WOFEX 2026 ran July 29 to August 1 across the World Trade Center and SMX Convention Center in Pasay. It is the biggest food and foodservice show in the Philippines, and coffee is one corner of it rather than the point of it. This is the record of that edition: what the coffee programme covered, how the Lance Hedrick rumour resolved, and what carries over to the next one.
Ran
29 Jul - 1 Aug 2026
Coffee Series: 29-31 Jul
Where
WTC + SMX, Pasay
Mall of Asia complex
One name was announced. The other never was.
Lance Hedrick announced on 18 July 2026 that he would be at WOFEX with H Proper Coffee Roasters for the full run, July 29 to August 1, in what he called his first visit to the Philippines. He announced it himself, which is the only reason this page ever carried his name.
He posted it on 18 July: “Philippines! I'll be attending WOFEX with @hpropercoffeeroasters July 29 to August 1” , calling the trip a bucket-list one and promising SEY on hand for impromptu brew sessions in his free time. H Proper billed the meet-and-greet at their booth on the SMX side.
The three weeks before that are why this page exists. It went up on 9 July saying plainly that nothing was confirmed. On 15 July H Proper teased an unnamed guest and the Manila group chats filled with one name, but a silhouette and a comment thread are not a source, so this page still did not print it. On 18 July he printed it himself, and the page changed the same day and cited his post.
What this page will not tell you is how it went. We hold no first-party record of the floor itself, so there is none here. H Proper's account carries their own.
James Hoffmann was never announced. Nothing appeared on WOFEX's channels or on his own, before the show or since. The two names travelled together in one rumour; only one of them was ever sourced. Nothing has appeared on WOFEX's channels since either. Treat any post claiming otherwise, then or now, the way this page treated the first one.
What WOFEX is
WOFEX is the Philippines' flagship food, beverage, hospitality and foodservice trade exhibition. It is huge, held across two venues at once, the World Trade Center and the SMX Convention Center, and aimed at the whole industry: suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, chefs, restaurateurs, retailers and investors. Most of the floor is equipment, ingredients and foodservice. Coffee is one part of a much larger show.
Get that right before booking a day at the next one. Treat it as a trade expo where coffee has a seat, and it is still worth a drinker's time: it puts roasters, importers, green traders and equipment vendors in one building, and the conversations lean commercial in a way the consumer festivals do not. Go for the supply side of coffee rather than the cupping-table side.
Dates for the next edition have not been announced. WOFEX publishes them at wofex.com.
The coffee programme, 2026
Three things carried the coffee that edition, and their shape tends to hold from one year to the next.
29-31 July · SMX
The Coffee Series
Paid seminar programming on the coffee business, opening on July 29 and running through the WOFEX University track to July 31. Built for people who work in coffee rather than people who drink it. Three cafe-side sessions ran this edition:
- Barista mastery — essential coffee techniques
- Designing a cafe menu for profitability and sustainability
- Designing cafe spaces for customer flow and comfort
Seats were enrolled separately from expo entry, at ₱2,000 per topic onsite and ₱1,800 over Zoom, through WOFEX University. Worth knowing before the next one: an expo pass does not cover the seminars.
All four days · SMX, 2nd floor
FOODSERVE beverage hall
The drinks side of the show: coffee, tea and beverage suppliers plus the machines behind the counter. This is where you taste what roasters and equipment brands are pushing that year, and it is the part of the floor a drinker should budget the most time for.
Varies by edition
Coffee competitions
WOFEX runs coffee-competition programming with the Filipino Coffee Institute, with espresso, brewing and roasting battles across its editions. The categories and the schedule change from year to year, and WOFEX publishes them per edition.
Pick your corner before you walk in.
A show this size will flood you. By the fourth or fifth cup your palate is spent. The way to get value out of a floor that big is to taste with intent: know which corner of the Process Spectrum you are hunting in, and route to the booths most likely to deliver. This holds for any of the three Philippine shows, not just this one.
Bright, floral, tea-like.
Balanced, chocolatey, familiar.
Juicy, fruit-forward, sweet.
Funky, fermented, unconventional.
Don't know your corner yet? The palate quiz takes less than a minute, and it is the same map whichever show you go to next.
Roasters to seek out
Philippine roasters in the Cascara cellar with active, well-developed lineups, ranked by how many coffees we track from each. Never an exhibitor list, which is the organizers' to publish, but it is the part of a show that outlives the weekend: these roasters ship year-round, and most of what gets poured on that floor is buyable from one of them afterwards.
Makati
Third-wave specialty roastery sourcing from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and the Philippines, with cafes in Makati, Ortigas,…
Paranaque
Cebu City
Cebu City roaster offering traceable Philippine coffee with farm-to-cup transparency, shipping single origins and rare lots…
Makati
Makati cafe and roastery serving specialty single-origin coffee roasted in-house, with branches on Jimenez and San Isidro.
Muntinlupa
Curve Coffee Collaborators is a Philippine specialty roaster focused on award-winning, traceable single-origin and microlot…
Quezon City
Makati
Makati specialty coffee roaster and equipment distributor (La Marzocco, Rocket), with branches across Metro Manila.
Manila
Escolta Coffee Company is a Manila-based specialty roaster focused on Philippine-origin coffees — sourcing and roasting from…
San Juan
San Juan-based specialty roaster focused on light-roast beans for retail and wholesale to quality-driven cafes.
Mandaluyong
Mandaluyong specialty coffee roaster supplying roasted beans, barista training and equipment, with a flagship inside Shangri-La…
Cagayan De Oro
Davao City
Davao specialty roaster founded by Beauford Ma, sourcing from independent farms worldwide and award-winning Philippine…
Mandaluyong
Mandaluyong specialty coffee retailer and roaster catering to home enthusiasts, with branches on Sheridan and Mabini and a wide…
Quezon City
Quezon City specialty roaster passionately roasting local and imported single-origin and blended beans since 2016, with fresh…
Makati
Third-wave Manila cafe and roastery co-founded by Bryant Dee, roasting single-origin and Filipino-African espresso blends…
Antipolo
Working a trade floor without burning out.
Written for this floor, true of every one since.
Register first, arrive early. WOFEX is entry-by-registration, not a walk-up gate, and the seminars are a second transaction on top. Sort both on wofex.com before the day. Opening-day queues are long, and the Coffee Series lands on that first day.
Eat first. Coffee on an empty stomach reads sharper, more acidic, and more fatiguing. This is a food expo, so there is no excuse. A real meal before the beverage hall changes how everything tastes.
Spit by the second hour. Sommelier rules. After about four cups your receptors are overloaded and your judgement collapses. Treat the beverage hall like a cupping table, not a coffee crawl.
Take notes on your phone. By the time you're home you will not remember which roaster had the white-grape Yirgacheffe. Photograph the bag, type one sentence about the cup. Two-line notes beat zero-line memory.
Talk supply, not just taste. The edge of a trade show over a festival is the people behind the booth: green traders, importers, equipment reps. Ask where a coffee came from and who else carries it. That is where the floor pays off.
Find your corner.
Eleven questions, less than a minute. The cellar then routes you to the Philippine lots closest to your palate, which is the same map you would walk the next hall with.
Start calibrating →Poured at WOFEX? Get listed in the cellar.
Someone who walked out of SMX with a bag they loved goes home and searches for it. If your roastery is not in the Cascara directory, that search ends nowhere, and weeks after the floor closed it is still happening. Listing is free: a permanent profile with your full bean lineup and member ratings, indexed and discoverable year-round.
gil@cascara.cafe →Common questions
When was WOFEX 2026?
July 29 to August 1, 2026, across two venues at once — the World Trade Center Manila and the SMX Convention Center in Pasay. The Coffee Series ran from July 29 at SMX through the WOFEX University seminar track to July 31. Dates for the next edition have not been announced; WOFEX publishes them at wofex.com.
Was Lance Hedrick at WOFEX 2026?
Lance Hedrick announced on 18 July 2026 that he would be at WOFEX with H Proper Coffee Roasters for the full run, July 29 to August 1, in what he called his first visit to the Philippines. He announced it himself, which is the only reason this page ever carried his name. What this page cannot tell you is how it went: we hold no first-party record of the show floor itself, so it carries the announcement and nothing beyond it.
Was James Hoffmann at WOFEX 2026?
James Hoffmann was never announced. Nothing appeared on WOFEX's channels or on his own, before the show or since. The two names travelled together in one rumour; only one of them was ever sourced. That is a separate question from Lance Hedrick, whose own announcement is on the record. Treat any post claiming Hoffmann without an official source the way this page treated the rumour at the time.
Is there coffee at WOFEX?
Yes, though WOFEX is a full food-and-foodservice expo rather than a coffee show, so coffee sits inside it. In 2026 it came in three parts: the Coffee Series seminars from July 29, the FOODSERVE beverage hall on the second floor of SMX with coffee, tea and equipment suppliers, and competition programming WOFEX runs with the Filipino Coffee Institute. The seminars are enrolled separately from expo entry — ₱2,000 per topic onsite, ₱1,800 over Zoom, through WOFEX University.
Where is WOFEX held and how do I get there?
Two adjacent venues in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay — the World Trade Center Manila and the SMX Convention Center, held simultaneously. It is reachable by car with on-site parking, by the MOA shuttle network, and a short ride from the LRT-1 / EDSA corridor. In 2026 the coffee programming sat on the SMX side.
Is WOFEX free to attend?
WOFEX is a trade expo, so entry is by registration rather than a walk-up gate. Registration and any trade-day rules are published on wofex.com, which is the source of truth. Seminar seats are a separate purchase from entry.
What's the difference between WOFEX, the Philippine Coffee Expo, and the Manila Coffee Festival?
Three separate events with three different organizers. WOFEX is the giant food-and-foodservice trade expo, where coffee is one hall inside a much bigger show; the 2026 edition ran July 29 to August 1. The Philippine Coffee Expo (June, Makati) is coffee-only and trade-leaning, with the PCQC judging and green auction inside it. The Manila Coffee Festival (July) is the consumer-facing one. We have guides for the other two, linked at the bottom.
How should I work the coffee floor at WOFEX?
Decide your palate corner before you go — Clean, Classic, Fluid, or Experimental — and route to the roasters in that corner first. Eat before you arrive; coffee on an empty stomach distorts everything by your fourth cup. Spit, don't swallow, after the first hour. The palate quiz below takes less than a minute and gives you a map for the floor.