Why do we compete?

Why do we compete & why should you?

We were invited to speak at the CafeShow in Seoul, Korea, happening next week and I was given the chance to choose the topic. Dave is flying home, so I’m taking this ride solo, and I’ve decided I’d present on competition – after all, it’s been a huge aspect of our lives, investing time, resources and consistent effort into participation every year for the last 15 years. Realistically, if it weren’t for our success in the competition circuit, many of you likely would not be interested in reading this email right now.

Honestly, I still find it hard to believe that we’ve won the World Barista Championship two years in a row.

My presentation next week is not going to be about winning. I’m not going to share this prolific idea of a “secret sauce” that many people think we have… it’s ketchup, mustard, mayo, mixed in equal parts, with a dash of sriracha for a little heat, incase you are here for my secret sauce… I don’t want to talk about glory, a trophy, or what happens after you win and put “World Champion” title next to your Instagram bio.

I’m going to stand on stage in front of an audience of people and talk about what we can learn through losing #winning

In every game, in every sport, in every competition, there’s one winner and then everyone else is therefore in a position where they’ve lost. Well, let’s unpack what that means;

It took me many years to understand that I shouldn’t be competing to win, I should be competing to learn, to grow, to connect and to push myself further. If I focus on these elements, rather than the trophy, the glory, or that sexy bio for social media, I’m a winner every time simply through participation.

For Dave and I, we finally won the Canadian National Barista Championship on our 8th attempt. Again on our 9th attempt. Then, thinking we should do one last dance for a 10th attempt, we finished 3rd. It’s now been five years since I’ve competed in the Barista Championship.

In the years before that, our record is something like this, we did not advance from our Regional to qualify for Nationals once, we disqualified at Nationals twice, we missed the Finals twice and we earned 3rd and 2nd place. Not in this order, rather a rollercoaster ride, up and down, some years feeling like we took two steps forward, one step back, with a few years that felt like one step forward and five steps back. As a competitor, I’ve only won 20% (2/10) of my attempts in Canada. Am I a loser? Absolutely, not.

I owe a lot of who I am today to the world of competitions. My first year competing was right out of high school – I didn’t go to university and felt this sense of pressure around me for getting a job making coffee… I watched Michael Phillips compete in 2010 and thought, “this is cool, I want to compete in coffee”. The rest is history.

In our journey of competition, there’s no doubt we’ve improved and grown year after, both personally and professionally. We got our Q-Grader in 2011 to improve our skills. Grew from being a coffee shop to a coffee roasting business in 2012 to better control our coffees and our quality, thanks to feedback from competition. Started traveling to source coffee in 2015 to find more unique offerings we could use for the business and also for the competitions. Started a second business in 2018 focused on sourcing and selling the higher-end side of coffee, trying to make “competition coffee” (which is a silly term and marketing jargon if you ask me) more accessible to roasters, baristas and push for them to be served in cafe environments. All of our business decisions, in some way, shape, or form, all circle back to our career in competition. Through years of not winning, we also haven’t lost.

I was a terrible public speaker in high school. I wasn’t great at writing. Generally most of my grades were sub-par. It’s this road above that’s given me the skills that I now use day in and day out. I don’t think I’m particularly great at speaking or writing, though through years of participating and challenging myself, I’ve improved drastically. For this speech in Korea, this is the closest thing I’ll come to writing a script, otherwise, I’m just going to speak from the heart and from experience.

So, why do we compete?

We compete to grow. We compete to push ourselves. We compete to connect. We compete to learn. We compete to build our business. We compete because we love sport. We compete to make coffee better. We compete to win, and we continue to compete because we learn from losing.

I recommend if you’re reading this and you’re in the coffee industry that you try you’re had at a competition, simply with a mindset that it’s a platform to grow and to better understand your craft. If you enter with the right perspective, you having to lose and everything about the journey becomes a win.

Reading: We’ve been traveling a lot lately and have seen so many different roasting styles along the way. For this week’s Reading section, check out “Let’s Talk About Roasting” from Barista Hustle. This article breaks down the roasting process and explains how different techniques shape the flavor of coffee, from heat application to airflow. It’s a great read for anyone wanting to dig deeper into how roasting impacts what’s in your cup

Watching: Have you ever wondered how Thermal Shock Processing works? Well we recently had a conversation with Juan Pablo Campos of Lohas Beans, in Colombia and he discusses in pretty great detail a breakdown of the processing style. We discuss if this is infusion, if it’s advanced fermentation or if it’s simply food engineering.

Listening: After finishing a 5-day coffee festival in Shanghai, China, we’re definitely feeling the burnout! Check out WorkLife with Adam Grant and his episode on burnout. Adam explains why burnout happens and shares helpful ways to recover, like building recovery routines that help you recharge. It’s a great listen for anyone needing a reset after an intense event or work period.

Brewing: This segment is supposed to be an area where we can share the amazing work in coffee that others are doing, but I’ll be honest with you, we haven’t had much opportunity or exposure to other coffees these last few weeks, with 12+ hour days at these festivals in China, the bulk of what we’re able to drink are our coffees (we don’t get much time for breaks). We had some neighbours share some coffee in Lujiazui Festival in Shanghai, La Cabra shared a flight of Kenya SL28, Panama Laurina and Colombia Sudan Rume, and Curate Coffee Roasters out of Malaysia shared a fun Liberica brew with us!

respond with a photo of your brew bar or get creative with an AI generated scene and we’ll feature and share in an upcoming week of BTD

Distance: Buy the Drip run club. Consistently clocking some kilometers.

“one step at a time”

Want to join us as we hit the road? Let’s connect on Strava! or, join our Whoop group – just respond to the email and let’s grind together!