Whether it was because we were in the USA with our hot-off-the-press international edition Barista Bible, the anticipation of meeting up with our coffee friend Summer Lewis or that we were in a historically significant coffee city, we were particularly excited to be in Boston.
It was also our first coffee event in the USA and we were filled with the anticipation of finding a distributor or two in North America. We met with Ellie Hudson from the training arm of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the ultimate outcome was that the SCAA would sell our products. She invited us to sit in on one of the barista training sessions. As a teacher of well over 20 years experience, I’d never seen a classroom like it. There was a central speaker at a podium, in this case Emma Markland-Webster from New Zealand and around the room were 8 fully equipped workstations where 16 baristas put into practice the espresso techniques Emma had explained. At each station were tutors who guided the trainees through their learning.
The first day of the event was also the US Barista Championships, where Pete Licata from Parisi Artisan Coffee in Kansas City, was the winner; who’d go onto Melbourne shortly after to compete in the World Barista Championships at MICE. Erin McCarthy from Counter Culture Coffee won the US Brewers Cup.
Meanwhile, the largest trade show we’d ever witnessed was also happening in another section of the Boston Convention Centre. Highlights were the unveiling of the Mythos grinder and the La Marzocco Linea PB, talks about direct trade and single-origin coffee were happening everywhere and we had our first serious discussions about the importance of water in coffee – with a German company, Mavea. Finally, coffee processed in the digestive tracts of animals and birds was being blacklisted by the global coffee community. Thank goodness!
There were in more than 30 coffee producing countries represented at the 2013 event in Boston. From an historical perspective, the Ethiopian stands are always of particular interest to me and I’m always keen to learn a little more about the place where the coffee industry is believed to have started around the 7th century. Also from a visual perspective, their displays are always so colourful and interactive.
It took us pretty much the 3 days to get around the 700 or so stands on the trade show floor and here are some of the more unusual things we found along the way.
An interesting concept was Barista Nation, an initiation of the French company, UNIC Espresso Machines. It was a kind of café popup at the front of the Convention Centre that provided space for local baristas to showcase innovative practices, share stories, network and to learn from each other – their motto being ‘No Barista is Left Behind’.
A definite highlight was to hear Helen Russell, one of the founders of Equator Coffee from California, talk about their purchase of a coffee farm in Panama and planting 25,000 Geisha trees. It was the first I’d heard of a western roaster buying a coffee farm and the first I’d heard of Geisha. The theme that ran through her talk was it’s not ‘what you do’ but ‘why you do it’ that’s important. Very thought provoking indeed.
Another highlight was to attend a fundraising breakfast for the International Women’s Coffee Alliance. The keynote address was on the education of children in coffee growing communities of Central America. As a schoolteacher in a past life, this was something that touched my heart and I returned to Australia with a resolve to join the IWCA and look into the possibility of forming an Australian chapter and figure out a way that women in my own coffee community could make some kind of contribution to help.
I’m always so impressed by the number of initiatives designed to help women in coffee communities. The inaugural Javajog was held in Boston; an event set to be a regular fundraiser to support women in the Congo. With a team of impressive co-founders, Kimberly Easson, Beth Ann Caspersen and Aimee Russillo, this event is sure to be a continuing success.
The Natvia Speakeasy Barista Afterparty topped off the 3 day, action-packed event. We’d been forewarned about the speakeasy theme, so had costumes planned and packed.
We met up with Aussie and NZ chums, Mark Hanna, Sean Edwards, Scottie Callaghan, Craig Dickson, Emma Markland-Webster and Carl Sara as well as international coffee friends Annemarie Tiemes, Joseph Rivera and Reg Barber. And I met the inspirational Heather Perry from Klatch Coffee – a woman I’ve admired from afar for some time. She juggles being a hands-on Mum with a highly successful coffee career in a multi-award winning company, being two times US Barista Champion in 2003 and 2007 as well as second in the World Barista Championship in 2007. I finally got to ask the question ‘How do you do it?’
At the end of the show, Rene from Coffee Planet, a Canadian company, came forward and offered to take all the leftover stock wed taken across the Pacific off our hands. So with two distributors in negotiations and talks with a couple more potentials, we were pretty happy.