Posted Sun Mar 21, 2004, 2:08pm Subject: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
Well, I managed to get down to Coffee Fest D.C. for two of the three days it was taking place and thought a few of you might be interested in hearing what went on (this year). Firstly, the latte art competition had a fair number of mediocre art pourers (though really, who am I to judge.) Compared to the pictures of the work done by you Geeks, it was far from first rate. The winner, a young man from Gimme! Coffee in Ithaca, NY (whose name fails me, sorry), on the other hand, did pour some impressive drinks. His winning pour was a triple rosetta, quite pretty. I don't mean to bad-mouth the contestents - I sometimes forget they are under stress and using unfamiliar equipment...
As far as the exhibition goes I was also a bit disappointed. One would think that an event geared towards Geeks, Alties, and random shop owners would be above simple, lame, marketing gimmics. I was disappointed to find that virtually every booth, save for a few local roasters and South American plantation owners, was staffed by marketers who could answer virtually none of my questions. The La Spaziala guys didn't know how to operate their own machines and suggested in a joking manner that I could simply read the manual upon purchase. I don't think I had a single well-brewed cup of drip coffee and there were but a few qualified baristi pulling shots. I am still amazed that retail shop booth staff had the nerve to brew what I refer to as "hot yellow water" at such a convention.
Anyway, my bad experiences aside, I had a good time. Lots of coffee samples, some quite good, others not. Lots of nice and interesting folk in the business. Overall worth the $35 it cost because I forgot to pre-register. I'm interested in knowing whether other East Coasters had similar experiences and if not, what was different.
Also, on sort of a side note, I assume the Seattle convention will have more, different exhibiters. Is this correct?
onocoffee Senior Member Joined: 5 Sep 2002 Posts: 729 Location: Towson, Maryland Expertise: Just starting
Espresso: La Marzocco Linea 2AV, 3AV &... Grinder: 4 Mazzer Major Autos, Compak... Vac Pot: That crazy Bodum eSantos Drip: Bunn CWT Twin, Bunn Water... Roaster: Petroncini The Crumb
Posted Sun Mar 21, 2004, 9:05pm Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
Latte art competition?
First of all, congratulations to the winners: Chris deFerio of Gimme Coffee in Ithaca, NY, Dan Peterson of Hyperion Espresso in Fredericksburg, VA and Andy Cronin of Batdorf & Bronson in Olympia, WA. These guys did a tremendous job working with a Faema E92 whose steam tip was just out of control, produced very wet steam and just was plain diffucult at best to work with. The one remark of all the baristas competing was that the steam and the wand just sucked.
As far as the "mediocre" latte art goes, I'll be the first one to say that mine was terrible and that I didn't think I should have made it to the finals. However, this is also to say that the East Coast needs more baristi to actually COMPETE in the competitions and get involved with what's going on. There were a number of barista who just weren't able to get into the groove with the unfamiliar machine, unfamiliar grind and pressure of being on-stage performing. It's a bit of a shame when your best rosettas are poured after the competition when you're passing out free drinks.
Also, keep in mind that the world is a very different place when you're making latte art on your home machine that you've mastered and in a competitive environment where the machine is foreign to you.
And for the East Coast, I was impressed with the vendor turn-out. Sure, companies like Caffe D'Amore sent out their booth but let their brokers handle questions but that's to be expected with a smaller sized show where the numbers haven't built yet. What I found encouraging was the number of shop owners and new shop owners, based on the East Coast, that are interested in producing high quality coffee and learning about and teaching their baristas about things like latte art. The East Coast has been a black void of coffee for generations and I'm hoping that this is a sign of things to come.
But I have to disagree that there wasn't a place to get good coffee there. Batdorf was brewing up some great drip. I had an excellent latte by the guys at Mayorga. Orinoco and Dillanos were pulling what looked to be pretty good shots as well.
And one more thing to disagree about. AFAIK, CoffeeFest is not geared towards Geeks and Alties. It's geared to the trade. To the owners, operators and staff of coffee businesses.
As far as Seattle, I don't know if you noticed it but they had the vendor chart for Seattle by the registration booths today. It looks to be a much bigger show with a lot more vendors!
coffeegoddess Senior Member Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 29 Location: south carolina Expertise: Pro Barista
Espresso: la marzocco Grinder: mazzer luigi Drip: bunn Roaster: ambex
Posted Tue Mar 23, 2004, 12:54pm Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
well, being a vendor, i am glad it's finished. that was my first coffee trade show. it wore me out. i was there with Chaos Roasters. you would have remembered us. crazy logo. hawaiian shirts. technicolor hair. awesome coffee.
but i agree with onocoffee.... it WAS geared to the trade. i think if it had been geared to the "Geeks and Alties" then it would have had more of a coffeehouse feel to it. like offering clothing, accessories, cool tables, and other items.
i wish i could have seen the competition. i was hoping to go to the regionals, but we got iced in. and 4 hours of driving up a mountain in ice is not exactly my idea of a good time.
Posted Tue Mar 23, 2004, 2:40pm Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
Onocoffee, I didn't mean to come across as strongly as I apparently did, forgive me for that. I only witnessed a brief period of the actual competition leading up to the end (the last 5 or so contestants and the rest was based on witness accounts and pictures.) I was simply shocked to see a few of the early round winners had poured what appeared like white blobs to me compared to some of the art I've seen at places like Vivace and on this very website. Everything you said is correct though, low East Coast turnout is a hindrance and since I'm not part of the solution...
Coffeegoddess, Chaos' stand was actually one of my all-around favorites, and I do remember you for all the reasons you listed. The samples of the Anarchy blend were fantastic, good enough for me to consider ordering more of when I get tired of roasting :) Keep up the most excellent work.
I didn't mean to come across as if I were bashing all the exhibiters, etc. but didn't you guys think that there was an awful lot of bad coffee mixed in with the good? It would seem straightfoward to me that if I wanted to sell wholesale beans to a private coffee shop I would ensure that my representatives had some idea of how to brew decent samples. Bad samples = bad sales...
adamgoldberg Senior Member Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 45 Location: Virginia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Expobar Control Grinder: Mazzer Mini Drip: Krups Aroma Control
Posted Tue Mar 23, 2004, 3:25pm Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
I went on Saturday afternoon (only), had a great time.
That said, it's true that the show was certainly aimed directly at the trade, and therefore I didn't really feel right monopolozing anybody's time (esp. machine vendors), though I would have liked to spent more time talking with Bill Crossland at ESI's booth.
The pictures of the Latte Art posted on the board (pre-Finals) were mostly disappointing. At one booth, I saw one of the competitors playing with an exhibitor's machine and making very impressive lattes -- all the while complaining about the machine used in the competition.
I went to the "Espresso Extraction" seminar Saturday afternoon. It was held in a huge room, but with only 15-20 people. It was very interesting to watch a step-by-step instruction on, basically, "Making Espresso 101 for New or Prospective Coffee Shop Owners".
Among the tidbits was the instructor's assertion that a 30# tamp was not necessary with properly ground coffee. The argument goes something like this: If you pack it hard, you need to grind it coarser then otherwise. If you have a hard-packed coarse grind, you've essentially minimized the surface area of coffee the water passes through (except, of course, you're not channeling). If you have a medium-packed fine grind, you have more surface area of coffee for the water to pass through -- each grain of coffee is smaller, thereby having more surface area alltogether.
Of course, he admits that this is a controversial topic.
As far as trade shows go, I typically go to several very large trade shows each year: CES, NAB and NCTA conventions. CoffeeFest was colocated with a Government-oriented IT show which was quite large - CoffeeFest was in a tiny corner. A large tradeshow takes several days to just walk each aisle. I made a rather comprehensive pass through CoffeeFest in about 3 hours (however, see above, I didn't spend a lot of time talking to anybody).
Posted Tue Mar 23, 2004, 5:44pm Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
Adam... Hey...I wish I could have met up with you...oh well there's always Chicago. Yeah, That conestant making lattes at an exhibiters booth might have been me....was it at the Dallis Coffee booth? They had a Faema Legend. Nice Machine... but it could have been any barista there complaining about the steam on the e-92. It was too wet. ...thats the one thing we all were trying to overcome...hguge bubble and no texture. The Legend's steam was dry....Dillanos' Faema's steam was dry...the competition machine was an obstacle. And our Latte art suffered a bit. oh well. Maybe next time we can get a Linea or at least a machine that has dry steam...and if they plan on giving us handicaps like that...a little warning would be good. make it like an obsacle course like an espresso survivor....throw in some bad gaskets...a pitcher with a broken handle...a one hole steam tip, and only soy milk...and then youve got a challenge ;-) I had alot of fun though. And my hats off to coffee fest for providing the venue and the opportunity...may there be many more.
Ono... Hey it was good to meet you there... Maybe we'll meet up at future east coast events. Take care. -Chris Deferio
MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 5,054 Location: Vancouver Expertise: Professional
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Posted Wed Mar 24, 2004, 1:17am Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
So I got a question... who's the guy who went up to Bruce Milletto (Bellisimo Consulting) at CoffeeFest DC and introduced himself to Bruce as a rep for CG :) :) :) :)
CBS Senior Member Joined: 17 Jan 2004 Posts: 293 Location: New Zealand Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Rancilio Classe 10 and Epoca Grinder: Rancilio MD80, 50 &Rocky,...
Posted Wed Mar 24, 2004, 1:50am Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
I agree about the Faema! They are dogs of a machine to compete on... stupid short fat wands are not condusive to good milk for a free pour! I find that the wand needs a really good purge before each use, that helped a little, also only using a smaller 600ml pitcher enables better control with the short wand... but having troublesome, foreign machines is just a part of competition and part of the fun!
What type of format are the competitions being run on? Types of drinks, times etc? Are they to WBC criteria? When is the U.S. selection for the worlds made? Anyone know?
adamgoldberg Senior Member Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 45 Location: Virginia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Expobar Control Grinder: Mazzer Mini Drip: Krups Aroma Control
Posted Wed Mar 24, 2004, 7:03am Subject: Re: Coffee Fest D.C. all wrapped up...
Deferio Said:
Yeah, That conestant making lattes at an exhibiters booth might have been me....was it at the Dallis Coffee booth? They had a Faema Legend. Nice Machine...
Yes, that was you. I was the guy hovering that looks, well, like my avatar :) I could have stood there and watched you making lattes for an hour. You seemed busy/in a hurry, so I didn't try to corner you for a chat.
If I overheard right, the Legend you were using had nice steam but had a boiler problem and trouble extracting espresso (or at least it was having problems later in the day when I happened to walk by again).
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