Well, on a last minute whim I was sent up to Minneapolis for the 20^th annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference. It just so happens I had never had an opportunity to partake in all the coffee fun that happens at conference. So of course I was stoked! The drive up on Friday was pretty intense. The storms in the Midwest area were picking up steam as I was leaving Friday morning, and through Iowa I was tempted more than a couple times to pull over for the crazy rain, but toughed it out. Made it into town at about 7pm, just in time for the Welcome reception. Great food! This year’s theme was “roots” (with a concentration on Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee) so there were all kinds of traditional Ethiopian prepared dishes. Wonderful! The reception was a great time with our good friend from Riley’s Coffee and Fudge, Barry Jarret. As well as providing a place to crash, he showed me around and introduced me to all kinds of cool people. It also gave me an opportunity to catch up with quite a few of the friends I’ve made in the industry. Ever seen an Ethiopian fashion show? That was another very interesting plus of the welcoming party. We headed out of the reception to the Mill City Museum, where Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea hosted a huge after party. Good times, more introductions courtesy of Barry, and maybe, what would have been the makings of a Latte Art throwdown… There were unfortunately technical difficulties with the espresso machine and that squelched all rumors and hope of that. I wanted in there! There is always next year

So the following morning I made it to the actual showroom floor and had a chance to watch the USBC (United States Barista Competition). I watched a few presentations and quickly got frustrated! I wanted to be up there! There were some great competitors and quite a few from the MWRBC (Midwest Regional Barista Competition) that I had the honor of competing alongside of

The showroom was pretty crazy, was like a huge maze of coffee related vendors. Lots of really cool stuff! It took me a good 4 hours to navigate the whole floor. I was finally able to meet some of our vendors like Dave over at Zephyr, one of our green coffee importers. Tricked him out with some of our new T-shirts and our infamous clothes-pins, in return he gave me a toy I haven’t seen in years, Paddle Ball. Zephyr branded and everything! Slick marketing there… Also met Natalie at Bunn. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t have had access to the showroom floor, Thanks Natalie! The guys over at Franke set me up with a tuff La Marzocco T-shirt as well as a lanyard… That booth was a barista’s dream! They were demo-ing a realllllly cool machine with paddle operated group heads. It was a Linea (lin-A-uh) very similar to ours. I still felt like I hadn’t seen everything so I made my way back around a second time! I made lots of contacts with old friends, and made quite a few new ones. I also had entirely too much espresso! There was tons of great coffee being given away. Who could pass that up? Now for the pictures… and thanks for reading! There’s tons more so when your in the bakery just ask!

Alex