Hi everyone, Reyna here, your friendly neighborhood Director of Training and Innovation. At the beginning of February, Olympia Coffee hosted the US Coffee in Good Spirits and US Latte Art 2026 National Championships, right above our downtown Seattle café on 5th Ave. There, the US Coffee Championships crowned two new champions, ending this year's incredibly short-lived CiGS/LAC season.
Reyna, Olympia Coffee’s Director of Training and Innovation, calibrates judges and competitors during the US Coffee in Good Spirits National Championships hosted above Olympia Coffee’s downtown Seattle café.
As a former competitor, coach, and committee member for USCiGS, it was a huge honor to host this event, and we couldn't have done it without the help of many of our friends in the industry. But you're not here to listen to me talk about community. You want the debrief of this season.
US Coffee Champs is broken into 2 rounds: regionals and nationals. Usually, in order to compete in the National competition, you must secure a high enough rank at regionals. This year, the US is exclusively hosting National championships, meaning everyone's first rodeo this season could land them a chance to represent the US at the World Coffee Championship events held later this year. That is why we made such a big deal out of this one, and probably will continue to make a big deal for the rest of the competitions we're participating in.
Richelle, Olympia Coffee’s Director of Operations, competes during the US Coffee in Good Spirits National Championships.
Hours in the lab are reduced to minutes on stage.
Richelle, our Director of Ops, has competed in USCiGS for two years in a row and has taken 2nd place both years. An incredible feat for a fresh-faced competitor who has only been on the stage for a total of 62 minutes. If you total up the amount of time your average US Coffee Champion has been on stage, usually this is something in the thousands of minutes.
I personally have spent just shy of 200 minutes on stage, which doesn’t seem like a lot when I write it out like that. But behind every minute you spend on stage is, at minimum, an hour of preparation time. Here’s the kicker about competition: even if you practice for 100 hours, the only time it matters is how you execute in that 10-minute block.
Behind every minute on stage is at minimum an hour of preparation.
Most competitors I know spend around 100 hours prepping for a single season, only to get on stage and perform for a maximum of 26–45 minutes, depending on the competition. To have two Nationals-level podium rankings and one regional First Place under her belt in only two seasons is inspiring.
US Coffee Competitions have been around since 2002, but Coffee in Good Spirits has only been happening on the US Stage since 2019. Including this year, there have only ever been 6 champions, two of whom were women. This year, we had an unprecedented turnout and sold out the bracket: 17 competitors, but only 3 of whom identify as women.
Women in Competition
When I look back at my competition history, I wish that I had an example like Richelle, a woman who celebrates her history and culture, to look up to.
Historically, Coffee Competitions have been a male-dominated part of the industry, with very few women even taking podium spots in these competitions. Actually, only 30% of all US Coffee Competitions Champions, across all competitions, have been women. When I look back at my competition history, I wish that I had an example like Richelle, a woman who celebrates her history and culture, to look up to.
Lore drop: Richelle and I have known each other since roughly 2014, before we even moved (separately) to the mainland. Before Olympia Coffee, we both lived in the same apartment complex, worked at the same coffee shop, and hustled at latte art throwdowns to afford our groceries and rent, forging an incredible (trauma) bond. We call it the dark days, and our trauma bond is why we're an unstoppable force at competition and at work.
Reyna and Richelle in 2017, already collaborating over food, coffee, and drinks—long before bringing their partnership to the competition stage.
In 2018, just after we both started working for Olympia Coffee, I participated in my first season of Barista Competition. While she wasn’t actually my coach, Richelle spent countless hours with me in the lab, tasting my weird drinks, helping me with my laundry, and feeding me when I didn’t have the energy to. She’s been with me for my competition journey since day one, and now it’s my turn to support her.
As of June, Richelle and I live just barely a mile away from each other, roughly three minutes by car if you don't hit any stop lights. This season was full of shared dinners, planned work-from-each-other's-house days, and a lot of competition-related beverage consumption, for research of course.
There were also a lot of late nights in the Olympia training lab, washing every dish in sight and attending meetings from the same computer so we didn't have to make space on the one table that we used for competition practice. It helps that she's one of my best friends, so seeing Richelle almost every day in January didn't feel like a difficult task.
Richelle, crowned by her coach, Reyna, after her routine, celebrating the journey behind the competition. |
Richelle after her 2nd place finish at the US Coffee in Good Spirits National Championships with her coach, Reyna, by her side. |
Working together for competition has made our work relationship and friendship more cohesive. Competition brings out an incredibly raw, vulnerable side to even the most mentally and emotionally fortified people, and a lot of coaching is just coaxing your competitor back from the edge of a mental breakdown on a Wednesday afternoon.
Doing competition together brings out another level of trust.
I know that whether it is for work, competition, or just regular daily life, Richelle and I have each other's backs and we can be real with each other. Doing competition together brings out another level of trust: you have to be willing to deliver incredibly brutal feedback to someone who is essentially baring their soul to you.
If we didn't already have a solid-as-steel relationship, telling her every single flaw I noticed during a run-through would come off as intense and nit-picky. But thanks to literally 12 years of hanging out, I can deliver that feedback knowing Richelle will take it, internalize it, and then proceed to flawlessly execute the next run-through.
Saying "I'm proud" doesn't encompass all of the emotions I have for Richelle for this competition season. Not only did she perform incredibly well, she executed her finals round perfectly. Thanks to our incredible finals judges, Ashley, Brianna, and Kaylee, we can pinpoint exactly where to pick up more points for next year.
After having digested it for a couple of weeks now, I think Richelle is back in the game and has already started plotting on the low. While it isn't the outcome we wanted, I think this season was incredibly pivotal for her growth as a well-rounded competitor.
