On a very special edition of the Coffee Sprudgecast, we take you live to the event floor at the 2019 US Coffee Champs Qualifying Event in Denver, Colorado! There we join multimedia director Elizabeth Chai, who—in addition to helming our must-follow Instagram coverage of the event—taped a series of original interviews for this week’s episode of the podcast.

In this episode Chai talks to Blair Smith, a Brewers Cup competitor for Augie’s Coffee in California’s Inland Empire region. Smith placed 9th overall in the qualifying event, earning a bid to move on and compete at the 2019 US Coffee Championships national event next March in Boston.

Chai also sat down with Hana Kaneshige, a barista competitor and Regional Educator representing Counter Culture Coffee, a wholesale roaster hubbed in Durham, North Carolina and Emeryville, CA with satellite training centers nationwide. Kaneshige would also place ninth in the US Coffee Champs Barista Competition field, earning a coveted spot to move on and compete at nationals next year in Boston.