And so it is that we have reached the Semi-Finals of the 2025 Sprudge Ultimate Coffee Bracket Challenge. It began with 32 and now we’re down to this, the Final Four. There are have been thrills, spills, and more than a few surprises in the past week and a half of Bracketsprology. Perhaps none more than the early round exit of the two-seed in the influencer bracket Emma Chamberlain. And like an ultra-low temp pasteurized milk, the cream has risen to the top.
The Final Four is essentially like the conference championship. It’s where we will find out the people’s choice for a coffee drink as well as their choice of coffee influencer. (Before we pit them against one another for some Finals weirdness. A drink versus a content creator. What/who do you choose?) And we’ve got pretty iconic matchups on both sides.
First up is the drinks, where the two-seed Cappuccino faces off against the four-seed, V60. V60’s road here includes avenging the early exit of five-seed Mocha by routing 11-seed Iced Americano (y’all did Mocha dirty btw) before bouncing the one-seed Espresso. Now V60 has to face off against espresso again, this time with the ideal amount of perfectly textured milk playing Robin to its Batman. Cappuccino is basically a superteam.
On the other side of the bracket are the influencers, and while there are a lot of young upstarts, the people spoke loud and clear: they like the old-school and they like Barista Champions. It’s a true heavyweight bout. We’ve got the one-seed @JimSeven versus three-seed @MorganDrinksCoffee. World Barista Champion James Hoffmann up against US Barista Champion and WBC Runner-Up Morgan Eckroth. It’s YouTube versus TikTok in a platform battle for the ages. Both more or less rolled their way to the Semis, save for close calls from @Emstagrim and @LanceHedrick for Eckroth and Hoffmann, respectively. Now it’s a clash of the titans, and I can’t call it.
But you can. Make sure you head over to the Sprudge Instagram Stories later today to cast your vote for each of the Final Four matchups. Once all the votes have been counted, we’re going to run it back with the winners one last time on Friday to decide the champion of the 2025 Sprudge Ultimate Coffee Bracket Challenge. It’s spro time!
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
