Page 35 - #87 eng

C

The coffee industry has brought so

much joy to my life and the lives of

others, but to continue doing so,
we have to keep asking how

we can do things in a way that

benefits all.

W hen browsing on your TikTok or Instagram,
you might encounter a girl with a black
turtleneck and a short, clean haircut, mak-
ing jokes about the small moments of the
barista’s working life. This is Morgan Eckroth, a social
media content creator with nearly 7 million combined
followers across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram as @
MorganDrinksCoffee. She is also this year’s U.S. Barista
Champion and World Barista runner-up. Moreover, she
has recently become the content marketing specialist at
Onyx Coffee Lab. Working three roles, Morgan thrives
in fast, busy environments but still keeps consistency
and kindness in all her work. The coffee industry has
brought happiness and fulfillment to Morgan, and she
wants to share it with more people.

Competing to Grow
training lab for around three hours a day at least 3 to 4 knowledge it took to execute delicious, beautiful drinks.”
“The last season I competed it ended with me sitting times a week. In her final week, she even boosted her The seed of being a barista one day had at that time been
across a table from my coaches after not moving to the practice time to 20 to 30 hours a week and tried to find planted into the young high schooler’s heart. Eventually,
national level. I was devastated and stubbornly promised little ways to optimize her routine. When she won sec- she started to work at that one coffee shop where she
that someday I’d bring back a trophy,” wrote Morgan at ond place at this year’s WBC, it was an unforgettable always went. When she had her very first shift as a baris-
the beginning of her own emotional reflection of her moment for her. “It felt like the culmination of every- ta, she already knew that it was something she would
journey to this year’s barista competitions on Instagram. thing myself and my team had been working on for so choose as her career.
And she did it. Being the 2022 U.S. Barista Champion as long. It was a moment of contentment like I hadn’t ever When Morgan turned 19, she competed in the USBC
well as winning the second place at the World Barista felt before,” she said. for the first time. As a green hand, she was still under-
Championship, Morgan has surpassed herself, and all her Morgan’s quest to the coffee world began when she qualified for the competition. However, she learned
hard work has paid off. “It was one of the hardest and most was still a teenager. Coffee shops were where Morgan something much more precious about coffee as well as
rewarding weeks of my life,” she told us. found a lot of comfort when she was in high school. She barista hospitality in the weeks of the competition than
As a person who prefers keeping herself busy, Mor- would spend hours watching the baristas making all the in the year and a half she was working behind a bar in a
gan’s preparation for the U.S. Barista Championship coffee drinks while finishing her homework. She said: “I coffee shop. “Competition has continually led to some of
(USBC) and World Barista Championship (WBC) were was always intrigued by the combination of emotional my most significant moments of personal growth, both in
quite intense. She would usually spend her time in a skill it took to practice good customer service and the knowledge and as a person,” she told us in the interview.

34 35