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PHOTO BY LAURA DANDY PHOTO BY KENNETH R. OLSON PHOTO BY KENNETH R. OLSON Meister: I was going to ask if you worked on that! I was so influenced by that manual. It was a huge tool for me when I first moved to New York. McCarthy: Yeah, I wrote part of it. For a while I was the wholesale trainer, and then I took over wholesale and retail training. You know, the positions just keep evolving as you go. I also trained trainers—like Colleen Anunu [Gimme!'s director of coffee] and Phoebe Aceto [co-owner of The Shop café in Ithaca], they were both trainers of mine. That's where all that love started. The first year you won Northeast and got third in the U.S. competition, in the second year you made it to the finals in the Northeast, and this year—well, we all know what happened this year. What made you want to enter the Brewers Cup initially? McCarthy: Being a trainer and teaching people how to brew coffee for so long, I kind of wanted to show the baristas I was training that it was fun and they could do it, too, that it was something worth doing. A lot of it was to challenge myself, and to prove to myself that I was doing something that I loved, and that I was good at it. Meister: You and I joke that we're brothers from another mother, because we grew up in kind of similar situations. You're from Long Island… McCarthy: Yes. [Pantomimes] Big hair. Meister: And you are! Obviously. McCarthy: I mean, I was the valedictorian of my D.A.R.E. class in the sixth grade, so I'm comfortable with public speaking. [Laughs] What I'm trying to say is— Meister: Lot of folks driving Camaros. McCarthy: [Laughs] Yup. Meister: That you like being good at things. McCarthy: I do like being good at things. It's hard to accept being good at things, though. Meister: I don't know if your parents were anything like mine, but we were big Dunkin' Donuts people… McCarthy: 7-Eleven, actually. Meister: Really? Did your parents like coffee? How did you get into coffee? McCarthy: Really, I just needed a job. People raved about Gimme!, but when I first started I didn't know anything about coffee. My dad used a percolator when I was growing up, so I didn't really drink his coffee. But I needed a job, and as a Virgo, there was so much order in the way Gimme! was running stuff already, and there was so much order in the coffee process and the espresso process that I just fell in love with that. It was really tasting espresso and tasting coffee helped me to develop my palate. Then I really started understanding that kind of connection with food. Meister: And now you've competed three times in the Brewers Cup. 64 barista magazine Meister: Because you're a Virgo and a perfectionist? That also means that you never realize you're good at things because you're not perfect at them. McCarthy: Totally. The first year, when I won, I was totally shocked. A lot of what got me there was just working for the places that I did and knowing the people that I did. There's so many conversations that happen about coffee with coffee people that are just inspiring and bring you to a different place. Tasting coffee with people, you know? I made all of the decisions about dialing in, but there was a lot of back and forth. There are a lot of hands that touched…well, me. [Laughs] Meister: You've always had a strong network of great coffee people. McCarthy: Totally. Growing with them has been awesome. I feel like I've carried all that with me: My whole history in coffee brought me to where I could win [the World Brewers Cup]. All the training I had at Gimme!, and all of the amazing coworkers that I have here.