We are still buzzing like a sensory referee on the day of the finals during the American barista weekend championship.
In case you miss him, Kay Cheon Z Dune Coffee Roasters In Santa Barbara, California, she did what we all knew that she would do at some point. He won it all. (Check all our lives of each routine in the first round, semi -finals and finals.)
And although the obvious star from the weekend is Cheon, in the barista championship he has much more than the one who occupies the first. And thanks to the event, we are able to enlarge and see the wider view of everything that turned out to be, and some trends begin to focus. More than a elementary competitive feed, these trends have a way to sail to a cafe around the world. The barista championships are a kind of testing of ideas, of which the most successful affects the larger coffee industry. They bleed the edge of special coffee. Natural processing, anaerobic fermentation, Mahlkönig Ek43 grinder, all these things are now ubiquitous in a special coffee and can trace their popularity back to the barista competition.
There were four main ones from this year’s American Barista Championships. Four things that can move to future competitions, and perhaps to a cafe around the world. So let’s immerse ourselves!
The evolution of the dairy course
In the barista competition, there is no chicken in a stream than a milk course. It has been like that for several years and is still changing. The basic removal of this change was the adoption of the freeze and/or crackers process and a change in the rule enabling alternative milk. The competitors have long been looking for the sweetest, most creamy milk they could get, and it was traditionally done by obtaining milk. But now freeze distillation and cryodeza allow competitors to boost the fat content and sweetness of their milk to unusual levels. And with the introduction of alternative milk, as well as dairy products without lactose, competitors can create non -standard milk mixtures to best match their espressos. On USBC 2025 we saw mixtures, including oat, macadamia, pistachios and even roasted coconut.
All this reached the height of the fever in 2024, and this year competitors seem to reckon with the effects below. In particular, how is espresso – often gesha or something equally subtle – goes through all this additional fat content? The answer to many competitors were smaller drinks with low shots in the style of ristretto. While espresso on other courses circulated about 1: 2 espresso coffee, some going even like 1: 3, the milk course trained in a different direction. 1: 1.5 was repeated, and even several competitors ran even 1: 1. This espresso style allows flavors to break through affluent, coating milk.
Another trend related to the milk course that we noticed this year was its placement in the order of the course. In particular, a significant number of competitors decided to lead their routine with a dairy course, which is historically infrequent in the format of Barista competition. There can be many factors leading to this. There is a fact that competitors usually want to end their routine with a bang, and the milk course does not provide these robust, unforgettable flavors (no competitor at the USBC 2025 has offered the third milk course). Fat drinks with milk certainly appeared in it that appeared at the place of lead, generally and then a drink with a signature. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Sig Bev requires more time for construction than espresso, which allows you to raise more space to return after a milk drink.
There are other considerations that could also lead to this. First of all, many competitors decided to browse their espresso for their bevs. And to have time to nippy down properly, this course would have to appear later in the set. To sum up, it is a milk course that is still evolving and remains in the flow – and mastery of it remains the key to developing points on the stage.
The hottest coffee on USBC 2025
There were two distinctive names from this year’s competition, one producer and the other diversity. Julio Madrid was a great name in the production of coffee on USBC 2025. Appearing in four different routine – and with many different varieties – the director of Finca La Riveria and Finca Milan in Risaralda, Columbia was the most common collaborator of the producer this year. The name of Jamison is known in the competition and although Julio Madrid is not entirely unknown in special coffee circles, its frequency this year was certainly not on my Bingo card.
But the biggest name this year was ombligon. Ethiopian coffee Landrace Variety, which has been grown in Colombia since then, was used by two competitors this year. These two competitors? USBC champion, Kay Cheon and a USBC 2ND Place Isaiah Sheese final. Ombligon was a coffee used by last year’s winner, the USBC 2024 Frank La champion.
All this to say that the ombligon is now so balmy, the omebligon. Expect you to see it in a cafe nearby in the coming years, that is, if barista players do not catch all for themselves.
Fortress about baking competition
There was one more name that we heard a lot, talking about competitive coffees, one that we never printed, because it seemed a bit too too in baseball, but it is still significant. Almost every competitor who mentioned the roaster that they used for coffee said they used Fortress. Most competitors mentioned S7, which has a capacity of 850 g or about two pounds – it’s more or less sample. But it seems that this is more than just the size of the party.
In his interview after Finals Dolum Mary’s, like Ryan, he mentioned that he had to stand basically as to bake on him, because he is as essentially different than other smokers (of which the former USBC champion and the Kyle Ramage interviewer agreed). It makes sense. The fortress is vertically oriented and is based on electricity and halogen heating, as opposed to established gas -powered drum smoking. Now I’m not a smoking room, so I can’t tell you exactly how it all affects the roast, but I can say that it seems that competitive coffees are popular from production coffee. The coffee themselves are not only different, but now the machines – and the baking method itself – it is also different for their production. I think it’s significant; He talks about the level of purposefulness, which takes place at every stage of the process of competing at an event such as USBC, but this is also another proof of how far a lot of coffee has been removed at the level of competitors from everyday drinkers, that most coffee lovers are elated.
Espresso goes to the SPA of the day
This trend is certainly not recent, but it still intensifies. The number of gadgets used to extract the most in espresso. There are frozen arrows that close to block volatile aromatic. There are auto-jacks that provide constant pressure, and prices exert pressure on the disc. And then there are distribution tools. So many distribution tools. There are devices such as Autocomb This helps to break down lumps in bed to promote more even extraction. This year was a great addition NCD pulseA recent WBC Sas Sestic champion distribution tool that uses vibration technology to improve the “vertical distribution” of espresso areas. They get these coffee
Bonus investigation: Who took our drink tokens?!
Not quite a trend – or at least we certainly hope it is not – but Someone took our tokens of drinks And we think it is quite disappointing.
So we were, preparing all cameras for ads who would go to the finals. Thanks to the kindness of Black & White hosts, we received two (2) drink tokens for the night atmosphere, which we left in our command center unattended for no more than five minutes, while we have prepared everything to provide you with our industry report from this amazing event.
And in this low window some sticky cramp with our tokens! I grabbed them from the table.
If you have any potential customers that lead to the secure return of our beloved coupons to drinks, please contact the contact form or name them in the comments on social media. And if you are the wicked filmer who did it, Shaaaaaaaame. Let your espressos be acidic and your milk rolled up forever.
