So this is it. The last day, Sunday, the Finals of the 2026 US Barista Championship. It took three days and nearly 50 routines but we’ve finally arrived at the last six competitors, each of who will be doing one last run in hopes of being crowned the USBC Champion.
There are so many different storylines woven into this year’s Finals round, like how this has basically turned into a regional battle between three great coffee cities: Austin, San Francisco, and Portland, each of which have two representatives (Seidy Selivanow is in Vancouver, WA, just on the other side of PDX). Or like how there are three returning Finalists looking to make that next step but standing in their way is a former USBC Champion—and maybe favorite to win?—Morgan Eckroth standing in their way. Then Ziah Bloom, a first-year competitor who has made Finals in two separate events this year. What do you even do with that? And what about Seidy Selivanow, who’s looked every bit a Finalist this entire weekend? (She was one of my picks to make Finals. She’s got an air of inevitability this year.)
There’s frankly a little too much intrigue. Luckily we’ve got a whole day’s worth of high-end coffee competition to work our way through it all. So strap in, buckle up, make sure your shoelaces are tied. The action starts now, and when it’s done, we’ll have a new US Barista Champion.
Sprudge Media’s coverage of the 2026 US Barista Championship is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, Ghirardelli, Swiss Water, Cafe Imports, La Marzocco, and Huckleberry Roasters.
Livestream the 2026 US Barista Championship on YouTube hosted by event sponsor Roastronix.
Jak Michael Ryan (he/him) – Proud Mary – Austin, TX
Our first competitor of the 2026 US Barista Championship Finals is Jak Michael Ryan of Proud Mary Coffee in Austin, Texas. This is Ryan’s second year competing at the USBC and his second Finals appearance. He’ s looking to improve upon last year’s sixth place finish.
A former dancer, Ryan is no stranger to performance and he always fills the stage. Boisterous, animated, very Australian, Ryan is in his element up there and it’s pretty easy to see why he’s a real threat to win it all.
The theme for Ryan is time, particularly how time affects a coffee. Time components of his routine include a metronome (that clicks surprisingly loudly) and an hourglass. His coffee today is a function of time, of slowing it down. Gesha Lot No. 1 was produced by Benjamin Paz at La Salsa in Santa Barbara, Honduras. Grown from Hacienda Esmeralda seed stock, this coffee underwent a darkroom dried natural processing, a new processing method that allows producers to slow down the fermentation process, thus allowing them better control.
As an espresso, which Ryan pulls into frozen cups to trap in the volatile aromatic compounds, the Paz Gesha has notes of raspberry, nectarine, and a long dark chocolate finish, with a medium weight and a silky texture.
The milk course also features a time component, from the freeze-distilling. The freezing then unfreezing of milk to remove the water content is a slow process, often taking 12 hours. Ryan has freeze-distilled a lactose-free milk to 50% of its starting weight, which he has blended 1:1 with a traditional whole milk, the Gesha espresso has new flavors of white chocolate cheesecake, caramel, and spiced malt cookie.
For the signature beverage, the time component is Ryan’s time in Honduars, at La Salsa with Benjamin Paz. He incorporates this via tropical fruits he ate while at origin, creating a tiki-drink-like sig bev. Lacto-fermented passionfruit juice, a clarified solution of plantain and honey, and mango distillate all mix with Gesha for notes of orange blossom, golden raisin, and kiwi.
And Jak Michael Ryan of Proud Mary Coffee calls time at 14:49.
Ziah Bloom (he/him) – Lamppost Coffee – Austin, TX
We’re staying in Austin for our next competitor, Ziah Bloom of Lamppost Coffee. Bloom was shot out of a cannon and into this year’s competition season, his first. Having placed second in this year’s Latte Art Championship, Bloom now finds himself in the Finals of the US Barista Championship. We’ve seen competitors make it this far in their first year, but never in two competitions in the same season.
Bloom competes with a Black Honey thermal shock processed Gesha produced at Campo Hermoso in Quindio, Colombia by Edwin Noreña. Starting off with the milk course, Bloom combines the Black Honey Gesha with a 70/20/10 blend of freeze-distilled lactose-free milk, oat milk, and macadamia nut milk, creating notes of brown butter, Neapolitan ice cream, and honeycomb.
We’re seeing a different Ziah Bloom today than we were first introduced to on Thursday. It took Bloom about 10 minutes to work through the nervous energy in Round One’s performance. But here in Finals, Bloom is in complete control. The energy is still there but Bloom is the one in the driver’s seat.
As an espresso, stirred with frozen spoons to bring them to drinking temperature, Bloom’s Geshas have flavors of grape candy, lemon, black tea, and coconut sugar, with a medium-light body with a lingering citrus finish. “This is the true voice of this coffee.”
For his final course, the signature beverage, Bloom combines a clarified cascara, white cardamom, and yuzu syrup, champagne yeast fermented honey, jasmine, and cascara tea, and fresh red grape juice with hyperchilled Black Honey Gesha. After a nitrogen infusion for texture and then finished off with a lemon oil spritz, giving the drink notes of chamomile tea, caramel, apricot jam, and grapefruit juice.
Ziah Bloom calls time at 14:54. There is a sum total of four seconds separating Bloom’s slowest and fastest routines this weekend. Bloom is dialed.
We’ve got more competitors coming up, so stay tuned!
