A Lakewood coffee roaster just earned the biggest title in its industry. Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters has been named Best Roaster in the U.S. and Canada at the 2026 Global Coffee Awards, a win that caps a stretch of national recognition for the small Colorado company and comes as its footprint across metro Denver keeps growing.
The honor followed two days of blind cupping in Houston on Aug. 10 and 11, according to globalcoffeeawards.com, where Sweet Bloom's coffees were judged alongside other roasters from the U.S. and Canada. Sweet Bloom itself confirmed the win on its own site, stating plainly that “the 2026 Global Coffee Awards have named Sweet Bloom the U.S. & Canada's Best Roaster,” per sweetbloomcoffee.com. Beyond the top prize, the roastery also picked up a Flat White Plant-Based Milk category win, along with additional Gold and Silver awards in other categories, according to the competition's results.
One standout among Sweet Bloom's entries was Angel Paz, a coffee that achieved one of the four highest overall scores in the entire competition, the awards organization reported. It's a notable showing for a roastery that started small and has steadily built a reputation well beyond Colorado's borders.
From a Lakewood Storefront to a Growing Footprint
Sweet Bloom Coffee is based in Lakewood, Colorado, and was founded in 2013 by Andy Sprenger, a specialty roaster, according to the Global Coffee Awards. The company's flagship shop sits at 1619 Reed Street in Lakewood, per Westword. It's worth noting that a 2014 Denver Post article also identified Sprenger as the roastery's owner at the time, while a more recent Denver Gazette report names Eric Yochim as owner in a company press release — the dossier does not resolve which ownership description applies today.
The roastery's growth has been gradual but steady. It began with a wholesale roasting operation and retail shop in Lakewood before expanding to Arvada through a merger with another company, Two Rivers, and later adding a Westminster location, according to the Denver Post. That gives Sweet Bloom three storefronts across metro Denver today, with a fourth planned for Golden's Clayworks development inside The Pottery building, set to open in fall 2026, per the Denver Gazette.
A Philosophy Built Around Freshness
Sweet Bloom has built its identity around sourcing coffee at its peak. The company says it sources smaller, recently harvested lots that shine for just one to three months, according to its own site, with offerings that change frequently in step with harvest seasons in coffee-growing regions around the world. That approach has been part of the roastery's identity since the beginning — the Denver Post notes Sweet Bloom helped usher in what's described locally as the fourth wave of coffee when it launched in 2013, with an emphasis on beans' agricultural roots and techniques like pour-over brewing.
That reputation has translated into other accolades too. Sweet Bloom ranked No. 43 on The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops' 2026 list covering North America, Central America and the Caribbean, per the same Denver Post report, while fellow Denver roaster Queen City Collective Coffee came in at No. 61 on that list. Food and Wine magazine had already named Sweet Bloom's Westminster location the best coffee shop in Colorado back in 2022.
Part of a Record Year for Specialty Coffee
The win also lands amid a broader surge in specialty coffee demand nationwide. Roughly 47% of American adults reported drinking specialty coffee in the past day in 2026, a record high, according to Perfect Daily Grind. The same competition recognized winners across other categories including Filter, Espresso, Flat White Dairy and Ready to Drink, with Cafe Kreyol of Manassas, Virginia, taking the Filter category.
For Sweet Bloom, the national title is the latest marker in a years-long climb from a single Lakewood storefront to a roastery with regional and now continental recognition. As the company put it on its own website, “we don't take any of it for granted.”
