After last year’s debacle of canceling the regional barista competitions and subsequent impressive turnaround of then putting together a last minute mega-regional, the SCAA Competition Committee announced their plans back in July of having two regional events in 2017 and no less than six micro-regional events in the following years. But details on exactly what that looked like were still a bit fuzzy. Until now, with the SCAA’s official release of the 2017 competition schedule.
As promised, there are two regional events feeding into the US Coffee Championships taking place at the SCAA Expo on April 21-23 in Seattle, WA, the third time in four years the city has hosted the event. Known as “CoffeeChamps”, the competitions aren’t true regionals but are more of a pair of open borders qualifying rounds. According to the announcement, “anyone who resides in the U.S. can compete in either of the CoffeeChamps events, regardless of their region.”
The events are to be held in Knoxville, TN and Austin, TX on January 21-22 and February 11-12, respectively. Unlike previous qualifiers, where only Barista Championship and Brewers Cup competitors had to earn spots in the Nationals, this year competitors in all five disciplines—including Roasters, Cup Tasters, and the resurrected Latte Art—will have to win their way to the big show.
UPDATE: The available slots for this year’s Barista Championship qualifying round have increased to 120 from 100.
