Podium Index aggregates coffee competition results to rank roasters

Competition results drive the index

I see the Podium Index as a way to cut through the marketing claims of thousands of US roasters who call themselves "award-winning" without proof. The index aggregates results from the U.S. Coffee Championships Roasting, Golden Bean Americas, Golden Bean World Series, the Good Food Awards coffee category, and the Global Coffee Awards into a single leaderboard to eliminate marketing-speak. This system uses a weighted composite of podium finishes, adjusting for competition significance and recency. A result from this year counts in full, while older wins count for progressively less. This adjustment reflects how quickly roasting teams and sourcing relationships change. The index rewards roasters who place consistently across different events instead of those who rely on a single standout result. Sam LaRobardiere, co-founder of Podium Coffee Club, says they built the index to find answers they can "stand behind" using results from credible competitions rather than roaster notes or opinions. The index website, podiumcoffeeclub.com/pages/podium-index, updates as new results come out, typically within days of each event.

Subscription details and reviews

Podium Coffee Club is an independent, non-VC-backed subscription service. It holds a 5.0 rating from Forbes Vetted, which also named it the "Best Upgrade Coffee Subscription." The service ships all coffee within 24 hours of roasting. Podium filters its subscription tiers using the index. The Platinum tier ships only from roasters meeting the competition standard. Anna Perling of Forbes Vetted called Lamppost Coffee Roasters’ Golden Bean World Series-winning Colombian coffee, a blend of two co-ferments from Edwin Norena, "transcendent" in a review of the Platinum tier. Wired says the service provides the best way to sample beans from the best roasters across the country. CNN Underscored’s reviewer called a Podium coffee "by far the best coffee I tasted." Bon Appetit calls the Platinum tier a "great coffee subscription" for anyone looking to discover award-winning roasters from across the country. The current coffee market contains dozens of roasters claiming "award-winning" status, which creates confusion because there is no consistent way to verify those claims.