The Sprudge Report - The Expo Afterglow
We're still buzzin' about last weekend's SCA Expo.
Here are the winners of the 2023 US Coffee Championships
What a week it was in Portland! The competition stages were rocking, the Expo floor was buzzing, the parties were bumping. It was truly an exciting and action-packed three days. And it all culminated Sunday evening with the announcements of the six new US Coffee champions. See who will be representing the US at the World Coffee Championships later this year.
US Barista Championship look back
The crown jewel of American coffee competition, the USBC is a thrill ride of creative drinks, wild coffees, and thought-provoking scripts. We were there live blogging the Semi-Finals and Finals rounds, giving play-by-play of the 15-minute routines from some of the country’s best competitive baristas and keeping you up to date on who was moving on each day. And spending that much time covering the competition, we couldn’t help but spot a few trends. The Gesha variety, particularly anaerobically fermented Gesha, had a real moment, but the biggest trend came in the milk course, leading us to clear 2023 The Year of the Milk Course.
Live from the Expo floor
One of the most fun parts of Expo is getting to see all the new tech and gadgets that will be rolling out in coffee bars—for commercially and at home—over the next year. But that’s not all there is going on at the show floor. So we are taking a look back at all the gadgets and happenings that had us ooh’ing and ahh’ing all weekend long. (And girding ourselves to do it all again next year in Busan.)
Meanwhile…
It wasn’t all Expo all the time this week. The coffee world may slow down to catch its breath the week after Expo, but it most certainly doesn’t stop. There are two giveaways happening, one for a 1-of-1 custom coffee-dipped pair of Nike Air Jordan Retro Low OGs from Caffe Luxxe and another cheekier giveaway from M&M’s, who will be giving a year’s supply of their Caramel Cold Brew candies to 20 individuals who have had their names comically misspelled while at a coffee shop. Elsewhere on the internet, there’s a two coffee pony race for the Most Funded Food-Based Kickstarter ever. One has already broke the $5 million mark.
A new look for Broadsheet Coffee
In Cambridge, Mass, Broadsheet Coffee gave their bags a brightly-colored facelift. Working in collaboration with artist and designer Julia Emiliani, Broadsheet’s new look represents where the company is today and where they are headed in 2023.
New job listings from Sprudge Jobs
Perc Coffee - Shop Manager - Savannah, GA
Voltage Coffee Supply - Marketing Manager - Remote
Counter Culture Coffee - Regional Educator - Dallas, TX
New cafes on Sprudge Maps
Here are new cafes discoverable on our global cafe portal Sprudge Maps. Register your cafe for free—thanks to the support of La Marzocco and Pacific Barista Series.
Tandem Coffee Roasters - Portland, ME
Mleko - Ahmedabad, India
Salto Coffee - Nederland, CO
Do you have a news tip? Feedback? A funny joke? Send us an e-mail, use the contact form on Sprudge, leave a message at 1-888-55-SPRUDGE, or send us a letter at P.O. Box 3943 Portland, OR 97218.