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ERINTHE UNITED STATES MCCARTHY OF 2013 WORLD BREWERS CUP CHAMPION BY ERIN MEISTER Erin McCarthy isn't just the current World Brewers Cup Champion: He's also one of my good friends and a close colleague of mine in Counter Culture Coffee's New York regional training center. He's a technician, teacher, cupper, and—as of his June win in Melbourne, Australia—officially the only one the other five of us on the CCC NYC team want to have brewing coffee in the morning. Once he returned from the competition with the golden kettle in hand, he and I got a chance to sit down over a cup of coffee (he brewed it) to talk about his history in coffee, his path to first place, and what he looks forward to during his victory year. Meister: I'm here, with this janky voice-actuated Radio Shack tape recorder, having a conversation with your 2013 World Brewers Cup Champion, Erin McCarthy from Counter Culture Coffee. Hello, Erin. How are you? McCarthy: Great, it's so good to be here with you. Meister: It's great to be here with you as well. So, first of all, just to get the formalities out of the way, how old are you, if you don't mind my asking? McCarthy: I'm 34. Meister: Going on 35, right? Because you're a Virgo, like me. 62 barista magazine McCarthy: Correct, because we're brothers from another mother. Meister: We're the Virgo Erins of Counter Culture. Your birthday is August 28, and I'm August 31. Have you ever had your astrological chart read? McCarthy: I've had my chart read in a very basic way. I know that I'm like Cancer…rising? Whatever the thing is that means what you are deep inside. So I'm apparently very romantic. I get along with only Virgos and fire signs. Meister: Of your 34 Virgo years, you've been in coffee about 10 years, because you started at Gimme! Coffee in Ithaca, NY, in 2003. McCarthy: Correct. I just kind of showed up [in Ithaca], after living in New York for a while before that. I lived in Ithaca for six years. I was a barista [at Gimme!], and doing well at that, so the head roaster at the time asked if I wanted to apprentice with him. So I started apprentice roasting about six months in, and then I was also asked to start the training program, because they didn't really have one. They had a lot of good information cataloged, and so I worked from that and wrote classes and worked on writing the [Gimme!] Barista Manual.