In this photo essay, I give you some views and looks at the show floor.

I should point out though that I'm entirely disappointed with myself this year and my attention to the actual trade show. In total, I spent only 1 hour and 25 minutes walking the floor as a "reporter", and too much of the time was spent at too few booths. I had way too much on the plate, and as a result, I seriously failed at one of the things I really wanted to do at the show, and as a CoffeeGeek rep, should be reporting on: the cool new tech and gizmos of coffee, especially for consumers.

Next year, the show floor will get a hard-wired, completely scheduled minimum of six hours over two days - and I will do a better job at the next trade shows I cover - including NASCORE, CoffeeFest, the Canadian Coffee and Tea Expo, and possibly others.

In the meantime, I've put these photos into categories, and where I can, I've included some detailed comments this time around. Enjoy! (and if you have photos of some cool stuff from the show floor that I don't have below, email me them with descriptions, and I'll add them to this page).

Pre-Show Looks

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Setting Up The show floor look on Thursday. Within one day, this would be full of polished, shiny booths and carpeting! Show Floor Over to the right side, that big TV screen is where the Barista Competition took place. Machines out of Boxes Getting set up isn't an easy thing.

Juan Buddy! The Colombian booth... I didn't visit it when the show was live :( Guatemalan Booth Again, another booth I failed to visit during the live show. I suck :( Pasquini's Booth Sigh. Again, another non visit. But Jeanette visited it.

Boyd's Big Booths Boyd's coffee had two booth spots - one for the coffee side, one for equipment. Brasil Booth Sigh... (you know what I was going to type). Zojirushi Booth I did get to talk to these folks for all of two minutes. In this case, they were busy with sales, so I moved on.

General Show Floor Stuff

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Flash Don't Work A look at the show floor just before it opened. Down row 1500 (went from 100 to 2000). Show Floor Opens The floor has just opened, and the biz of coffee commences. Ethiopian Rep At the TransFair booth, all the major countries that participate in Fair Trade coffee had booths and reps.

WICA Women's Coffee Alliance members and booth. TransFair The Fair Trade People had a great setup happening. I'm glad I got to renew my friendship with Haven Bourque. Walking the Floor Each row had a major "sponsor". In this case it was Fetco's row.

Transfair Another shot of the Fair Trade booth. Barista Guild The Guild had a great booth and a lot of signups. Look for Andy Cronin to write a story about the guild for CoffeeGeek soon. Guild Booth Dismas Smith pulls a shot on an old fashioned lever machine at the Barista Guild booth.

Commercial Equipment and Services

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Faema E61 Legend Machine at the Dalis Coffee booth. Lovin' the PF handles! New Blue The Blue Barlume at the Elektra booth. Blue Barlume View from the other side. Pictures don't do this machine justice.

Funky Astra So it's now in a 1 group... hmmmmmmmmm. Small Roaster There were several small sample roasters designed to mimic big commercial roasters as close as possible. Ambex Roaster Terry Davis was in full effect at the show. Not only did he sponsor the Barista Guild party (rock on Terry!) but his booth was popular.

Mazzer Mazzer Rocks. There's a new "mini" version of the Robur. Except this "mini" is the size of a Jolly. I want. Bad. The Mark Prince Setup :) Hey, that's my home setup! Actually, this cool kit was auctioned off to support the USBC (donated by ESI). The final price was $4701, which is an absolute bargain. Marzocco up close The new 'lectronics on the La Marzoccos blow my mind. You have to get a demo to see the functionality of the PID systems in full effect.

Mairali I haven't heard of this maker before. Couldn't get info either. Futurmat I saw Futurmat machines all over the place. Big Boiler You know, it's still popular for some machine manufacturers to do these big faux boilers (some work) on top. I'm not liking the look much any longer.

VFA Expres Another machine we don't see much of. Check out the two steam wands and hot water wand placement. VFA Expres Same machine, different finish. E61 heads, cool looking grinder (I'm guessing it's a Rossi though). Saeco Commercial A closeup on one of the Saeco commercial machines. Again, we don't see much of these in the PNW; but the grouphead design looks solid. Non-E61, but solid.

Astoria Again The two group version of the funky mojo Astoria. Looks cool, but I saw some serious usability issues. Note how it is "built" into the counter. Renegade Another super tiny roaster (does only 100grams!), that tries as best as possible to mimic a larger commercial roaster, so samples roasted will match the shop's main machine. Renegade Their signage. The talk I had with them was cool.

Consumer and Domestic Machines

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La Spaziale S1 The dual boiler S1 Vivaldi machine from La Spaziale. Eventually we'll get one to test. Technivorm The Technivorm machine with the tubular look. Brews awesome coffee. Mini Technivorm A small cup brewer Technivorm.

Reneka PF The portafilter from a Reneka. It's smaller than 58mm, has three bayonets, but is deep (Reneka has several basket sizes up to a quad!) Techno Controls Control panel on the techno. Only disappointment: as a latte artist, I can't abide by an all or nothing steam option (no knob, button only). Reneka The Reneka is now shipping in the US again, as a 110V machine, dual boiler, PID controls, very sweet setup. Add a steam wand knob, and it'll be killah!

Bunn Thermal Bunn's increasingly popular thermal brewer. These remind me of Volvo. We're boxy, but we work. Cafe West Cafe West was the Isomac booth this year, run by Dan and Dawna Hughes. Raya Line Thermos was introducing an ew line of polycarb coloured thermal containers. I'm not really sold - but their vacuum steel thermals rock the casbah.

Here we go Here's the cream of the crop as far as thermal stuff goes. At least from my testing. Espressione Espressione / Briel Booth. Recognize the machine in the middle? Mini Grimac? Yup, a rebranded Mini Grimac. The machine's specs are interesting, but I've never used one.

Espressione Here's their main consumer machine, a pod / grounds machine priced under $300. We'll get one to test soon. Woo! Now this one looks interesting. I wouldn't mind it if they sent one of thes ein to test! Saeco Super Auto A new super auto spotted at the Saeco booth. Based on the same interior as the Starbucks Italia and Solis Palazzo.

Restyled Saeco's Magic super auto with restyled lines, colours and accents. Krups Super Auto Krups was at the show, and this was their top o the line super auto. Similar to the Capresso C1500. Expobar Expobar had a booth at this year's show. I saw some new machines I haven't seen before.

Hrmm This one actually looked a lot cooler in person. Very old school. Utilitarian Utilitarian, but a decent E61 heat exchanger machine. Hottop Hottop was at the show this year, and they were very gracious participants in the home roasting lab.

Single Pod Machines

I gotta say, I consider this current trend to be a bit scary - the movement to proprietary single pod machines. Melita and Phillips kind of started the ball rolling, now everyone's getting into the game. But the problem is, with few exceptions most of the "systems" are proprietary. And you're logged into, for the most part, crappy, expensive coffee.

Espressione Terry This is a standard ESE pod machine from Espressione. Uses any ESE pod from Illy on to Intelligentsia. Espressione This machine ships with an ESE Certified pod adapter. Grindmaster Pod The sales guy was trumpeting this being a less than 30 second brewer of coffee. It's a commercial machine and they said a consumer model would be out soon. Proprietary pods.

Saeco Capsule Looks cool. Uses proprietary capsules (and not even Nespresso, so there's yet another capsule system). Capsule Goes Here I'm scared at all the eggspensive, low grade coffee that these things might pump out. Maybe I'm wrong. Bunn's Answer Bunn has the MyCafe single cup proprietary brewer. Again, looks cool, but you're locked into expensive, stale coffee.

Other Stuff

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Tampers Espresso Parts Northwest's line of Lava tampers Swissmar Swissmar was at the show, and also a supporter of the home roasting lab. Ancap Cups Lovin' the ancap cups at the show...

Ghirardelli Mmmmmmmmm. Chocolate. And Caramel. And white sauce. And... Krups Krups was at the show and they were the premium sponsor of the USBC. Big shout out to them for that. Wha???? I couldn't figure out what the hell this was... but the coffee inside was constantly moving...

There it goes.. Well, it was fun to watch :) Espresso Supply Another supporter of the USBC, they have every thing a home (or commercial) espresso enthusiast would want for accessories. Goodies! Looking for that out of the way coffee accessory?