24 Roasters Head to Houston This Weekend to Compete for the National Title
This Friday through Sunday, 24 coffee roasters from across the United States will gather at Roastronix headquarters in Missouri City, Texas, for the 2026 US Coffee Roasters Championship. The winner earns the right to represent the country at the World Coffee Roasting Championship in Brussels this June.
The event marks a homecoming of sorts for competitive roasting in Houston. The city hosted the World Coffee Roasting Championship just last April during the final SCA Expo, and now Roastronix — which was named the Specialty Coffee Association’s official US event partner in January — takes over hosting duties for the national competition.
How the Competition Works
Roasting competitions aren’t spectator sports in the traditional sense. Competitors receive green coffee samples and must develop roast profiles that showcase each bean’s potential. Judges evaluate the results blind, scoring for flavour development, balance, and how well the roaster understood what the coffee could become.
The format tests both technical precision and intuition. A roaster might nail the temperature curve but miss the point if they don’t recognise what a particular lot is asking for. The best competitors read green coffee the way musicians read a score — technically accurate, but also interpretive.
Twenty-four spots are available, with eight reserved for top finishers from the 2024 and 2025 championships. That means defending champion Diego Guartan of Big Shoulders Coffee in Chicago is eligible to return, though the roster of confirmed competitors hasn’t been publicly released.
The Defending Champion’s Story
Guartan’s 2025 victory caught attention partly because it was his first time competing. As head roaster at Big Shoulders — a Chicago roastery known for its neighbourhood cafe and wholesale operation — he entered the championship with encouragement from fellow roaster Eduardo Choza and won despite having no competition experience.
He went on to place 12th at the World Championship in Houston, a respectable showing against 23 international competitors. Whether he returns to defend or steps aside for new challengers, his path from first-timer to national champion illustrates how the US roasting scene keeps producing talent from unexpected corners.
Why Houston Makes Sense
Roastronix operates a co-roasting facility equipped with Stronghold smart roasters, giving competitors access to consistent, high-quality equipment. The company’s partnership with the SCA positions it as a hub for US coffee competitions going forward.
Arash Hassanian, Roastronix CEO, has emphasised community-first programming. “Competitions and education should serve the community first,” he said when the SCA partnership was announced. “Our goal is to help create environments where people feel supported, challenged, and inspired to grow.”
The location in Missouri City, a southwestern suburb, puts the event outside Houston’s urban core but keeps it accessible to the region’s substantial coffee community. Texas has emerged as a legitimate specialty coffee market over the past decade, with roasters in Houston, Austin, and Dallas building national reputations.
The Road to Brussels
The US champion will advance to the World Coffee Roasting Championship on June 25-27 in Brussels, part of a 2026 World Coffee Championships schedule that spans four continents. San Diego hosts the World Latte Art Championship in April, Bangkok gets Cup Tasters in May, and Panama City closes out the year with the World Barista Championship in October.
That global calendar reflects how distributed the specialty coffee world has become. The days when world championships rotated between a handful of European and North American cities are over. Now, a roaster in Houston might train for nationals, win, and find themselves competing in Belgium against roasters from East Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
Why This Matters
Roasting championships exist in a strange space — they’re technical enough that casual coffee drinkers rarely follow them, but they shape the industry in ways that eventually affect everyone’s cup. Champions often go on to lead quality programs at major roasters, consult for new operations, or push their own companies to experiment with approaches they refined through competition.
The roasters gathering in Houston this weekend represent a cross-section of American coffee: established specialty brands, emerging micro-roasters, and individuals who’ve built their skills in relative obscurity. Only one leaves as national champion, but the community benefits from having a stage where roasting craft gets treated as seriously as barista skills or sensory evaluation.
Competition begins Friday morning. Results should be announced Sunday.