Looking Ahead to the Next Chapter of the U.S. Coffee Championships

After an exciting year of competition, we get an inside look at what’s next for the U.S. Coffee Championships in 2027.

BY TAYLOR MURPHY-DYER
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Featured photo courtesy of RoasTronix

Another United States Coffee Championships (USCC) season has come and gone, and while it was ultimately successful, it was also a fast-paced season full of change. To be transparent, I experienced these changes firsthand, being involved in many of these competitions myself.

Since January, RoasTronix has run the U.S. Coffee Championships as the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA)’s event partner, overseeing the Brewers Cup, Latte Art, Cup Tasters, Roasters, and Barista Championships. I sat down with Arash Hassanian, CEO of RoasTronix, to discuss how 2026 went and what’s brewing for 2027.

Arash shares that his introduction to coffee competitions initially came through sponsorship. After he began representing Stronghold in the U.S. market, he and his team started sponsoring roasting events and attending SCA shows. Along the way, he found he had feedback to share, and those conversations grew into talks about what a partnership between RoasTronix and the SCA could look like. After months of discussion and review, RoasTronix took over as USCC’s event partner in January of 2026.

For Arash, the appeal was never about running competitions for their own sake. “I don’t look at competitions as just competing. I look at them heavily as education,” he says. “When you look at the people at these events, you can see how much they’re learning from each other. If somebody’s competed two or three times, you’ll see they’ve professionally jumped.”

Arash has traveled to origin countries and international shows in Korea, Italy, and other countries across Europe to see how competitions and education operate globally. “I want to try to make what we do as good as, or better than, the global level version,” he says.

U.S. competitions once ran alongside the SCA’s own trade show: a level of backing no other country had. While that support gave the U.S. an early edge, it also meant other countries built leaner systems from scratch. Now, after drifting from that high point, the U.S. is working its way back up.

Building toward 2027

For next season, Arash is sketching out a more layered structure. He shares that he’s brought in consultants to review the rules for qualifying and national competitions alike, with the goal of building a simpler qualifier format for the events that have one.

The Brewers Cup Championship will likely expand to three qualifiers feeding an 18 person final, down from this year’s 32, with the hope of shortening each event to make travel easier. “This was a lot of the feedback we had,” Arash says. “It was so hard for the competitor and their supporters to travel for five days.”

The Cup Tasters Championship saw similarly high demand this year—so the plan is three qualifying events and one national, since it’s a relatively easy competition to host.

The Latte Art Championship will likely remain a single national event for now, while Roasters will move to two qualifiers and one national due to the added logistics of venting and machine setup. What to do with the Coffee in Good Spirits and Barista Championships is still an open question. “Should there be qualifiers, or do we do one more year of just finals?” Arash pondered aloud.

The Barista Championship has its own timing puzzle. The next World Championship is in Japan in April, but this year’s U.S. final is in October in Panama, and Arash doesn’t want the U.S. final too far ahead of it. The window is still being worked out, likely landing sometime between October and January.

In the meantime, Arash is planning for many of the competitions to host workshops leading up to their events, something we saw the start of this past season. “I want the workshops to be building skills for the competitions but to be very hands on as well,” he says. He also shares that RoasTronix hopes to bring in previous champions and educators from other countries to help lead them.

Growth in the coming years

Ultimately, Arash emphasizes that he wants these competitions to grow through education, events, and sponsorship. Beyond 2027, he hopes to bring back qualifying events for each competition and find more regional hosts to partner with.

As Arash speaks about what’s to come, he keeps returning to what it really takes to make each of these competitions happen year after year: “I want to make sure we are creating value for everybody that’s involved,” he says. “Value for the competitor, the producer, the volunteers, the judges, and the businesses that support them.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Taylor Murphy-Dyer is a seasoned coffee professional, currently focused in education and competitions as a Wholesale Education Manager and Head Judge for the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits competition. Outside of work, Taylor prioritizes time with her incredible family. Her creative passion extends to the kitchen, where she enjoys cooking, baking, and developing original recipes.

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