diff --git a/integration-tests/kafka/pom.xml b/integration-tests/kafka/pom.xml
index 011d8f6e5b0c4..6eb67162f84d5 100644
--- a/integration-tests/kafka/pom.xml
+++ b/integration-tests/kafka/pom.xml
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@
             <groupId>io.quarkus</groupId>
             <artifactId>quarkus-integration-test-shared-library</artifactId>
         </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.awaitility</groupId>
+            <artifactId>awaitility</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
 
         <!-- JAX-RS -->
         <dependency>
diff --git a/integration-tests/kafka/src/main/java/io/quarkus/it/kafka/KafkaStreamsPipeline.java b/integration-tests/kafka/src/main/java/io/quarkus/it/kafka/KafkaStreamsPipeline.java
index a67ebe9c84971..83c156158c111 100644
--- a/integration-tests/kafka/src/main/java/io/quarkus/it/kafka/KafkaStreamsPipeline.java
+++ b/integration-tests/kafka/src/main/java/io/quarkus/it/kafka/KafkaStreamsPipeline.java
@@ -1,11 +1,16 @@
 package io.quarkus.it.kafka;
 
+import static org.awaitility.Awaitility.await;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Properties;
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import javax.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
 import javax.enterprise.event.Observes;
@@ -41,11 +46,13 @@
 import org.apache.kafka.streams.state.Stores;
 
 import io.quarkus.runtime.StartupEvent;
-
 @ApplicationScoped
 @Path("/kafkastreams")
 public class KafkaStreamsPipeline {
 
+    private static final String CATEGORIES_TOPIC_NAME = "streams-test-categories";
+    private static final String CUSTOMERS_TOPIC_NAME = "streams-test-customers";
+
     private KafkaStreams streams;
 
     private ExecutorService executor;
@@ -62,11 +69,11 @@ void onStart(@Observes StartupEvent ev) {
 
         JsonObjectSerde jsonNodeSerde = new JsonObjectSerde();
         KTable<Integer, JsonObject> categories = builder.table(
-                "streams-test-categories",
+                CATEGORIES_TOPIC_NAME,
                 Consumed.with(Serdes.Integer(), jsonNodeSerde));
 
         KStream<Integer, JsonObject> customers = builder
-                .stream("streams-test-customers", Consumed.with(Serdes.Integer(), jsonNodeSerde))
+                .stream(CUSTOMERS_TOPIC_NAME, Consumed.with(Serdes.Integer(), jsonNodeSerde))
                 .selectKey((k, v) -> v.getJsonNumber("category").intValue())
                 .join(
                         categories,
@@ -123,24 +130,20 @@ private void waitForTopicsToBeCreated(String bootstrapServers) {
         config.put(ConsumerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, bootstrapServers);
 
         try (AdminClient adminClient = AdminClient.create(config)) {
-            AtomicBoolean topicsCreated = new AtomicBoolean(false);
+            await().until(topicsCreated(adminClient, CATEGORIES_TOPIC_NAME, CUSTOMERS_TOPIC_NAME));
+        }
+    }
 
-            while (topicsCreated.get() == false) {
+    private Callable<Boolean> topicsCreated(AdminClient adminClient, String... expectedTopics) {
+        return new Callable<Boolean>() {
+
+            @Override
+            public Boolean call() throws Exception {
                 ListTopicsResult topics = adminClient.listTopics();
-                topics.names().whenComplete((t, e) -> {
-                    if (e != null) {
-                        throw new RuntimeException(e);
-                    } else if (t.contains("streams-test-categories") && t.contains("streams-test-customers")) {
-                        topicsCreated.set(true);
-                    }
-                });
-
-                try {
-                    Thread.sleep(50);
-                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                    throw new RuntimeException(e);
-                }
+                Set<String> topicNames = topics.names().get(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+
+                return topicNames.containsAll(Arrays.asList(expectedTopics));
             }
-        }
-    }
+        };
+  }
 }
diff --git a/integration-tests/kafka/src/test/java/io/quarkus/it/main/KafkaStreamsTest.java b/integration-tests/kafka/src/test/java/io/quarkus/it/main/KafkaStreamsTest.java
index 6afe7bb469298..72c7e90f3764e 100644
--- a/integration-tests/kafka/src/test/java/io/quarkus/it/main/KafkaStreamsTest.java
+++ b/integration-tests/kafka/src/test/java/io/quarkus/it/main/KafkaStreamsTest.java
@@ -1,11 +1,16 @@
 package io.quarkus.it.main;
 
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.time.Duration;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
+import javax.json.Json;
+import javax.json.JsonObject;
+import javax.json.JsonReader;
+
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.Consumer;
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerConfig;
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerRecord;
@@ -63,27 +68,35 @@ public void testKafkaStreams() throws Exception {
 
         ConsumerRecord<Integer, String> record = records.get(0);
         Assertions.assertEquals(101, record.key());
-        Assertions.assertEquals(
-                "{\"id\":101,\"name\":\"Bob\",\"category\":{\"name\":\"B2B\",\"value\":\"business-to-business\"}}",
-                record.value());
+        JsonObject customer = parse(record.value());
+        Assertions.assertEquals(101, customer.getInt("id"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("Bob", customer.getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("B2B", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("business-to-business", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("value"));
 
         record = records.get(1);
         Assertions.assertEquals(102, record.key());
-        Assertions.assertEquals(
-                "{\"id\":102,\"name\":\"Becky\",\"category\":{\"name\":\"B2C\",\"value\":\"business-to-customer\"}}",
-                record.value());
+        customer = parse(record.value());
+        Assertions.assertEquals(102, customer.getInt("id"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("Becky", customer.getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("B2C", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("business-to-customer", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("value"));
 
         record = records.get(2);
         Assertions.assertEquals(103, record.key());
-        Assertions.assertEquals(
-                "{\"id\":103,\"name\":\"Bruce\",\"category\":{\"name\":\"B2B\",\"value\":\"business-to-business\"}}",
-                record.value());
+        customer = parse(record.value());
+        Assertions.assertEquals(103, customer.getInt("id"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("Bruce", customer.getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("B2B", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("business-to-business", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("value"));
 
         record = records.get(3);
         Assertions.assertEquals(104, record.key());
-        Assertions.assertEquals(
-                "{\"id\":104,\"name\":\"Bert\",\"category\":{\"name\":\"B2B\",\"value\":\"business-to-business\"}}",
-                record.value());
+        customer = parse(record.value());
+        Assertions.assertEquals(104, customer.getInt("id"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("Bert", customer.getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("B2B", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("name"));
+        Assertions.assertEquals("business-to-business", customer.getJsonObject("category").getString("value"));
 
         assertCategoryCount(1, 3);
         assertCategoryCount(2, 1);
@@ -144,4 +157,10 @@ private List<ConsumerRecord<Integer, String>> poll(Consumer<Integer, String> con
 
         return result;
     }
+
+    private JsonObject parse(String json) {
+        try(JsonReader reader = Json.createReader(new StringReader(json))) {
+            return reader.readObject();
+        }
+    }
 }