JOIN US AT THE ORIGAMI CUP USA 2026

Event Address:
808 Travis St STE 200, Niels Esperson Building, Houston, TX 77002

What is the ORIGAMI CUP?

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 share our passion for specialty coffee with the community.

The second official ORIGAMI CUP in the United States will be held in Houston in August 2026.

Originated in Toki City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, ORIGAMI has rapidly gained a global following. Thanks to the love and support of coffee aficionados around the world, the ORIGAMI CUP continues to grow and spread to new regions.

ORIGAMI CUP at Niels 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.

Regulations for the ORIGAMI CUP

The rules for this year's competition is available here: ORIGAMI CUP USA 2026 Rules and Regulations

Participants must use sponsored equipment, which includes but not limited to: the ORIGAMI dripper, kettles, compulsory coffee, water mineral concentrates, and serving cups.
Competitors may bring hand grinders for use.
Equipment such as electric grinder, paper filters, scales, and kettles will be provided by the venue.
The coffee beans to be used will not be announced in advance and will be revealed at the event on the day of the competition.

Would you like to join us as a competitor?

If you’re interested in competing, purchase the ticket here.

Please note, only up to 18 competitors will be allowed to participate, and a waitlist will be available should someone need to withdraw. Kindly refer to the event regulations and timeline for further details.

We look forward to welcoming you to the ORIGAMI CUP!