The US Barista Championship took place over the weekend in Denver. Jak Michael Ryan of Proud Mary in Austin, Texas and will go on to represent America at the World Barista Championship later this year in Panama. But the US wasn’t the only nation hosting a Barista Championship this month. Our neighbors to the north, Canada, recently held their barista competition, where they crowned their own representative for this year’s WBC.
Introducing the 2026 Canada Barista Champion, Jill Hoff of Monogram Coffee.
For those who have been plugged into coffee competitions, the name Jill Hoff will certainly ring some bells. She was the 2020 Canada Barista Champion and a WBC Semi-Finalist in 2021. The name Monogram definitely will as well. Co-owner Ben Put is a seven-time Canada Barista Champion with nearly as many WBC Finals appearances to his name.
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The event took place on home turf for Hoff, at Monogram’s Schoolhouse Roasting Collaborative in Calgary, Alberta. And though it happened over 1,000 miles away, Hoff’s winning routine would have fit in nicely at the USBC. Highlights include the use of Liberica as well as a new variety Chakira, both of which were featured at the USBC. There was a Better Vessel, freeze-distilled, lactose-free milk, and oleo saccharum. These are all things I typed many, many, many times over the weekend in Denver.
Now a two-time champion, Hoff will be heading to Panama in October to represent Canada at the World Barista Championship. She’ll be looking to improve upon her 15th place finish in 2021, and more than that, become the first World Barista Champion from the Great White North. Canada is a perennially strong competitor at Worlds and is frequently finds themselves in the Finals. Yet they’ve never been able to punch through and win it all.
Will it finally happen in 2026? Will Jill Hoff be the one to do it? We’ll know in four months.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
