Hi folks! Hope everyone’s enjoyed a quiet few weeks since the big SCAA conference in Portland ”not to mention the United States Barista Championship, where this girl took the crown:
I don’t know about you, but it took me a while to recover from the excitement, the show, the barista competition, the parties, the friends, the meetings, all of it, after the SCAA.
But buck up, young soldiers! It’s time for the next slew of amazing coffee events, beginning in just a few days with the first ever East Coast Barista Camp! Camp is almost sold out, but if you’re itching to be spontaneous and get your coffee learning on, hop over to the BGA website and register already! Camp takes place in Pembroke, Virgina, June 4-7, at the Mountain Lake Conservancy. And if you didn’t already know this, the Mountain Lake Conservancy is where they filmed Dirty Dancing oh-so-many moons ago. WOW.
But the excitement doesn’t stop there! Just one day after the end of barista camp, Coffee Fest Chicago begins! For the many who have always complained about Coffee Fest Chicago always taking place in the cold month of February, now’s your chance to experience it in the early summer! Navy Pier will be hopping both outside and in, as Coffee Fest rocks the Windy City from June 8 “10.
And not only is the trade show floor at Coffee Fest Chicago going to be exciting, but so will the New World Latte Art Championship, taking place in the mornings before the show floor opens. The 64-barista competition pits baristas against each other in pairs, the better pour of the pair going on to the next round. To see the list of competitors and the head-to-head battle pairs, go HERE and download the bracket.
And the coffee action doesn’t stop with Coffee Fest, oh no! Next, we’re off to Vienna for the 2012 World Barista Championship, yee-haw! The SCAE is hosting the WBC this year, and they have some big shoes to fill (hmmm… not sure about how this analogy is working) given that the FNC in Colombia blew it UP last year when it hosted the WBC in Vienna. Hopefully the SCAE is up to the task! The World Barista Championship begins June 12, with day one of the preliminary round. At the end of the day on June 13, the semifinalists will be announced, and the semifinal round will commence on June 14. Then, we’ll find out who our six finalists will be, and the finals round of the 2012 WBC will kick off on Friday, June 15.
If you’re not going to be in Vienna, you can check out all the action live online on the World Barista Championship’s official website.
Also, Barista Magazine is excited to have produced the official WBC Event Program for Vienna. We’ll have thousands of copies to give away to all attendees of the WBC and the SCAE, but if you want to follow along at home, be sure to check Barista Magazine’s website to see the whole program as a pdf, beginning June 11!
OK, so that’s all the events in June, right? Wrong! There’s one more great one: Barista Nation Vancouver and the Caffeine Crawl! There has already been a Barista Nation event in Vancouver, and it was awesome, so we expect this next installment will be amazing, as well! For all the details, and a larger version of the info card listed below, go to Barista Nation’s homepage, and email baristanation@gmail.com to register!
But the weekend ”Barista Nation takes place on Friday, June 22 ”is going to be extra exciting, as Jason Burton’s brainchild, the Caffeine Crawl, is taking place the day after: Saturday, June 23!
This will be an amazing way for people to experience the historic and vibrant cafe scene in Vancouver, B.C. For more information about the Caffeine Crawl, go HERE.
So as you can see, it’s going to be one helluva June this year. Stay tuned to Barista Magazine’s Facebook page for photos and details about all the events. Also, check back often for my on-the-ground reports from Vienna throughout the WBC.
And we look forward to seeing many of you at one (or all) of these amazing events!
