Posted by TheShot on 07 May 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Quality Issues
We’re more than a bit late with the news here, but a hearty and well-deserved congratulations to Kyle Glanville of LA’s Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea for winning the 2008 U.S. Barista Championship (USBC): 2008 US Barista Champion « The Official 2008 SCAA Conference Blog.
Proving the West is Best, and giving us some minor trash-talking rights, [...]
Posted by TheShot on 01 May 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues, Starbucks
While I’ll be checking out Barista Coffee in India, Minneapolis will be hosting this year’s U.S. Barista Championship during the SCAA conference this weekend.
Yesterday, the host city’s hometown paper, the Star Tribune, published a rather lengthy article on the event: The great barista battle is brewing. It’s a story that’s been covered dozens, if not [...]
Posted by TheShot on 30 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Local Brew, Quality Issues
With Spring upon us, that means it’s time for the 2008 Western Regional Barista Competition (WRBC): ‘Attention to every detail’ at Berkeley barista contest - San Jose Mercury News. Starting this past Friday and ending today (check out their photo album), the 2008 WRBC performs a time-honored ritual to select a barista champ representing our [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista
Seattle’s Coffee Fest trade show ended yesterday. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an article announcing the winners of its “Millrock Free Pour Latte Art competition” (isn’t that a mouthful?): Artistic cup of joe brings home $5,000 prize.
Top honors and $5,000 of prize money went to Layla Emily Osberg of Vancouver, BC’s Blenz Coffee — where I [...]
Posted by TheShot on 02 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Barista
The votes have been tallied and a huge round of congratulations are in order. Props to James Hoffman, of La Spaziale UK Ltd. and jimseven fame (jimseven.com has linked over here often), for winning the 2007 World Barista Championship (WBC) today in Tokyo: Briton is crowned world espresso ‘barista’ champion at Tokyo contest (International Herald [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew
I can’t in my right mind write a legitimate review of SF’s infamous Buena Vista Cafe. Sure, it’s no secret that I frequently dismiss the merits of the coffee cocktail — what people do to coffee when it either isn’t very good, when people don’t like it, or when people get bored easily. Even if [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 18 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Foreign Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
Today’s Toronto Star featured an article on the growth of Toronto area independent coffee shops (many of which call themselves “espresso bars”, per the article): TheStar.com - living - Toronto’s love affair with espresso bars heats up. Toronto now has a mixture of established independent espresso bars and a growing array of newer ones. (A [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Café Society, Fair Trade, Starbucks
Today Voice of America News broadcast an executive summary of sorts on specialty coffee consumption in America: VOA News - Good to the Last Drop: Coffee Culture Is Alive and Well in the US. Like many things VOA, it’s spoken in slow and clearly annunciated English. Think the clinical drone of NPR presented at the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 18 May 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Starbucks
The business world is fraught with a number of ironies. One of the bigger ironies is that all good businesses must do ridiculous things that detract from the very core things that made them good in the first place. Big, public businesses do this in an effort to sustain the growth figures demanded by Wall [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 08 May 2007 | Tagged as: Barista
Many congratulations are in order for Heather Perry of Coffee Klatch in San Dimas, CA: Specialty Coffee Association of America Names 2007 United States Barista Champion. Heather entered the 2007 U.S. Barista Championship as a reigning three-peat winner of the Western Regional Barista Competition (or WRBC).
Yesterday at the 2007 SCAA conference, Heather beat out the [...]