This is a wait list ticket. You will be notified when a spot opens up 10 days before the event.
What happens if a spot has opened up?
We will notify the next waitlist competitor in line via email. You will have 12 hours to respond to make the ticket purchase, otherwise, the open slot will be given to the next competitor in line.
Sign up to get notified. Tickets available on 6/15 - 9am CT
What is the ORIGAMI CUP Competition?
The ORIGAMI CUP is an open competition celebrating the art of pourover coffee, welcoming both professional baristas and home brewers to compete using the iconic ORIGAMI dripper. More than a contest, it's a gathering built around a shared love of the craft - a space to connect, learn, and geek out over great coffee with the specialty community.
The second official U.S. ORIGAMI CUP comes to Houston on August 1st, 2026.
Event Address:
808 Travis St STE 200, Neils Esperson Building, Houston, TX 77002
ORIGAMI CUP at Neils Esperson Building - Craft, Memory, and the Weight of Making
Two acts of devotion. One is a 32-story tower rising over downtown Houston, built as a personal memorial and a place of business. The other fits in the palm of your hand - a porcelain coffee dripper handmade in the mountains of Gifu, Japan. Separated by scale, culture, and nearly a century, both carry the past inside them. Now, those two histories occupy the same room. A specialty coffee brewing competition held inside the Esperson Building has brought ORIGAMI Drippers - and the centuries of Mino-yaki craft behind them - into the marble corridors of Mellie's monument to Niels.
The Esperson Building was completed in 1927, devotion made monumental - a gold-leaf tower of Italian Renaissance grandeur rising over Travis Street, built by a wife to honor her husband, and inherited by a city. The ORIGAMI Dripper is devotion made intimate: born from a porcelain tradition four to five centuries old in the Toki region of Gifu, sustained not by preservation efforts but by a community that simply never stopped practicing it.
Both treat tradition not as nostalgia, but as accumulated intelligence. Both have touched far more lives than their makers could have imagined. Both are custodianships held for a while, tended, and passed forward.
One asks you to look up. The other asks you to slow down. Both are saying the same thing: devotion invested in making does not end with the maker. It accumulates, endures, and becomes a gift to generations still to come.
ABOUT THE ORIGAMI DRIPPER
Originated in Toki City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, the ORIGAMI Dripper has rapidly gained a global following. Thanks to the love and support of specialty coffee lovers around the world, the ORIGAMI CUP continues to grow and spread to new regions.
In this competition, you will be brewing a compulsory coffee supplied by our roasting partner, Amaya Coffee. Using the ORIGAMI Small dripper, ORIGAMI Mix Box filter, and the Apax Lab minerals, you will find the best recipe to represent this coffee for a panel of 3 judges to score.
The competition will be held in 3 rounds, including one elimination round, semi-final, and final round. All rounds will be held on the same day.
Competitor Schedule and Rules and Regulations:
Competitor Schedule will be released 3 weeks before the competition, a competitor meeting will be scheduled at the same week.
ORIGAMI Cup USA Rules and Regulations
Prizes:
Winner: Winner's Trophy, Admission to ORIGAMI CUP World Championship - tentatively slated Spring 2027 in Japan, 1x Acaia Pearl S Scale, 1x Special ORIGAMI Dripper, Nucleus Paragon, Apax Lab water minerals set and other special prizes
2nd Place: 2nd Place Trophy, 1x Acaia Pearl S Scale, 1x Special ORIGAMI Dripper, Nucleus Paragon, Apax Set and other special prizes
3rd Place: 3rd Place Trophy, $200 Slow Pour Supply Store Credit, 1x Special ORIGAMI Dripper, Nucleus Paragon, Apax Set and other special prizes
All registration fee are not refundable.
Competitors will receive at the day of competition:
- 300 grams of compulsory coffee
- Access to a set of 4 Apax Labs Water Mineral Concentrate formulas (Tonik, Jamm, Lylac and Konflux)
- 2 x ORIGAMI Ceramic Dripper (small) or Air S
- 1 box of ORIGAMI Mix Wave and Cone Filters - 100 sheets
For further information please visit The Origami Cup Page
