The InterAmerican Houston team welcomed some special visitors into their beautiful office just a few weeks ago. Twenty-four coffee professionals, along with a drove of volunteers and spectators, took the stage to compete in the U.S. Coffee Championships (USCC) Cup Tasters Preliminary.
If you are not familiar with Cup Tasters, it is perhaps the most riveting of the USCC competitions. Competitors test their sensory skills through "triangulation," in which they are given three cups and tasked with identifying which cup is unlike the other two solely by tasting the coffee. But that’s not all! Competitors must do this for five different flights of coffee, as fast as they can! The person with the most correct answers in the shortest amount of time wins.
A competitor at the 2022 USCC Cup Tasters preliminary.
Speed really does make the difference. First-place winner Inwook Park beat runner-up Luce Avenue by just one second, followed closely by Charles Gonzalez. These three have been awarded automatic placement in the Regional Competitions, where they will compete again in hopes of moving on to the Championships in the spring of 2023.
This was InterAmerican Houston’s second time playing host to the USCC Cup Tasters competition. Previously, they hosted the 2019 Houston Prelim (which awarded first place to then first-time competitor / long-time employee Adrianne Burnap!). In the interim, US Coffee Champs Competitions took a bit of a hiatus through the initial wave of the Covid 19 pandemic. The break made it all the more joyful to reconnect with this special facet of the coffee community.
Competition Community
While InterAmerican Coffee Houston opened its doors, the event was organized and executed by Houston Coffee Collective. Established in 2018, the group is composed entirely of volunteers, individuals who are committed to connecting and supporting local coffee professionals — which is no small thing. The amount of time and energy required to create a successful event is tremendous, and the Houston community really stepped up, donating goods and services from across Texas. In the end, community generosity contributed roughly two-thirds of the funds, supplementing the fees paid by competitors.
InterAmerican Coffee colleagues Crystal Reyes, Camila Topke, Arifa Tahmina and LaWanda Sandles hosted the event, which was put together by the Houston Coffee Collective.
“Houston hasn’t had a lot of action in the competition world, and especially not in the past couple of years. So, it was great to be able to bring that outside connection to our local coffee community. In the end, I also believe that the volunteers got the same value of experience as the competitors. It’s a lot of fun to be behind the scenes and connecting with other coffee people,” said Stacey Wright, lead community coordinator for the Houston Coffee Collective.
Connection is truly what drives coffee competitions. The platform brings individuals together across city and state lines. The competitions push professionals to hone their skills, and in showcasing their talents we elevate the profession to the best it can be. Coffee competitions simply cannot run without deep commitment to the craft, service to communities or passion for coffee. •
