илья, Городничев Дмитрий

The championships identified Russia’s leading baristas, roasters, tea masters, chocolatiers, mixologists, cheesemakers and chefs. The winners of each championship are listed at this link.

Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo also traditionally presented the Chocolate of the Year, Project of the Year and Packaging of the Year awards, as well as the honorary Person of the Year title in the coffee and tea industries.

The exhibition also held the award ceremony for its new WOWPack2025 award, in which a public vote selected the best limited-edition festive packaging for coffee, tea and chocolate.

The full list of award winners is available on the website.

In summary, Coffee Tea Cacao & HORECA Expo created a gravitational field for the entire gastronomy industry, giving visitors and exhibitors unique opportunities to establish business connections and jointly identify new growth opportunities in Russia’s rapidly developing gastronomic market.

The next exhibition will take place on 14–16 April 2027 at Timiryazev Centre.

The exhibition is organised by ITH, which has held coffee, tea and chocolate events for more than 25 years and serves as an information guide for the coffee and tea industries.

The event was supported by the ROSCHAYKOFE Association. METRO Russia was the strategic partner.

Special thanks to the exhibition’s sponsors and partners:

BWT water+more — general exhibition sponsor and sponsor of water filtration and water stations

Lactalis (Parmalat Professional brand) — general milk sponsor

MilFoods (Poetti brand) — general coffee sponsor

Astoria — general sponsor of the exhibition and Barista of the Year championship

Santal — general juice sponsor

Beeline — general internet sponsor

Macap — coffee grinder sponsor (PRO Beverages zone)

FRANCO (Marco brand) — brewing equipment and boiler sponsor

High Tone Coffee Trade — coffee sponsor (Barista of the Year championship)

Barista Line — cleaning products sponsor

Mahlkönig — coffee grinder sponsor (alternative brewing, Barista of the Year and Cup Taster of the Year championships)

Esko Brand — syrup sponsor (Mixologist of the Year)

Anfim — coffee grinder sponsor (espresso, Barista of the Year championship)

Эльканто / AnyBar — professional bar equipment sponsor

Planto — plant-based beverage sponsor

KOJO — coffee sponsor (Aeropress Championship)

ABC Pack — packaging sponsor (Roaster of the Year award)

FRENCH BAKERY SeDelice — team catering sponsor

Green Milk — visitor bag sponsor

Muvna — equipment sponsor

Сибаристика — coffee sponsor (Barista of the Year, espresso and milk beverage categories)

Yankee Sierra / Origami — alternative brewing equipment sponsor

Чебоко — co-organiser and cup-tasting championship sponsor

KITFORT — equipment sponsor

Скандипакк — disposable cup sponsor (hot and cold drinks)

Proffsyrop — syrup sponsor

Face to Face — coffee sponsor (Insane Latte Art and PRO Beverages zone)

СЛОН — tea sponsor (Tea Tasting)

Шоколадный цех — chocolate sponsor for the Cocoa Championship

Origami Tea — matcha tea sponsor

Greencof — cup sponsor for the tasting zones

ReeHouse Group / Ancap — professional tableware sponsor

СФТ Трейдинг / Cropster / BESCA — green coffee, software and equipment sponsor

AROMA TEA COFFEE — tea sponsor

Vkusov Lab — spice sponsor

Знак Фуд Ингредиентс — dry mix and cocoa sponsor (Cocoa Championship)

Puqpress — automatic tamper sponsor

East Brew — brewing filter sponsor

EUREKA — coffee grinder partner

Ledocool — ice partner

РУДН — volunteer partner

Beansy — partner (mobile coffee evaluation app)

Easy System — syrup station partner

ENJOY Barware — barware partner

Воды здоровья — water partner

Сварщица Екатерина — coffee partner for the Mixologist of the Year championship

Cool Brew — tea extract partner for the Mixologist of the Year championship

Prostocup — partner

Yandex Delivery — business programme partner

Abat / Альфторг — professional equipment partner

PHOTOGRAPHS

VKontakte, Coffee Tea Cacao Expo: https://vk.ru/cafex_expo

VKontakte, HORECA Expo: https://vk.com/horecaexpo

Telegram, Coffee Tea Cacao Expo: https://t.me/cafex_expo

Telegram, HORECA Expo: https://t.me/expohoreca