Hiroshi Hearts Coffee Kids

I just received an email from Hiroshi Sawada, who as you will remember, won the $5000 grand prize in the Millrock Latte Art Championship at Coffee Fest Seattle this past weekend and donated all of that cash to Coffee Kids. Coffee Kids is the specialty coffee industry’s most established nonprofit, and has been at work for more than 20 years sending health, food and economic relief to coffee producing families.

Here’s what Hiroshi wrote in the email to me and to my pal Kyle Freund of Coffee Kids:

Dear Sarah and   Kyle

I learned about “Coffee Kids” from an article (in) “Barista Magazine” and visited the website.
I was very moved by the activities of the organization. (My junior (son) already has Coffee Kids T-shirt too.)

I’ve built up a great relationship with baristas in the U.S. through participating (in) the Latte Art Competitions for eight times, and it helped my skills improve very much. Now I’ve won a championship at the latest competition in Seattle. It’s worth more than anything else. So, I’ve decided to contribute the prize I won at the competition to “Coffee Kids” to help out the organization.

Thank you for everything.

Sincerely yours,

Hiroshi Sawada

hiroshis kid.jpg

Hiroshi’s son, a future Millrock Latte Art Champion and coffee industry humanitarian, just like his dad.

About Sarah 929 Articles
Sarah Allen (she/her) is co-founder and editor of Barista Magazine, the international trade magazine for coffee professionals. A passionate advocate for baristas, quality, and the coffee community, Sarah has traveled widely to research stories, interact with readers, and present on a variety of topics affecting specialty coffee. She also loves animals, swimming, ice cream, and living in Portland, Oregon.