A Caffeine-Fueled Crown

Kay Cheon of Santa Barbara’s Dune Coffee Roasters Brews Up Victory at United States Barista Championship

Kay Cheon, 2025 United States Barista Champion, pictured outside of Dune Coffee Roasters on Anacapa Street. | Photo: Clarissa Rios

Santa Barbara barista Kay Cheon brewed up a first place victory at this year’s United States Barista Championship (USBC) in Raleigh, North Carolina, marking a significant milestone for both his career and the local coffee community. The competition, held March 6-9 this year, is renowned in the coffee industry, attracting baristas from across the nation to showcase their skills in drink preparation and presentation.

For Cheon, head of wholesale and education at Dune Coffee Roasters, this was his sixth year competing at the USBC, and his fourth time advancing to the finals. “It’s still all sinking in,” he said about taking home the win this year. During the competition, competitors craft a series of drinks including espresso, milk, and signature drinks. They then deliver a presentation while serving four sensory judges who taste those drinks and assess them on a score sheet.

As part of the competition, baristas get to come up with themes for their presentations. This year, Cheon chose the theme “building blocks” after taking inspiration from his childhood years spent playing with Lego blocks. “The theme is something that I really enjoy coming up with,” Cheon said. “Using the concept of building blocks, but also Lego, as a visual metaphor for the way I was assembling the drinks on stage.”

For this year’s competition, Cheon selected two coffees, each with its own distinct and vibrant flavor profile. For his milk and signature courses, he chose the Ombligon coffee sourced from Colombia, which brought a dynamic mix of complex fruit flavors, including cherry and watermelon. The term ombligon, meaning “belly button” in Spanish, refers directly to the shape of the coffee seed, which resembles a belly button. For his espresso course, Cheon opted for a Gesha variety, which originates from Panama and provides a more floral taste.

His journey to first place was anything but easy. The process was six years in the making and the result of hard work and perseverance. “Every year that I compete is another year of preparation for the following year,” Cheon said. His preparation for the 2025 USBC involved many late nights and constant experimentation with roast profiles. After settling into a comfortable preparation and practice routine in past years, Cheon decided to shake things up this time around. “I really wanted to push myself, and ourselves, out of that comfort zone,” he said. The team’s choice to change their overall approach to competition preparation helped them secure the winning result.

Since bringing home that first-place title, and the accompanying trophy, Cheon has taken time to reflect on his previous experiences at the competition. In 2018, he competed in the USBC for the first time ever, going into it without any expectations. “I really just wanted to get as much out of the competition as I could,” he said.

In 2020, he fell just short of the championship title, securing second place in the finals. After the competition, he was approached by an individual who wanted to express they were sorry for him. He recalls that it took him a second to understand what that encounter meant — that they were expecting him to be upset that he came in second place. “I was completely elated. I was so proud of the work we had done,” said Cheon. “And to get second was a huge honor for myself. I guess people would expect you to not feel as good or to be disappointed because you didn’t come first.”

For Cheon, participating in competition does not merely boil down to taking the first-place spot; instead, it’s about enjoying the process, being involved in the coffee community, and pushing himself to learn more. “Results are going to be what they are,” he said.

First place trophy for the 2025 United States Barista Champion, designed by Reg Barber | Photo: Clarissa Rios

Securing the USBC title has now catapulted Cheon onto the global stage. In October, he will travel to Milan, Italy, to compete at the World Barista Championship (WBC). “It’s such an incredible honor to get to represent the United States at the world barista championship,” Cheon said. In the past, he has attended the WBC as a supporter in the audience. Now, attending as a competitor, Cheon said his preparation has already started despite the event being months away. The WBC presents both an opportunity and a challenge to competitors due to its international scope. Cheon points out the subjectivity of coffee taste and how the competition exposes not only him, but all competitors, to a diverse range of palates, with judges attending from all around the world. In some cases, competitors may choose to incorporate flavors that are more familiar to certain regions but less accessible in others, which could be a challenge.

In the meantime, Cheon and his team at Dune are savoring the moment and national title, and they want the Santa Barbara community to celebrate it all with them. A tasting and competition Q&A are in the works, as Cheon hopes to share more about the USBC competition and the significance it carries for the local community.

“It would feel really meaningful to get to bring the community of Santa Barbara in a little bit to share what the journey looks like,” he said.

According to Cheon, before Dune opened in 2009, there was a lack of specialty coffee in Santa Barbara. But over the years, there has been an increasing presence. “I think that’s something that I feel really fortunate to be a part of. Not just in our community of Santa Barbara, but now having nationwide and international influence and reach,” said Cheon. “And that feels really special because in a lot of ways, it just began here.”