Win a national brewing championship in the United States and almost nobody outside the industry will recognize your name. Win the same title in Panama and you're treated like a rock star, complete with an invitation to brew for the country's president. That gap in status is playing out right now at a small storefront on Route 100 just north of Stowe village, where one of four owners of Movement Coffee Roasters and Bakery just qualified to represent an entire country at next year's World Brewers Cup.
His name is Jordan Saglio, and the country isn't the one on his passport by residence. It's Panama, where he and his wife Kaylee Dubeau have made a second home since 2019 and where the shop sources the rare beans that built its reputation. In July, Saglio won Panama's 2026 Brewers Cup Championship, which puts him on a plane to Bogotá, Colombia next September for the 2027 World Brewers Cup. If you've stopped in for a pour-over on Route 100 without knowing any of this, you've been served coffee by someone currently training for a stage most Vermonters will never watch.
Why Panama, Not Vermont
The obvious question is why a Stowe-area shop owner would compete for a foreign country instead of trying to make a US team. The answer is that Panama isn't an adopted allegiance for Saglio so much as a working half of his year. He and Dubeau split time there, and it's where the roastery sources the specialty beans, including rare Panamanian varieties, that separate Movement Coffee from a shop just running through a standard wholesale bag. Competing on Panama's national circuit isn't a workaround. It's the circuit he actually belongs to, built on the same farmer relationships that stock the shelves back on Route 100.
Those relationships now run deep enough that the farmers he buys from have invited him to brew a cup for Panama's president and first lady, and they're reportedly watching with real interest as he carries their beans to Bogotá next fall. That's not a courtesy invitation extended to a tourist who occasionally passes through. It's the kind of access that only comes from years of buying, visiting, and showing up.
The Long Climb Through Last Place
Saglio didn't arrive at a national championship on his first try, or his fifth. He started entering Panama's competition in 2020, and by his own account the first year ended in disqualification for not following the rules. The next two years he finished last again. Only over the past three seasons did he begin climbing into the top tier, culminating in this July's outright win.
Part of what he was fighting wasn't just technique. Saglio and Dubeau also run a YouTube channel, and the shop spent years working to separate that following from the coffee itself, pushing back against being written off as a novelty act built on video views rather than what was actually in the cup. Winning a national brewing championship is the kind of result that settles that argument without anyone having to make it out loud.
What the Judges Actually Watch
The World Brewers Cup format looks nothing like ordering a latte at the counter. Competitors are scored on a list of details that would never occur to a customer standing in line:
- The grind size chosen for that specific batch of beans
- Water measured out to the gram
- The number of spirals used while pouring the water over the grounds
- Total brew time from start to finish
- A spoken narrative describing the coffee's tasting notes and where the beans were grown
- Keeping the station clean, including any water splashed on the table
- Maintaining eye contact with judges throughout the presentation
At this year's Panama nationals, Saglio was docked points for a shake in his hand and a glance at his watch, the kind of penalty that has nothing to do with how the coffee tasted and everything to do with performing under exacting scrutiny. He's described the pressure as almost absurd for how much scrutiny a five-minute brew can generate, and he's already built a near-daily training routine around it even though the championship is still a year out.
"Here in the states, I'm sure no one can even name a Brewers Cup Champion, but over there, it's the equivalent of being a rock star."
That line, from Saglio himself, is the whole story in one sentence. The same title means almost nothing on one side of the counter and carries celebrity weight on the other, and he's chosen to chase the version that actually matters where his coffee comes from.
What This Means for a Route 100 Storefront
Movement Coffee Roasters and Bakery opened in 2022 as a four-owner shop serving pour-overs and baked goods out of a small space on Route 100. It's not the kind of storefront that shows up on a postcard of Stowe village, and it doesn't need to be for what's happening inside it to matter. A shop that most people know for a maple latte or a blueberry crisp cold brew now has an owner whose name will be read aloud at a world championship in Bogotá next September, competing under a flag that isn't the one flying outside the shop's own door.
For anyone who's driven past the roastery on the way into or out of town, that's worth knowing before the next stop for coffee. The beans in that cup were picked out with a relationship built over years in Panama, and the person pulling the shot is treating every single one between now and next September as practice for a stage where the title he's chasing already means something the moment it's announced.
Stowe's version of a big story rarely shows up with fireworks. It shows up quietly, on Route 100, in a shop most people drive past without a second look. If you want more of what's actually happening in this town between coffee, trails, and everything else that makes it home, that's the kind of local detail Grant Wieler tracks every week.
