Gray Kauffman

here today serving strawberry sakura lattes 🍓🌸 at @heretodayseattle until sellout! they’re made with fresh local strawberries and a local sakura sencha tea syrup. plus, it pairs perfectly with @gloom.coffee 💥 bring your best bud by for a coffee and stick around for beer, tunes, a whole roasted pig, and more!

🚨coffee pop-up Sunday 4/12 at @heretodayseattle ☕️ 10am to sell out slingin @gloom.coffee on spro + milk bevs + a very special seasonal cherry blossom elixir 🌺 stay all day for tasty sips from @heretodayseattle and a pig roast by the one and only @chriselford !

Well that was fun. 🥉 US Coffee In Good Spirits Championships When I saw that Coffee in Good Spirits would be in Seattle and there was one spot left, K and I were sitting outside our local deli, and I looked at K and said, LET’S DO IT. Little did I know this would become one of the most joy-filled decisions of my competition journey. Making Irish coffees, training at Navy Strength, listening to Otis Redding, and talking about what makes cocktails beautiful felt like such a gift. I presented the four seasons of the Pacific Northwest through four drinks, from silly sunglasses and heat lamps to moss and flowers, tiny burning fireplaces, and cinnamon rolls in the snow. It was immersive, whimsical, and deeply personal, and I even got to share my archive of foraged huckleberries. With less than a month of prep, I somehow walked away with third place. It still feels surreal, and it would not have happened without the people who stood behind me. @kvanpetten my beloved. Thank you for supporting me no matter what, for staying up late watching routines, for turning our kitchen table into a pop up bar, for living in a house that was constantly sticky, and for somehow still doing all the dishes. I love you a million cocktails!  @chriselford , thank you for teaching me your craft. These drinks (and I) are forever better for it.  @brandonpaulweaver , thank you for being the most supportive CLAM and teaching me this competition line by line. @kyle_rampage from @blackwhiteroasters and Andy from @stampactcoffee , thank you for supporting me with such exciting coffees. @sennzafinne_libations for the drink-making amaro and support. To my amazing mom @carolkauffman6 , who flew all the way from Colorado and has always been in the front row for me, whether it was soccer games or now coffee competitions. You have always been there. Thank you for loving me the way you do. Thank you to everyone who volunteers their heart and energy to make this community possible. Coffee competitions are a team sport. Coffee sports forever.

I’m so excited to compete at the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship this Friday in Seattle ☕️🌲 A hometown competition felt like the perfect opportunity to create a drink experience around PNW seasons and foraged ingredients, highlighting some of my favorite local spirits like @sennzafinne_libations . I couldn’t do this without help from some of my favorite bartenders @chriselford @brandonpaulweaver & my beautiful foraged forest of friends This work feels especially personal and place-driven, and I’m really proud of how it’s come together. Come see what we’ve been concocting and cheer on all the incredible competitors! If you’re in Seattle, you can catch me competing: • Friday at 9:00 AM • Saturday at 12:55 PM A few free tickets still remain. Latte Art tickets work for Coffee in Good Spirits too. 🎟 Tickets eventbrite.com/e/2026-us-coffee-in-good-spirits-tickets-1979251415263 @uscoffeeingoodspirits LFG COFFEE SPORTS! #CoffeeInGoodSpirits #USCoffeeChamps #SeattleCoffee

Barista workwear by @kidsofimmigrants x @oatly ! Thanks to @icedoatmatcha for hooking it up. F*ck ice, drink cortados

make seattle drip again go to @cafebambino_seattle — @jake_deserre & @gabiswright are doing it right 💥

4th place in the Seattle US Aeropress Championship! Such a fun competition seeing what everyone can come up with using the same coffee. And getting to brew with so many of my favorite coffee folks was such a dream. This was my second time brewing in this competition, swipe for a 2017 throwback!

Honored, and honestly, overwhelmed- to be named one of the Sprudge Twenty for 2025. To be recognized alongside people like George Howell, Joshua Edens, David Buehrer, and Reyna Callejo- folks who’ve shaped me as a coffee professional, and this industry as a whole, is a huge honor. I’ve got some exciting new things in the works. If you want to be part of what’s next, you can sign up for updates at the link in my bio- or just shoot me a message and I’ll make sure you’re on the list. Let’s build it together

Competitive barista Gray Kauffman joins us in the O.C. to drop some serious coffee science on our asses. Alongside being the new Coffee Education and Innovation Lead at @hitchcockrestaurantgroup , Gray recently competed at the U.S. Coffee Championships, and they talk about how they did in the Olympics of Coffee, their background in food science, and what it was like to travel to a coffee farm in the mountains of Colombia—the origin of the beans they used in the competition. Plus Meg and Mark are always working for the weekend, but they’re not too *weakened* to tell you about what they ate on their lunch breaks! Dig in! Episode link in bio! Hosts: Meg van Huygen (@megvanhuygen ) and Mark DeJoy (@markiermark ) Guest: Gray Kauffman (@jgraykauffman ) Editor: Mark DeJoy Music: The Furys [PNW] feat. Meg’s dad, Roger Huycke Recorded at Oyster Cellar (@oystercellar ) and Café Hitchcock (@cafehitchcock ) in downtown Seattle’s historic Exchange Building (@theexchangeseattle ) #Seattlerestaurants #Seattlepodcast #Seattlerestaurantpodcast #Seattle #food #foodpodcast #Seattlebars #seattlecocktails #seattleeats #coffee #specialtycoffee #pnw #seasonal #coffeeculture #espresso #uscc #unitedstatescoffeechampionships #usbaristacompetition #thedinnernet

Saturday’s ‘Catch of the Day’ at our pop-up with @heretodayseattle will include a 🌸sakura sproda 🌸 made with syrup from locally foraged Kanzan cherry blossoms. Delicate and complex, the blossoms bring soft florals and an unexpected hit of sweet almond-like spring in full bloom. We’re pairing it with Topo Chico and @stampactcoffee ’s Kayon Mountain natural Ethiopia espresso for a sparkling sproda that captures the moment before it’s gone. Available Saturday at 10am until sold out 🌸

Best Buds at Best Buds! This Saturday, April 12 at 10 AM, join Gray and Sam, two actual best buds slingin’ tasty drinks at Catch of the Day, our very first pop-up at @heretodayseattle ’s Best Buds Fest—a celebration of session beers, community, and connection. We are bringing the Linea Mini and reeling in the good stuff: → Competition coffees from Gray & more → Mystery vials of extremely rare lots → Take a buddy shot with your bud → And in honor of everyone’s favorite bud coming into bloom, a cherry blossom sproda Available until it sells out. Come early, bring a bud, sip something fun

Coffee competitions are a team sport. It’s been an honor to spend the last four years building community great coffee experiences, and I’m incredibly grateful to now be a 4-x semi-finalist in the US Barista Competition! This year was extra special. I visited La Palma y El Tucán, the farm where my first competition coffee came from. Having worked in coffee for over a decade, seeing coffee growing for the first time was nothing short of magical. We cupped coffees with their team, and everything clicked. The complex terroir I had studied for years truly came to life-an expression of the farm’s unique environment and regenerative practices. I knew I wanted to share this experience on the stage again. Without a sponsor, it was only through the kindness and generosity of so many people on my team that this was possible: all the volunteers and judges that help make competition possible @kyle_rampage , @mattferraro & @blackwhiteroasters team for the opportunity to share this coffee & your incredible hospitality to make this @chefbrendan & the Café Hitchcock team on Bainbridge for their support @aspecialtybean & @r2geetu for hopping in as my trusted tasting team The @slayerespresso team for showing up as our hometown heroes Everyone who shared words of encouragement & donated to my competition fund & to @kvanpetten —my greatest support and partner. Thank you for standing by me through every step of this journey, for letting our studio apartment become a training lab. Your belief in me makes all of this possible, and I couldn’t have done it without you. & finally, to @edukaycheon , our champion! It’s been an honor to watch you over the years, and I can’t wait to see you on the world stage! To all the competitors, you inspire me. You’ve filled my cup with your dedication, innovation, and friendship. I’m so proud to be part of a community that truly cares for each other, where competition feels more like a team sport where it isn’t just about one winner—it’s about all of us striving toward the shared goal of creating the best coffee experiences possible. l