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States Barista Championship (USBC), which will be held in her backyard, Portland, Ore., in late April. Sarah will be there, too, she hopes. She didn't make the finals at the 2012 NWRBC, so she isn't guaranteed a spot in the preliminary round, like Laila is. But she'll try to register for one of the open spots all the same. Also like Laila, Sarah wants it bad. Anna brings a different perspective: she's a seasoned competitor in just about every coffee contest besides the USBC and Regionals. She's placed high in Coffee Fest's Latte Art Competitions, and she's won a variety of drink-building contests over the years. Since the NWRBC has been sponsored by her former employer, and dear friends, Dillanos Coffee Roasters, Anna has emceed the last two NWRBCs, and the crowd loves her. Due to her close relationships with barista peers including Sarah, Laila and countless others, plus her uniquely varied perspective of coffee competitions, Anna is able to engage the crowd with her knowledge, and dazzle them with her warmth and bubbly spirit. I've told her she's one of my favorite competition emcees, and she shakes her head and waves me off. So she's humble, too. These three women are all intelligent. They're all driven and passionate about coffee. They are compassionate human beings. Their peers not only respect them, they like them. But though those are broad, strong characteristics they all share, the three of them are impressively different in other ways. Laila has the fearlessness of a grown-up tomboy, and it makes sense; she's used to playing on boys' turf, having competed on bikes for years. She's outspoken—good thing, too, since she's the new Barista Guild of America's recently appointed Northwest representative. When she's got a job to do, she gets it done, fast, period. Sarah is soft-spoken but firm; you nod and say, 'of course' when she tells you she's the mother of two young boys. Like Laila, she's all about taking initiative; she founded the Market Coffee Project in 2010 to provide community services to new coffee businesses, and she helped organize and produce a consumer friendly coffee show in Seattle last year. Between the three of them, the collective body of knowledge, experience and perspective about coffee and community is vast, and they seem to delight in nothing more than exchanging ideas. Tom Pikaart of Water Avenue Coffee wanders to our table and sits down, and we ask his perspective on the male-dominated coffee industry. It's funny because, like most accomplished guys in specialty coffee, Tom appreciates women in coffee like gods. In the barista community, there has never, to my knowledge, been any instance of women being excluded by men. It's more a matter of the fact that there simply are not as many "Being a barista isn't a physical thing," says Laila. "You don't have to be physically strong to succeed in coffee. We're opinionated; we want our voices heard." women in this industry as in other industries. Laila says, "When I see a girl whose good enough, I want to help her out. I want her to be a leader. " And Sarah and Anna nod vigorously. "It's important that they know they're not alone, so they stick with it, " Sarah says. Luckily for these three, they've never been short on female mentors. Though they're very different, make no mistake: Anna, Sarah and Laila are three of the toughest women you'll meet. And they point to strong women in their coffee pasts as guides who helped them build confidence and dive in. "Being a barista isn't a physical thing," says Lila. "You don't have to be physically strong to succeed in coffee. We're opinionated; we want our voices heard. " Sarah nods. "When I stopped listening to how my voice sounded and worrying if I might be wrong, I started to reconstruct how I saw the coffee community; I saw everyone on the same platform, and I learned that it's OK to be wrong. " "I get reminded of that every time I go to a trade show or coffee event," Anna says. "This is a family. It's such a personal industry. Sometimes people struggle with finding a balance. " 62 barista magazine