The 2022 US Coffee Championships made its triumphant return last month, taking place as part of the Specialty Coffee Expo after a two-year hiatus. All six disciplines—Barista Championship, Brewers Cup, Coffee in Good Spirits, Cup Tasters, Roasters, and Latte Art—crowned a new (or repeating) champion over the course of the three days event in Boston, but save for one Very Online Barista Champion, you may not have seen any of it at all. That’s because this year, as opposed to previous years where the USBC was livestreamed, the SCA elected not to broadcast any of the competitions as they happened.
But coffee competition viewers can now rejoice, as the US Coffee Championships has posted to YouTube every routine from the US Barista Championship, Brewers Cup, Coffee in Good Spirits, and Cup Tasters!
That’s right, 89 videos, over 20 hours of coffee competition content are all live and ready for your viewing pleasure over on the USCC’s YouTube page. Whoever your favorite competitor was in any of these four events, there’s a video for each of their routines, multiples in fact if they advanced to the later rounds and got a second to perform a second or third time even.
And while in previous years, you were able to watch the Barista Championship as it happened, this year’s broadcast, though not as timely, is much more equitable, more evenly distributed across the four competitions. (There isn’t much of a “performance” to speak of in the Roasters or Latte Art competitions, though it would have been nice to see all those highly technical milk squiggles.)
So if you’re jonesing for a coffee competition fix and just can’t wait another month and a half for the World Coffee Championships for Coffee in Good Spirits, Cup Tasters, Cezve/Ibrik, Latte Art, and Roasters in Milan (never mind the four-plus months you’ll have to wait for the World Barista and Brewers Cup in Melbourne), head on over to the US Coffee Championships’ YouTube channel to relive the glory of the 2022 US Coffee Championship. It should keep you busy for a few hours at least.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
