With the ink officially dry on Day One, our attention now turns to Day Two, the back half of Round One at the 2026 US Barista Championship. Hello again and welcome back to Sprudge’s live coverage of the 2026 Us Barista Championship. We’re here at the Huckleberry Roasters HQ in Denver, Colorado to bring you all the action from every single routine as it happens.
We’ve got 14 competitors on the schedule for today and if you thought yesterday was stacked (if you’re just joining us, our Day One recap will get you caught up), then you’re in for yet another treat today. We’ll have three former USBC Finalists on the docket as well as the 2022 USBC Champion Morgan Eckroth and two-time US Brewers Cup Champion Elika Liftee. Put it another way, one in every three people competing today has either been to a Finals or won a national coffee championship event. These are Semi-Finals sort of numbers and we’ve been blessed with them for both days of Round One.
Speaking of Semi-Finals, that’s everyone’s goal today. There are 18 spots up for grabs for Saturday, and securing one is the next big hurdle for anyone who has eyes on Sunday’s Finals (to say nothing of Panama in October). But first things first, and that is a strong performance in Round One. We’ll be updating this article all day long as new competitors take the stage, so make sure you are staying locked in to Sprudge. And before you know it, we’ll have some Semi-Finalists.
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
We’re kicking things off strong today with six place finisher from last year’s US Barista Championship, Jak Michael Ryan of Proud Mary Coffee in Austin, Texas. Ryan is the last of the 2025 Finalists to compete this year, following Jason Yeo, Noel Goodwin, and Circle Chan’s performances yesterday.
He competes today with a Gesha variety from La Salsa on Santa Barbara, Honduras. Produced by Benjamin Paz, Gesha Lot No. 1 is from Hacienda Esmeralda seed stock and has undergone a darkroom dried natural processing, and as an espresso served in frozen cups, it expresses flavors of raspberry, nectarine, and backer’s chocolate, with a medium weight and a juicy texture.
Moving on to the milk course, Ryan opts for a 50/50 blend of freeze-distilled lactose-free milk and whole milk, and when added to the Gesha creates notes of white chocolate cheesecake, caramel, and malt cookie.
Lacto-fermented passionfruit juice, a clarified solution of plantain and honey, and mango distillate get combined with the espresso for Ryan’s signature beverage course, expressing new flavors of orange blossom, date, and kiwi.
Jak Michael Ryan calls time at 15:01. Day Two is off to a good start.
Meg Skop (she/her) – The Coffee Movement – San Francisco, CA
One Finalist not enough for you? Well you’re in luck because here’s another. It’s Meg Skop of The Coffee Movement in San Francisco, California. Skop is a veteran competitor and her excitement and general effervescence is always a pleasure to watch.
Skop’s coffee today is a blend of two different coffees from Cauca, Colombia, both grown at 1,900MASL. The 90/10 blend consists of a Gesha variety produced by Diego Bermudez along with a Pink Bourbon by Wilton Benitez, Bermudez’s neighbor. The latter was rested for 65 days. The mosto-fermented coffees roasted by Moxie get vacuum-sealed and blended to reduce CO2 and as espressos have flavors of juicy peach, yellow mango, and a black tea finish
For the milk course, Skop combines 95% A2 cream-top whole milk with 5% freeze-dried milk, all non-homogenized, that she vacuum seals and blends, and when combined with the espresso, has notes of nougat, melted vanilla ice cream, and a buttery peach Danish.
Skop is getting her money’s worth out of the vacuum blender, using it for her signature beverage course as well. She combines jasmine flower and coconut milk, mango olea saccharum, pineapple mango mosto juice, red chili olive oil, and espresso, all of which gets vacuum blended. The results are notes of cherry blossom and lime zest on the nose and flavors of cherry limeade, marzipan, lemon candy, and a warming habanero finish.
Meg Skop calls time at 15:05.
Christian Ortega (he/him) – Olympia Coffee – Seattle, WA
Now up to the stage is Christian Ortega of Olympia Coffee in Seattle, Washington. Ortega has selected a carbonically macerated, white honey processed Gesha for his routine, produced by Sebatian Ramirez of Finca El Placer in Quindio, Colombia.
We’ve got our first technical timeout of the 2026 USBC. The microphones are not being agreeable today. Ortega will have to pick back up at the 2:41 mark where he left off. It’s a tough thing to do, to come back when your flow is interrupted, made all the more difficult by the fact that competitors don’t have their own music during the first round to help them keep track of time.
After a bit of a ramp up, Ortega is back on track and his Gesha espressos have notes of bergamot, meyer lemon, and apricot (and if that isn’t the most old school Yirgacheffe style flavor calls, I don’t know what is. Remember Yirgacheffe?).
For his milk, Ortega has created a blend of 64% freeze-distilled lactose free milk, 35% freeze distilled oat milk, and 1% cryo coconut powder that, when added to his espresso, creates new flavors of coconut, candied macadamia nuts, and cereal milk.
Gesha espresso, peach hibiscus tea concentrate, honey syrup, and a clarified Froot Loop milk tincture (!!!) all get hyperchilled and nitrogenated for Ortega’s sig bev, presenting flavors of dark cherry, apricot, and orange liqueur.
Christian Ortega makes a nice recovery and calls time at 14:18.
Stephanie Hernandez-Salazar (she/her) – Vignette Coffee Roasters – Greensboro, NC
Our next competitor is Stephanie Hernandez-Salazar of Vignette Coffee Roasters in Greensboro, NC. Hernandez’s theme today is the weaving of moments, which she represents with a pastel tapestry she has hand-crocheted herself.
The basis of her own tapestry here at the 2026 USBC is a Gesha variety coffee produced by Franky Hoyos at Finca El Encanto in Huila, Colombia. Starting off with the milk course, a 3:1 ratio beverage, Hernandez combines freeze-distilled lactose-free milk with Gesha espresso for notes of melted chocolate ice cream, fruity pebbles, and orange creamsicle. We’ve got back-to-back cereal calls in the milk course, and I’m not mad about it.
Moving now to the signature beverage, Hernandez incorporates piloncillo with her Gesha espresso and tops them with a coconut Jamaica cold foam, combining to create flavors of candied tamarind, dried cherry, tootsie roll, and fruited confectionary chocolate.
Finishing with the espresso course, Hernandez stirs the drinks for the judges for notes of blood orange, blood orange zest, and crafted chocolate, with a medium-light weight, silky texture, and a malted chocolate aftertaste.
Stephanie Hernandez-Salazar of Vignette Coffee Roasters calls time at 14:39.
Khoa Trinh (he/him) – Boxx Coffee Roasters – Los Angeles, CA
Our next competitor for the day is Khoa Trinh of Boxx Coffee Roasters. Trinh is the second of three Boxx representatives at this year’s USBC. The first, Manuel Torres, went yesterday. It’s an inauspicious start for Trinh, who called the second technical timeout of the day, this one within the first minute of his routine.
But Trinh seems unfazed. He’s back up and running and prepping shots to be used in the signature beverage course.
Coffee for Trinh today comes from Jameson Savage at Finca Deborah in Chiriqui, Panama. Grown at 2,200MASL, this Green Tip Gesha, as an espresso pulled at 19g in to 43g out, expresses flavors of bergamot, white florals, and green apple.
Switching now to a Gesha and Chiroso blend, Trinh uses a 50/40/10 blend of freeze-distilled whole milk, freeze-distilled lactose free milk, and coconut milk. When combined with the espresso blend, the 4:1 ratio beverage has notes of earl grey cookie and salted caramel.
For the signature beverage, Trinh combines lacto-fermented nectarine juice and asparkling fermented raspberry and rice kefir with his espresso blend, creating flavors of pink guava, rosé wine, and mojito, with a medium weight, a sparkling effervescence, and a hint of mint.
Christopher Jiongo – Java Jiongo’s – Woodbridge, VA
Moving right along now, our next competitor is Christopher Jiongo of Java Jiongo’s in Woodbridge, Virgina. To say that we are excited for Jiongo’s routine would be an understatement. It has been many years since we’ve seen honest to goodness syrup bottles in a competitor’s setup, but Jiongo is changing that and is going decidedly and wonderfully old school.
The first coffee for Jiongo today is the Destroyer Blend from Ceremony Coffee Roasters in Baltimore. It’s a combination of coffees from Colombia and Ethiopia and for Jiongo today has notes of savory peach wine with a hint of cinnamon and a creamy orange zest.
For the milk course, Jiongo switches to a different Ceremony blend, the Mass Appeal, a Mexico and Colombia blend. He adds to it a 1:1:2 blend of oat, pistachio, and whole milk.
That’s two commercial blends for Jiongo today and nary a scale in sight. A barista barista’ing at a barista competition? You love to see it.
Finishing up with the signature beverage Jiongo uses the Mass Appeal blend, to which he adds vanilla syrup and lavender syrup, finishing it off with a mascarpone cheese cold foam.
Christopher Jiongo calls time at 20:09.
Morgan Eckroth (they/she) – Onyx Coffee Lab – Portland, OR
Welcome back the champ! Next to compete is the 2022 US Barista Champion and 2022 World Barista Championship Runner-Up Morgan Eckroth. If there is anything like an odds-on favorite to win this year, it’s Eckroth. On paper, at least. But, as they say, that’s why they play the game.
Eckroth kicks off her 2026 campaign with a Gesha variety coffee produced by the Lamastus Family on the Elida Estate in Boquete, Panama. Grown at 1,900MASL and darkroom dried natural processed, as an espresso pulled 20g in to 40g out over frozen spheres, it has notes of raspberry, earl grey tea, and a chocolate covered orange finish, with a medium-light weight and round body.
For the milk course, Eckroth switches to an SL28 variety produced by Edinson Argote at Quebraditas Coffee Farm in Huila, Colombia. Pulled at a shorter 20g in to 35g out and combined with a blend of lactose-free whole milk freeze-distilled to 50% by volume, Pacific Barista Series coconut milk, and cryodesiccated whole milk powder, it has notes of milk chocolate, red cherry, and salted caramel.
Both coffee are represented in Eckroth’s signature beverage. They get hyperchilled and mixed with an orange and mango juice, bergamot and panela milk punch, and soy lecithin, all nitrogen charged and poured over a rose snow at the bottom of the cup. The finished drink has flavors of strawberry yogurt, milk chocolate, and orange creamsicle.
Onyx Coffee Lab’s Morgan Eckroth calls time at 14:50.
Miranda Huncovsky (they/she) – Go Get Em Tiger – Los Angeles, CA
Now up to the stage is Miranda Huncovsky. They are representing Go Get Em Tiger in Los Angeles, a cafe and roastery famously started by two former USBC Champions Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski.
The theme for Huncovsky today is Kaizen, the Japanese idea of changing for the better. This is presented first in the signature beverage course, a combination hyperchilled espresso, juniper berry syrup, Fever Tree tonic, nitrogen infused, and finished with a magnolia tea air. It has notes of jasmine green tea, Brisk iced tea, and orange soda.
Coffee today for Huncovsky is a yeast inoculated, darkroom dried Gesha produced by Julio Madrid at Finca Milan in Colombia. When combined with a lactose-free milk that has been freeze-distilled to 75% by volume, it presents flavors of guava Danish, macadamia nuts, and shortbread cookie.
Ending with the espresso course, Huncovsky’s Gesha has flavors of dried mango with a papaya sweetness, starfruit acidity, and a tannic bitterness.
Miranda Huncovsky calls time at a tight 13:23.
Team USA is up 2–0 over Australia at halftime.
Brandon Jarnagin (he/him) – Boxx Coffee Roasters – Los Angeles, CA
Going up next is Brandon Jarnigan, the third and final representative of Boxx Coffee Roasters in Los Angeles, California.
Jarnigan’s coffee today is a thermal shocked, yeast inoculated Gesha from Franky Hoyos at Finca El Encanto in Huila, Colombia. Pulled at 20g in to 45g out, as an espresso it has flavors of tootsie roll, banana, and candied orange with a malted chocolate finish.
We’ve got a third technical timeout for the day. Some of Jarnigan’s script has been about things not going according to plan, and I don’t want to say he spoke this technical into existence but…
Jarnigan is switching to a Nestor Lasso mosto-fermented Gesha for his next course, the milk course. He combines it with a blend of freeze-distilled lactose free milk, freeze-distilled sheep milk, and jersey cow milk, creating flavors peach cobbler, violet, and bubble gum.
The signature beverage for Jarnigan, which he has named the Rude Awakening, consists of brown butter miso, a black garlic, black pepper, and sage honey syrups, balsamic vinegar seasoned cascara tea, and Franky Hoyos espresso, combined in a cezve, heated over an open flame, and finished with a spritz of a Madagascar vanilla extract. It has savory flavors of pain au chocolat, salted toffee, and black pepper.
Brandon Jarnigan calls time at 21:55.
Divya Raghavan (she/her) – Atlanta, GA
Up now is an independent competitor out of Atlanta, Georgia. Here to the stage is Divya Raghavan.
Raghavan is not only the first competitor of the USBC to bring an Asian coffee, she’s the first one to look beyond Arabica. She competes with a blend of two different Liberica coffees, 80% coming from a black honey processed, anaerobic fermented Liberica produced in the Quang Tri province of Vietnam by 96B, and 20% from the Skia Coffee Estate in Coorg, India.
As an espresso, the Liberica blend has notes of jackfruit, cedar, and bubble gum, with a stevia and blueberry aftertaste.
Technical timeout number four. There must be something in the air. Raghavan’s routine will need to be restarted, so we are moving onto the next competitor and then we’ll be back.
Elika Liftee (he/him) – Houston, TX
We’ve got champion number two on the day, thanks to two-time US Brewers Cup champion and independent competitor Elika Liftee.
Liftee is also competing with a Liberica this one an anaerobic fermented, natural processed coffee from Indonesia. As part of his breve white mocha-inspired signature beverage, it gets incorporated with a cold-pressed pineapple shrub, clarified tropical white chocolate, panela simple syrup, orange blossom water, shaken, chilled, and garnished with black Hawaiian sea salt. It produces flavors of candied plum, peach ring candy, milk chocolate, and rose.
Turning now to the milk course, Liftee blends the Liberica with a Chakira variety coffee from Boquete, Panama. Combined with a blend of 60% freeze-distilled whole milk and 40% lactose-free freeze-distilled whole milk, his drink presents flavors of peach, butterscotch, malted chocolate, and orange.
Finally, for the espresso, the Liberica is cut to 10% and the Chakira goes up to 90% to let the Ethiopian Landrace variety to shine. Pulled over frozen spheres, it has notes of peach, orange, and earl grey tea, with a medium and soft texture and a mango and orange blossom finish.
Elika Liftee calls time at 15:16.
Divya Raghavan continued…
And we’re back with Divya Raghavan. We’re picking back up with Raghavan after the espresso course and let’s pretend like this little hiccup never happened.
The second for Raghavan today is the milk course. For it, she combines her Liberica espresso with a 2:2:1 blend of freeze-distilled lactose-free milk, lactose-free milk, and coconut milk. Together they create notes of banana pudding and tiramisu.
For the signature beverage, Raghavan incorporates guava nectar, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and sea salt and chili syrup, finished with a rose and jasmine water mist. When added to the Liberica espresso, it creates notes of pomegranate molasses, tamarind, and lemon black tea, with a black pepper aftertaste.
Divya Raghavan calls time at 14:46 on her second attempt of the day.
Juan Diaz (he/him) – Know Where Coffee – Miami, FL
Our final former USBC Finalist of Round One is Juan Diaz of Know Where Coffee in Miami, Florida. The theme of Diaz’s routine is honesty, and so to let the truth of the coffees come through without the backstory, he will be giving information about his coffees at the end of the routine. What we do know is that it is made up of three different natural fermentation methods and roasted on three different roasters.
First up for the mystery coffee, this one roasted on a Loring, is the espresso course. Pulled over frozen spheres, it has notes of red cherry, raspberry, 70% dark chocolate, and tangerine.
Moving on to the milk course, Diaz has created a blend of 70% full lactose milk, 20% reduced caramelized almond milk, and 10% freeze-distilled milk, the Diedrich roasted mystery espresso has flavors of rum raisin, strawberry cheesecake, and salted butter cookies.
Switching to a Stronghold roasted coffee, Diaz combines three expressions of grape—a clarified grape punch, dried raisin syrup, and a grape shrub—all blended to create notes of lime sherbet, skittles, pineapple orange juice, and a hop aftertaste.
That coffee by the way, is an SL28 variety grown in Cauca, Colombia by Paola and Carlos Trujillo at Finca Patio Bonito.
Juan Diaz calls time at 14:57.
Olivia Morris (they/them) – Little Bear Coffee – Albuquerque, NM
Our last competitor of Round One is Olivia Morris at Little Bear Coffee in the ABQ.
Morris competes today with a washed Gesha from Jhonatan Gasca Zarza’s first harvest of the variety on his Cauca, Colombia farm, Finca Bella Vista.
Starting with the signature beverage, Morris combines a coffee lemon peel infusion, chamomile hop water tea, peach oleo saccharum, and espresso, all stirred over ice and finished with a sprig of lavender, creating flavors of pine resin, overripe pineapple, and pink guava, with rosemary aromatics.
For the milk course, Morris has created a 50/50 blend of freeze-distilled lactose-free milk and Minor Figures oat milk. Combined in a 1:1 ratio with the Gesha, the milk beverage presents notes of candied praline, salted caramel, and pomelo.
The last course for Round One is espresso, and Morris’s first harvest Gesha has notes of limoncello, silver needle white tea, light florals, and dried apricot.
And Olivia Morris calls time at 14:40.
That’s it for Round One! We’ll have Semi-Finals announcements, so stay tuned!
