I love a list and I love scratching things off it. Just for fun, I decided to make my coffee ambitions more official this year. Take a spin around my 2026 coffee bucket list and follow along as I knock out my goals.
Try more coffees from Black & White Coffee
I first learned about Black & White Coffee from our Cometeer box, and even in that lineup — where everything is supposed to be “good” — their pod actually stood out. It inspired me to order the brand’s Candy Hearts blend for Valentine’s Day, which genuinely caught me off guard (in a good way).
Black & White has built a reputation for pushing boundaries with co-ferments, wild flavor profiles, and coffees that don’t taste like “coffee” in the traditional sense. I’m curious enough to keep exploring, though David’s not so sure — ha.
Goal: try more coffees from Black & White (especially experimental/process-driven offerings) and figure out where the line is between innovation and novelty for novelty’s sake.
Complete the Nordic Best Roaster Tasting Kit by KaffeBox
The Nordics still set the bar for light roast coffee, not just in flavor clarity, but in roasting philosophy. This tasting kit pulls together coffees from the Nordic Best Roaster 2025 competition, where 27 roasters submitted their best work for blind evaluation, and the top finalists were selected by a panel of industry judges.
Included are roasters I haven’t spent enough time with yet, like The Coast Coffee (a tiny operation out of Northern Norway) and Mjøsen Kaffe — both operating in environments where light roast isn’t a trend but the default.
Goal: complete the full tasting intentionally (not casually), and recalibrate my palate around what “elite” light roast actually tastes like. Pressure-test whether I actually prefer this style… or just respect it.
Put the AeroPress Go Plus travel coffee press through real testing
I’ve avoided the AeroPress Go version of an AeroPress because it may feel like a compromise product not worthy of my travel/camping coffee kit. It’s smaller and more “portable,” but potentially less enjoyable to use.
Goal: test it in actual scenarios (travel or backcountry mornings, not ideal kitchens) and answer the only question that matters — does portability justify the downgrade, or is the standard AeroPress still the better call?
Update: First check ✅ as of April 17, 2026. Still want to further test on some camping trips this summer. Read our initial AeroPress Go Plus review here »
Make a weekend trek to Discourse Coffee in Milwaukee for savory lattes
Discourse has caught my attention with drinks that feel closer to plated dishes than coffee. Some of its experimental lattes include ingredients like herbs, oils, spices, and other savory components that show up where you’d normally expect sweetness. For instance, its Thanksgiving latte still has my head scratching.
I want to try it! In my mind, the brand is either genuinely creative and redefining what coffee can be or serving overengineered coffee for the sake of novelty.
I don’t actually know which yet.
Goal: try at least one savory-leaning drink at Discourse (and maybe see our buds the Egges while we’re up there)
Modification 4/20: Seems like Counterspell Coffee (a project from Cloud Walking Coffee in South Bend, a favorite of ours) also has savory lattes on the menu. That’s only an hour away, so this may be a better move for us.
Update 5/5: Tried the Everything Bagel cold brew with cream cheese foam in early May at Counterspell. So far, I’d say… savory coffees are not for me! But I also just learned that Discourse opened a Chicago location in the West Loop, so the mission to try theirs is back on.
Test the Hario V60 Neo coffee dripper as a “beginner-friendly” pour-over
Pour-over has a usability problem: Most people quit before they get good results. The V60 Neo claims to fix that with flow restriction and more forgiving geometry.
Goal: see if this actually lowers the skill floor or if it’s just another unnecessary variation on a perfectly good brewer.
Build a short list of top-tier roasteries in Munich and Salzburg — then actually go
We’re heading to southern Europe in the fall and I want to do it right.
Goal: identify 3-5 serious roasters in each city before the trip — not tourist spots. Holler if you have suggestions. (We loved the Barn in Berlin).
Make an herbal cold brew
Our Christmas cold brew worked because we didn’t overdo it. One cinnamon stick, controlled extraction, and voila, a seasonal coffee that didn’t taste like a candle.
I want to try making cold brew steeped with two of my favorite flavors for sweets — lavender and rosemary — and see if the end result tastes like soap or not.
Goal: adapt the exact same framework (Toddy, concentrate, long steep) and figure out if either of these can enhance coffee instead of masking it.
Get a milk frother and master cold foam at home
I can’t stop thinking about the Putu (pandan) latte with coconut cold foam I had at Uncle Fung’s Coffee Stall in April. And I’ve been loving the Ube Macchiato drink with cold foam from Starbucks, too.
This year, I want to get a dedicated frother and figure out how to produce my own tight, stable, coffee-shop-quality cold foam. Yum!
Goal: Make cold foam at home!!!
Update: Check (April 12, 2026) Read my guide on how to make cold foam at home
In conclusion
I broke down the biggest signals from the latest National Coffee Association data here. What stood out most is how much of what used to feel “niche” — specialty coffee, home brewing, flavored drinks, cold brew year-round — has become the default behavior.
This bucket list is essentially me exploring those shifts at a personal level, and adding a little fun and whimsy to the mix for good measure.
What I’m optimizing for this year:
- Fewer random gear purchases, more intentional testing
- Clarity on what’s actually worth recommending versus what just looks cool online
- Experiences over accumulation
What about you — what’s on your coffee bucket list for 2026?
