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Three fast-paced rounds of competition, three info-packed presentations, and five impeccably-crafted coffee cocktails. That's what Olympia Coffee's Reyna Callejo pulled off this past weekend, April 12–14 at the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in Chicago, Illinois. With cool composure and a small amount of (actual) fire she crushed the competition, becoming our nation's reigning Coffee in Good Spirits Champion! Reyna takes the torch from our own Sam Schroeder, who stood by as her coach over the course of the weekend. This makes two years in a row that the Olympia Coffee team has claimed the national title for Coffee...

It's a big week for specialty coffee. Specialty Coffee Expo week, to be precise—a multi-day gathering of friends and partners from across the coffee industry. This time around, it's taking place in Chicago, Illinois. Olympia Coffee's sending a crew of fine folks to represent. If you'll be there too, please come say hey! Whether slinging coffee with our pals or stirring up the competition in Coffee in Good Spirits, here's where you can find us all week(end) long: Thursday, April 11: Necessary and Sufficient Coffee, Printer's Row.What: A guided Q&A session with Oliver Stormshak and some of Olympia Coffee's producers...

Got questions about coffee? Reyna has answers—and lots of 'em. For Olympia Coffee's fearless Director of Training & Innovation, no day would be complete without obsessing over the details of coffee. And her perfectionism's paying off, sending her to the 2024 Coffee Championships for both Barista Competition and Coffee in Good Spirits. On the competition stage, Reyna glides like a natural. Part of that's experience—last year, she advanced to the semifinals round of the Barista Championships in Portland. Another part is practice, with weeks spent polishing recipes and routines in Olympia Coffee's Training Lab. And then there's sheer confidence: in...

When our 2023 U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits champion Sam Schroeder concocted the Coffee Sherry, we all knew it was an instant winner: a smoothly-sweet, sumptuous coffee cocktail worthy of a romantic après-dinner lounge. Then along came Reyna Callejo, who just last weekend secured first place in the 2024 Coffee in Good Spirits Qualifiers. Hardly one to leave good enough alone, she’s taken Sam’s Coffee Sherry and done the unthinkable: removed all the booze.Instead, she’s crafted her very own NA sherry and absinthe (yes, from scratch), mixing them in place of their alcoholic counterparts. And the result is, stunningly, almost...

Winter blues got you down? Why not warm up with a coffee cocktail? We suggest one of Sam Schroeder's Coffee in Good Spirits concoctions—because nothing beats the winter chill like the thrill of mastering a competition-worthy cocktail, right?Meet the Coffee Sherry: a beautifully balanced and stunningly delicious coffee cocktail. Sam served this little number up at the Coffee in Good Spirits Championships. And he recently teamed up with Reyna (who, in 2024, is embarking upon her own Coffee in Good Spirits journey) to whip up a non-alcoholic version to serve at our Columbia City cafe. For a competition-crushing cocktail, it's...