So – Gwilym’s performance:  I am sure pretty much everyone has worked out that we didn’t go to this competition with the main goal of winning. The idea this year was the same as the idea last year, and the year before that: give an interesting performance that one could are proud of.

I am also sure that by now people are doing what they always do with WBC videos. Watching, seeing the mistakes and asking how come they won despite these errors. This is the wrong way round. Every performance has its mistakes, and they are easy to find if you go looking for them. People seem to wilfully miss what made them stand out. Gwilym’s performance was exceptionally risky, assuming there was the potential to lose something important. To me it was entertaining, thought provoking and fun. Liz Clayton, as always, writes wonderfully here.

Gwilym Davies, United Kingdom – 2009 WBC Finals from nick cho on Vimeo.

With all of the last three winning performances available online I hope people will watch them and look for what connects them. The last three years have produced three very different champions, but I think there are strong commonalities in the performances. ¹  I’d be interested to hear people’s thoughts.

Watching a friend compete terrifies me. I’d rather be on stage performing. Sadly this meant that I couldn’t even watch through gaps in my fingers, and had to run away and hide on the SCAA show floor while he performed. I am such a wuss. It isn’t that I don’t have any faith, it is just that I can no longer take the rollercoaster of emotions. There should be a support group for coaches/support teams during the performances.

One final note on the performance – whenever I watched it in rehearsals I was always really excited to see what the judges would pick. The combinations were always interesting and potentially tasty. I think if we had had more time we could also have worked it up to being maybe 6 different choices per judge, which would have been crazy but awesome. I was weirdly disappointed in the choices of the judges, though I don’t really know why. Maybe I was hoping they’d pick something we hadn’t done in practice. ²

Gwilym will be a great champion. He’s been an ambassador of coffee for a long time – he’s been out there converting people, making them excited about great coffee, giving lots of people that ‘a-ha!’ moment for years now. His interest in others is genuine, he’s knowledgeable and very approachable, no ego (yet – it happens to us all) and a healthy interest in twill woven materials.³

Check the reflection

The rest of the competition was great.  Not just the performances, but the people. It is great how quickly and easily conversation and friendship comes when you only see someone once a year to geek out about coffee and get angry about nerdy things.

My journey home was a bit of a mixed bag. I had to leave Sunday night, and they took so long to get to the announcements that I had to flee and got the results in the cab via twitter and a bajillion text messeages. I tried to change my flight and was told it would be a mere $1,800. I stuck with my flight. Which was three hours delayed. So I missed my connection and got stuck in Chicago, and told the next flight would be in 21 hours. Time to kill.

After a boring stay in a weird hotel, charging my phone off the usb port in the business suite because BA had lost my luggage, I headed into town. First stop was the place I’d heard so many shoutouts to – Intelli’s Broadway shop where Mike Phillips works. It was great – being an anonymous customer, ordering some coffee and sitting in the nerdiest spot and just watching. After about 15 minutes I called Mike. I felt terrible because I’d just woken him up by the sound of things. We chatted for a bit and he very (very) kindly agreed to meet me at the Intelli Roastworks around lunchtime. I have to say that the coffee I had there was the Anjilanaka from a Clover, and it was the first Clover brewed coffee I’d really enjoyed in a long time.

It was great to see Intelli’s roastworks, to catch up with Matt Riddle, but mostly it was great to just sit down and chat with Mike. His perfomances were great, he’s an utterly charming and likeable fellow and I could have talked shop with him for hours on end. I’m grateful to him and Matt for their hospitality during my stay. I really hope to see Mike compete again. I can’t thank him enough for taking the time to drag himself out of bed on a day that can’t have been much fun, to come to work and deal with a nerdy, demanding guest. Thank you.

Now some important stuff – some thank yous. First of all a massive thank you to Shawn from Public Market Coffee in Minneapolis for loaning us his Anfim for the competition. We can’t thank you enough, it made a world of difference to have a grinder we knew well, and a massive thank you to Keith for lugging it with him on the plane. There will be many things heading your way in the mail soon.

Thanks also to the lovely guys at Slayer for loaning us a grinder too, to allow Gwilym to serve two very delicious coffees to his judges. Sorry I didn’t really get a chance to get onto the show floor to have a play!

Thanks to everyone who came by the roastery and mock judged, offered their ideas and criticisims and their constructive feedback – both for the UK and for the WBC. It was incredibly useful and giving up your time and your ideas for free was incredibly generous.

Thanks to Chris and M’lissa Owens for buddying, helping and being (as always) utterly amazing, dependably awesome and working way harder than we had any right to ask of them.

Thanks to Octane peoples for setting the bar ridiculously high for hospitality and splendidness during a WBC.

Thanks to everyone who helped. It is and was appreciated, and I will stop listing names now for fear of trying to be exhaustive but missing someone out.

I know I’ve missed loads out but if I don’t post something now then I never will!

1. That isn’t a smug allusion to Anette’s skills at sourcing and roasting coffee – more about the performances themselves – though it would be remiss of me not to point out that she totally rocks!
2. I know that sounds foolish, but the constant novelty of the drink really appealled to me!
3. However I suspect his patience with the questions about living on a boat may start to wear thin.  I am sure if people kept asking me if I really lived in a flat then I’d go postal pretty quickly….

For those who have no idea what I am talking about I should explain.  There is a defect in coffee that is referred to as potato.  It is the result of a bacterial infection of the seed, usually after being bitten by an insect carrying that bacteria.  Once roasted that particular bean carrys very, very strong aromas of freshly peeled potato skins that is incredibly potent when you grind the coffee and when you brew it.

Unlike many other defects you can’t tell if a green or roasted bean has potato in it until it is too late.  The solution to the problem is very labour intensive.  When the cherries are picked any cherries that show signs of damage are discarded, and this process is usually done by hand.  After the washing process, when the parchment coffees are still very wet it is also apparently possible to see the damage and discard the beans at that point.  However if a bean has been missed and is dried then it is undetectable until ground.

The potato defect is a problem in several countries, but has become more of a talking point as Rwanda has risen to prominence as producing country capable of stellar coffees, but also a producing country that has problems with potato.  I don’t want to rattle on too much about it – I highly recommend reading this thread if you want to know more about the potato defect.

The real point of this thread is to talk about the weird psychological effect that potato had on me, and ask if anyone else suffers this.  Once you smell potato a few times in a coffee you are using you become hyper sensitive and a bit paranoid.  Cautiously sniffing for even the faintest sign of potato.  The Nyamagabe lot we used in Stephen’s WBC espresso suffered from potato, and we went to ludicrous efforts to prevent it¹

It snuck up again in Copenhagen – during the Cupping competition I was stood near the prep area, next to Edwin from Finca Vista Hermosa, and we both caught the distinct potato peelings smell in the air.  That cup was pretty easy to pick out!

After the lot of Nyamagabe was finished I thought I would be able to relax, but still the smell haunted me.  Every now and again I’d find myself sitting bolt upright in the roastery, sniffing the air thinking “Is that potato?? IS THAT POTATO??” before remembering that it couldn’t be, and that I was loosing my mind.

Am I the only one?  Does anyone else who has experienced potato a bit get somewhat paranoid about tuberous smells?  Am I making quite a public fool of myself?  You decide…..

1. We packed all the Nyamagabe component seperately in 500g bags that were sealed.  Before use we’d carefully open each bag and elimate any that showed even the slightest waft of potato before blending with the El Bosque.  Regardless of this – the final practise shot on stage before the finals there was a clear and terrifying *poof* of potato flavour that filled the stage.  We hoped lightening didn’t strike twice!

I really want to  encourage people to enter, it isn’t as difficult or scary as it seems.  Everyone who competes, as long as they do it for the right reasons, gets a lot out of it and doesn’t regret a minute of it.  What’s more – I guarantee it will make you a better barista.

1).    Make sure you put an espresso into every sig drink.

Now to begin with this might sound painfully obvious, but every year people make this mistake and up until now the rules haven’t been very clear.  Just brewing those 4 espressos isn’t enough.  If you blend them into something and don’t pour it all out then it doesn’t count as an espresso per drink.  Under the new rules you would get 0 from all sensory judges for this category so DO NOT make that mistake.

I really can’t emphasize this enough (Tip No.4 from the previous post) – Know the Rules!

2).    Come to competitions to learn.

If you compete with the sole goal of winning then most of the time competitions are disappointing and unenjoyable.  Whether it is your first competition or your fifth – if you are open to it then competition is the most intensive 15 minutes of learning of your life, and a great experience.  Those who come only to win often leave resentful of their scoresheet instead of seeing areas where they can continue to learn and develop, which is a real shame.

3).    Be yourself.

If the rule changes are implying anything it is that judges want to see individual, interesting and above all genuine performances.  This was a big goal for both Stephen and myself – from the music, to how we dressed to the way we talked to the judges.  (And of course the drinks we served!) Don’t try and be the barista onstage that you think the judges want to see.  Be honest, be yourself, let your passion for what you come out.  This year I really hope to see some interesting, entertaining and honest performances because those are the ones you remember best and enjoy most.

4).    Stop worrying about latte art.

A rosetta on a capp is not the be all and end all of a competition routine.  It is a six point box.  If you aren’t comfortable pouring art onstage then don’t worry, judges are more interested in taste and texture.  I’ve seen a bad pour throw the routine off of many a barista and it just isn’t worth worrying about.

5).    It isn’t about recreating real life.

Barista competition is a game based on real life, not a direct recreation of a bar.  You can fight against it, moan about, or have fun playing a game that makes you better at what you do for a living.  Once you turn it into a sport it becomes impossible to recreate what happens day to day.  Don’t worry about it – worry about making great drinks, and entertaining your judges for 15 minutes.

If you are reading this in the UK and you want to get involved then click here.  Again – I highly recommend the experience, and it is one of the few opportunities to meet up with other baristas from all over the UK.

However I was also due to give a lecture/seminar at the Caffe Culture trade show right at the time I was now scheduled to cup. I asked for 5 minutes delay at the start of the table and just went for it. I think I did my table in 2 and a half minutes then ran off to go and start my seminar leaving someone else to do my reveal. A little while later I got another knock on the seminar door letting me know I was in the final and could I possibly pop out and cup quickly. Stephen kindly took over for 5 minutes as I breathlessly jogged across to the stage, I cupped as quickly as I could (2:26 I think) and then ran back to the seminar. I was very pleased to receive another knock on the door 5 minutes later to let me know I had won! Woo and yay! I shall now be taking on Stephen (and trying to scupper him the night before with a good curry – any info on good curry in Copenhagen appreciated) and being nervous tasting coffee with lots of other lovely people next month.

If I find any photos I will put them up. No trophy for the cabinet, but a certificate and someone to pay my airfare to the WBC which is very nice. Thanks to everyone involved – I will perhaps write up Caffe Culture at some point too.

Fear of Dilution

This is something that I think we all agree on at Square Mile HQ – a little dilution is not a bad thing.

As coffee is forced onwards in an online game of one-upmanship it seems shots have been getting shorter and shorter. No doubt the very visual medium of the internet means we are more terrified than ever of even the vaguest signs of blonding.

A paler pour does not equal bad taste, it just means that there are less coffee solubles in that pour.

From the colour we can not gauge the quality of those solubles. Empirical evidence certainly suggests that the longer the paler pour continues the more increased the bitterness in the cup. However for me it is all about balance I struggle to find balance in super short shots. Even from a technical standpoint I struggle to see how a complete extraction of all the goodness the coffee has to offer can be done with such a small amount of liquid. (Even though, as Andy Schecter points out here, more energy is being spent in the cake in these type of shots)

The constant chase for the heavier bodied, “sweeter” shot sometimes makes me sad as I wonder how many good flavours and desirable aspects of the coffee get knocked out with the spent puck.

This shot may be blonding to some people but it still tasted good

The rapidly disappearing single espresso

This one also turns me a bit ranty I am afraid. Maybe it is the bigger, better, harder, stronger thing but in many places around the world when you order an espresso you get a double. Whether the volume is 30ml, 45ml or 60ml this is irrelevant. I like coffee, I like drinking espresso and I like tasting different things. Whilst I may worry about coming across as the curmudgeonly Italian we specialty people all complain about who gets angry about our excessive dosing of coffee, I can’t help but agree that too much caffeine really limits my ability to enjoy my coffee. I really like a single espresso I think one of the most attractive things about great espresso in Scandanavia is that they are all just as hardcore about the quality but don’t feel the pressure of the big drinks to need every espresso brewed to be a double.

This isn’t really a rant about the single basket. I know a lot of people lament its rapid disappearance and I know it is a damn finicky thing to work with. That said one of my most viewed is this one – a single basket naked pour:

Naked single basket

How to enjoy espresso

This one is less rant and a bit more fun I guess. Tasting shots you brew, or shots you are assessing is rarely, if ever, fun. Inspecting the shot in minute detail with your tongue and olfactory system you quickly find the flaws – a touch of astringency, or a hint of underextraction or maybe the shot shows itself a little overextracted in the finish. It is easy to demolish just about any shot (ask a competition judge if you don’t believe me!) but it is often very difficult to enjoy it.

A friend of mine once told me that a different part of your brain assesses things than makes hedonic decisions¹. One part of your brain decides if it like, and the other part analyzes it. One part tends to dominate (the mean, cynical part going by personal experience). Recently I’ve taken to trying to trick myself. (I am aware I am starting to sound crazy now). It all started when we were pulling shots of Coffee Collective’s espresso that Stephen used to win the Irish Barista championship. He pulled me a great looking shot and just as I got it to my lips he asked a distracting question and instead of paying attention to the shot my mind was elsewhere. When my brain finally reconnected with my mouth all that was left was an overall awareness of deliciousness but little more. Suddenly I was like a normal customer, a person who drinks coffee for money because they like it. It had been a long time since I had thought like that, and I really liked it.

So now I will either drink espresso as a harsh judge, and look for every flaw or I will try not to pay attention – to distract myself so I can just switch that part of my brain off to enjoy an espresso now and again.

1. Though I confess, while I completely trust him – he is painfully smart – I never did go and find papers online to back this up

I don’t really have an issue with the rules of the competition as they are now, and I am not out to suggest a better competition or anything. I am really looking at this from the angle of former competitor.

A few suggestions:

Get rid of the words explaining the numbers

At the bottom of the score sheet there is a key to the numbers:
0 – Unacceptable
1 – Acceptable
2 – Average
3 – Good
4 – Very Good
5 – Excellent
6 – Extraordinary

I think this creates a big misunderstanding around the lower scores. To get a 2, as a barista, is pretty disappointing. It feels like criticism, but a judge could be meaning it was ok. Not bad, not great but average. Equally I think it makes scoring higher difficult as a judge going by the words – What exactly is the difference between Very Good and Excellent.

In the UK we’ve tried to use the mantra of “what more do I want?” as judges because this pretty much mirrors the question you ask as a barista when you pull a great shot of great coffee and get a 4. We’ve tried to ignore the words and just use the numbers. This leads me to my next point:

Explanations are mandatory for scores below 3

If we are to use barista competitions to promote the craft and help baristas improve then your scoresheet at the end of this needs to be very useful. On the day only one person gets the trophy. To some extent all the rest get back beyond the experience are the sheets themselves. Getting a blank sheet full of low scores back is not only disheartening but frustrating. I think judges need to be held accountable for their scores and there is plenty of room on the sheet for notes.

An online barista competition wiki

I think as barista competitions mature around the world there still needs to be some resource available for a variety of things. For visual things it would be great to see if we all rate drinks similarly – be it crema colour, latte art or exactly how a great traditional looks. Useful for both judges and baristas.

Then it would be good if there were somewhere to ask questions about things not really covered in the rules. There are several things that the rules state as being illegal with no indication of the correct way to punish them. There will always be new and surprising things happening and it would be great if the JCC were available for questions on rules (like using a side table to pour capps at the judges table) as well as other judges weighing in with their opinion. I think it is easy to feel that unless you have some level of inside knowledge then you can never achieve the highest points. A little transparency would go a long way.

I am not ought to criticise or rewrite the rules – I think if you chose to compete you agree to play by the rules and if you don’t like them no one is forcing you to play.
However I’d love to see the competition keep evolving in a way that has a positive impact on the baristas entering and on the coffee they serve.

I’d love to hear opinions of both competitors and judges on this as long as we don’t drift into what people think is wrong with the competition format as that is a separate discussion altogether.

The spread of the Clover

I am hoping this year sees people less obsessed with it as new technology and start to treat as a standard brewing device moving emphasis away from the machine back to the coffee. I could be really brave and predict that Starbucks will start using them, but I think the guys at Clover would curse me for jinxing them! I also predict I’ll buy a couple this year, but I am fairly sure that will come true…..

Clover puck

World Barista Championships

I am not going to be as bold/stupid as to try and pick a winner but I think the shift away from a Scandinavian-heavy final will continue. I am not saying that none of the Scandinavian countries will be there, or that a Scandinavian won’t win, just that the rest of the world has caught up (in competition terms) and that it really is incredible open. I can’t wait to see the performances in Copenhagen!

Coffee prices continue to rise

Whilst I am aware that Speciality pricing doesn’t have an absolute relationship to C-market pricing, but I think a lot of factors will help drive up pricing. Those of you who keep an eye on the coffee news feeds will see a lot of stories about reduced production in a lot of countries, plus the increasing demand for high quality coffees is (I’d guess) rising slightly faster than production is which will also push up pricing. I suppose, as someone about to start buying green, I ought to wish prices would stay low but I love the idea of what increasing spends could do for quality of the ripe cherries picked and the greens produced.

Pressure profiling in espresso

I know this isn’t a new idea, but I think 2008 and could be the year people are willing to experiment more with it and equipment mods/hacks get easier to implement. The open source nature of the internet could help contribute to a faster “dialling in” of profiles as people share their experimentation. I think that improvements could well be made outside of a flat line profile and if anyone wants to point me in the direction of how to install some sort of pressure profiling device onto my GS3 I’d be very grateful, or tell me if I should just do it on a one group Cyncra.

The continued rise of the micro-lot

Hopefully the term and the concept will spread further and further. I love the idea of one or two dozen bags of something special, something fleeting and interesting for consumers and another way to inject more money into farm level. Highlighting both seasonality as well as varietal, terroir and processing I think they are a great bridge to customer interaction.

Plus I need something different and tasty to drink from my growing range of mugs (which I hope become as collectible as espresso cups!)

A cup of Tim Wendelboe’s Guatemalan microlot

So – what are everyone else’s coffee predictions? Leave a comment, post a reply on your own blog – what do you see changing? What do you want to change? New products? New ideas?

The year started like every year started with the UKBC heats and once again I was part of the crack team (read Steve Penk and me) driving up and down the country building stages and setting up the heats. Ed Buston won in a quiet Midlands heat, and Se Gorman won convincingly in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile people argued about Teflon killing you and I had a pleasing moment of enlightenment thanks to Andy Schecter’s idea of extraction ratios.

Espresso Extraction Ratios

February

More heats – the North won by Lou Henry, the Southwest won by Hugo Hercod and then the London heat which, though very stressful, I managed to win after which I posted the blend recipe to stop myself using it again.

March

So – the UKBC final rolled around and I managed to win again, though the competition was much closer than the year before – I won by about 30 points opposed to around 200 in 2006. I also realised at this point that this would be my last year competing as three years in a row of competition and all the work that goes into it had been enough. Lugging a refrigerated centrifuge onto the stage probably hadn’t been worth it but the Coffee and Donuts drink was very tasty, I thought at least! Still – I was very happy though Tokyo seemed a long time away…. The other highlight of this month was my first tv appearance of the year on Ready, Steady, Cook! I was up against Se Gorman and was a happy loser on this occaison (you get a nice hamper of edibles!)

Klaus finishing off the last of one of my sig drinks

April

On the most popular posts of this month was my photographic guide to some green coffees but as I had announced I was moving on from La Spaziale it was mostly a month of good old fashioned work, bar a quick trip over to Copenhagen to watch the awesome Lene take first place in the Danish Barista Championships.

May

The complete blog links page (now updated) becomes the most popular thing I’ve ever published. Anette and I go over to Antwerp and whilst I suck at the Latte art competition, Anette storms to victory becoming the World Cup Tasting Champion! This is far more interesting and important to me than an auction lot generating $130/lb but the press don’t agree.

Anette celebrates her win (mostly for the UK!)

June

I know no longer work for La Spaziale UK. For 2 and a half years I’d been their barista and training manager and in that time I don’t think there was another coffee company in the UK that I would rather have worked for. No one else was as forward thinking, as interested, invested or passionate about espresso and coffee. However we have big plans for something else so it was time for me to move on, and also for Anette to leave her position at Mercanta. The first thing we do is hop on a plane and head to the West coast of North America for a little roadtrip. We head from the wonderful hosting of the Elysian guys in Vancouver to hanging with Schomer and seeing Synesso in Seattle, then on to Portland (everything I expected) for lots more good coffee before limping down to San Francisco to sleep and hang out with Ritual. The final stop being a couple of days in LA with the new Intelli.la crew, and be driven around a little by Tonx. A truly inspiring trip – my only regret being not able to take four times as long to do it.

Cupping at Intelli LA

July

At this point I realised that Tokyo was now looming very seriously on the horizon so it was time to retreat indoors with a GB5 and practice, practice, practice. I do love competition but I don’t love the long hours and stress that come with serious practice and rehearsals – Anette’s ability to cope with me during these times still amazes me. However the stress clearly starts to get to us and the absurd latte art comeptition is born the night before we head to Tokyo.

Our absurd latte art pour

August

WBC time – I compete in the heats first up on the second day. Things go wrong – I have to repull my first set of capp shots, my burners blow a fuse and I don’t realise they haven’t worked until the very end. I smile, forget to call a technical and finish – I am offered another run but turn it down. I assume I’ve messed up – I’ve seen so many great baristas compete I think I haven’t a chance. Little do I know I’ve qualified in second and when I realise I’ve made it into the finals I aim to go out and have some fun. Which I do, and it turns out the judges had fun as well. Becoming World Barista Champion was the most amazing surprise and an indescribable feeling. It still hasn’t sunk in completely. People say lots and lots of nice things! I am very grateful to everyone who worked so hard helping me and asked for so little in return.
I am also delighted the cups I had signed get auctioned off for $500 – Poul and Steve are both incredible and generous people.
At this point I realise that the plans we’ve been making may get a little delayed with likely WBC duties.

About to begin my finals routine

September

The travel begins! We head off to Toronto to judge the CBC and pour latte art in Arthur’s ear for the now hotting up Absurd Latte art challenge. My first time judging and I love it though I get very nervous. From there it is straight into the Nordic Barista Cup which is in Gothenburg and is great. We mostly hang out with the lovely Chris and M’lissa and laugh at a cafe roasting in a domestic oven. The absurd latte art competition comes to a close and is rightly won by the intelli.la guys.

October

The UK go and get our asses kicked by the Russians on home turf in the European Team Coffee Challenge. Moscow doesn’t endear itself to me – mostly due to endless traffic jams. Outside of barista-ing but still coffee related is my doing the photography for the Espresso Warehouse catalogue which was a great challenge and I think turned out pretty well. A trip to Milan for HOST is a welcome chance to remind myself exactly what Italian espresso is all about and to catch up with some of the guys from Ritual who are over working a booth. Robusta makes us pull faces.

The Russian teams wins the ETCC

November

Anette and I go to Colombia – to Armenia for coffee farms and Bogota to judge their barista competition. I love the place and wish we could stay longer and see beyond the exhibition centre. Anyone who travels a lot for work to the inside of boring exhibition centres in interesting places probably feels the same quite often. It was, however, great to hang out with Salvador (the Mexican Barista champion) and some of his family. On returning home I get my GS3 from La Marzocco – part of my WBC prize to go with my Compak Grinder and Mahlkoenig K30 from the UK comp (I am spoiled, I know…..)

Me with Salvador and Fabian (Colombian champ 2007)

December

A quieter month but a highlight was definitely a trip to Probat with Anette, Klaus and Casper. The museum itself is reason enough to go – so many amazing machines. Not long after that I sneak off to Costa Rica for a week to talk about all things barista related and to see Herbazu and meet the farmers to whom I am so grateful. It is all a bit hectic but it is good to sneak away to Norway for Christmas to think about the next year and wonder what will happen. I promise updates and explanation with regards to Square Mile Coffee Roasters and the UKBC gets into full swing too – but no reports this year as I’m judging, only photos of ones I attend as a spectator.

It has been an amazing year and I am really looking forward to 2008. Hope it is a happy and prosperous year for you too!

Last year the show was crazily busy for me.  Apart from an amusing and brief appearance on BBC breakfast tv on one the first day that meant people at the show kept asking if they had seen me somewhere before without being able to remember where, I strongly remember plowing through a lot of coffee (the remnants of my UKBC blend of that year) and serving the majority of it as espresso which seemed a pretty good thing at the time.

I am spending a bit of time today working on my presentations for the show.  What is interesting is that this is a tradeshow that has realised that the internet has pretty much killed the traditional tradeshow (you can see most products in almost infinite detail online, and get most prices too) and has turned to education to add value.

Aside from traditional seminars – I am doing one about barista competitions – they have gotten involved with the SCAE UK Chapter to run an impressive selection of workshops in 4 separate classrooms.   Each workshop has a different theme – Espresso, Filter Brewing/Cupping, New Start Up, Advanced skills.  I like that they are trying to get away from espresso as a central theme.  It is good to see Clover will  be there, as well as shop roasting workshops and good solid basics like how to layout a bar so it actually works (all too rare in the real world sadly).  I think Se’s presentation on how to improve your UKBC performance will be well attended as well.

I openly admit I am involved in one session – the advanced barista skills one – but if people get behind this I think it is really going to be excellent and set a very high standard for what the SCAE can offer.  All the classes and the instructors are listed on the website here.   We need to see education spread further in the UK, we need people to see the value in it – though I don’t think anyone reading this will seriously question that – and I think this event is a really good step in that direction.  And at £20 a session (if you buy 5) it is absurdly cheap (I think they’ve sold a fair few already).

The last time I did an advanced barista workshop was in Ireland (For the SCAE chapter there) I think I misjudged the audience a little bit.  I maybe went too much science not enough fun.  I hope not to make the same mistake twice!

I guess I am posting about this because I want to spread the word about an event with strong training and education (that has been my role for the last 2 and a half years)  that I see as being really positive and would dearly love to see it be the success it deserves.  That and (if I am honest) I really hope people come to my workshop!