The Specialty Coffee Association of America has announced dates and location information for the 2015 United States Coffee Championships, a four day compedium of competitions–the U.S. Barista Championship, U.S. Brewers Cup, U.S. Latte Art Championship, U.S. Cup Tasters Championship, and Roasters Choice Competition. The events will be held from February 19th-22nd in Long Beach, California at the Long Beach Arena, part of the recently renovated Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center.
The 2015 United States Barista Championship marks the first time since 2009 that this event has been staged separately from the annual SCAA Event trade show, which is being held in concert with the 2015 World Barista Championship in Seattle, Washington. That event will happen in April of 2015.
Sprudge can independently confirm information relating to one of the three upcoming United States Barista Championship regional events. A source with knowledge of the events has confirmed to Sprudge that the 2015 Big Central Barista Championship will happen in Minneapolis, Minnesota the weekend of November 7th-9th, hosted by Cafe Imports at the Uppercut Boxing Gym. This is the same site and host sponsor as last year’s wildly successful Big Central event.
Here’s a video from last year’s Big Central event from Colectivo Coffee:
Big Central will be second in the sequence of three events for the 2015 USBC cycle. Sources with knowledge of the events, speaking on condition of anonymity to Sprudge, have confirmed that the Big Western event will happen first this season, at an as-yet unspecified location and weekend during the month of October in Southern California. Big Eastern will happen last, likely at the end of November at an as-yet unspecified location in the American southeast.
Information is still #developing around dates and locations for the 2015 Big Eastern and Big Western Barista Competition events. Look to Sprudge for more information on Big Eastern and Big Western dates as they break.
Here’s a press release that came through our inbox this morning, copy and pasteboarded below:
This four-day event (Thursday – Sunday) will mark the first time the U.S. Coffee Championships have been held outside of The SCAA Event since 2009, when SCAA last hosted the World Barista Championship (WBC). This year, the WBC will be held at The SCAA Event in April 2015, organized and executed by World Coffee Events (WCE), an event management organization founded by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
The 2015 U.S. Coffee Championships will consist of the national events that lead up to the World Championships and are as follows: U.S. Barista Championship, U.S. Brewers Cup, U.S. Latte Art Championship, U.S. Cup Tasters Championship, and Roasters Choice Competition. Coffee professionals who are interested in competing are encouraged to review the Rules and Regulations for their respective competition.
For the 2015 Barista Competition and Brewers Cup, it will be required that competitors qualify in a regional competition to move on to the U.S. level. The dates for U.S. regional coffee competitions, which are the qualifying rounds for the national event, will be announced in the coming weeks.
If you are interested in competing or volunteering for one of these events, or have questions regarding the U.S. Coffee Championships, please email competitions@scaa.org. To learn more about supporting these events through sponsorship, please email sponsorship@scaa.org. More information about regional coffee competitions will be available at uscoffeechampionships.org.
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