PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – When the U.S. Coffee Championships take place in Portland in April, the city will be well represented by several local coffee industry professionals who recently learned they’ll be competing in the national competition.
Five people from the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area will be competing for the chance to be the best in the United States after placing among the top contenders in the qualifying round that took place in Denver March 3-5.
Among those who will be moving on include Seidy Selivanow from Kafiex Roasters in Vancouver. She placed first in the U.S. Barista competition.
Her business partner in Kafiex Roasters, Matthew Selivanow, will also be competing as the best coffee roaster in the country after he placed fourth in the category in the qualifier.
Following right behind Matthew Selivanow in that competition was Andrew Coe, from Elevator Coffee in Portland. He finished fifth among roasters in the qualifier.
Coe placed fifth at nationals in 2022 and knows how competitive it is. He said the coffee that was selected for the roasters to compete with in the qualifier in Denver was challenging to roast well.
“Having the competition at elevation (Denver is over 5,000 ft) meant that water was going to boil at a lower temperature, which really affects the overall flavor in a way that is hard to replicate for those of us at lower elevations,” Coe wrote in a statement to KOIN 6 News.
He said he was motivated to compete in the finals in 2023 because they’ll be held in Portland. The finals were scheduled to be held in Portland in 2020 but didn’t occur because of the pandemic.
Coe had hoped to compete in them back then and sees this as a fulfillment of the original plan.
Another Portland coffee professional who will be competing at the finals is Ryan Jie Jiang who owns Less and More Coffee, the coffee shop that operates in the glass-enclosed bus shelter on the transit mall in downtown Portland. Jiang placed fifth in the U.S. Cup Tasters competition. He’s been competing in this area for the last 4 or 5 years and told KOIN 6 News he thinks it’s the most fun competition.
“I love to compete. I have been competing for Cup Tasters since 2015. Every time I made it to the national finals, but I never had a chance to win, but I always dream about it, dream about competing [on a] world stage, representing United States and winning the World Championship,” he said.
He said the competition has allowed him to meet other great baristas and share coffee stories. He’s looking forward to the national competition being held in Portland so he won’t need to travel and can compete in his best condition.
Joining Jiang at the finals in Portland is his Less and More Coffee business partner, Wenbo Yang, who also goes by Joe. Yang also owns In J Coffee and Super Joy Coffee in Portland.
At the qualifier round in Denver, Yang signed up for three competitions, hoping at least one would get him to the finals in Portland. He said he surprised himself and qualified in two; he placed first in latte art and fifth in brewers cup.
The brewers cup is the one he practiced most since it involves speaking and giving a presentation as he brews three cups of coffee for the judges.
“English is my second language, so I have to memorize all the Chinese and then all the English, so in the competition, while in the brewing you still need to talk, so it’s so hard for me, but that’s why I’ve been practicing a lot,” he said.
He said competing in the brewers cup challenged him to prepare and learn more for the competition.
All the people competing from the Portland area have been supportive of one another, Yang said. He said the Selivanows have allowed him to practice at their shop Kafiex in Vancouver.
“I try to be prepared because once you be prepared, you have more confidence in the nationals, that’s kind of a different level stage,” he said.
The 2023 U.S. Coffee Championships will be held inside of Specialty Coffee Expo in Portland from April 21-23, 2023. The people who qualified in Denver will face each other again, along with those who qualified in the East Coast qualifying round in Baltimore.