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Coffee Industry Buzz
Filed under: Events
If downtown Minneapolis seemed particularly abuzz this weekend, it's because the Specialty Coffee Association was holding its annual conference and exhibition at the convention center. Thousands of coffee producers, importers, retailers, and roasters came together for labs, lectures, and information sharing. If you wanted to, say, discuss preserving coffee plants' genetic diversity, or debate Starbucks' purchase of the company that makes Clover coffee machines, this was the place to be.
My favorite discovery was the Handpresso portable espresso maker, a French product making its American debut. The machine uses coffee "pods" and is pressurized by hand, like a bike pump--but you have to produce the hot water. While it's probably about as necessary as the reusable cup sleeves, it was a cool concept that produced a decent-tasting shot.
Three locals--Andrew Palmer of Paradise Roasters, Andrew Millstead of Kopplin's Coffee, and Peter Middlecamp of Black Sheep--participated in the U.S. Barista Championships, in which competitors have 15 minutes to prepare 12 coffee beverages (one espresso, one cappuccino, and one signature drink for each of the four judges). While none placed this year (Peter took sixth at last year's competiton), they were sure fun to watch. Check out these shots from photographer Michael McGuire:
(That's Adam Palmer in the reflection.)
Posted by Rachel Hutton at May 6, 2008 10:49 AM
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Comments
Rachel: There's a local crafter who makes those reusable coffee sleeves. We bought a few at a craft fair at the Uptown VFW. I'll try to find their website.
Posted by: Jason DeRusha at May 6, 2008 4:44 PM
Please do, Jason--it'd be great to point people towards a local product. Do you have trouble remembering to bring it along when you get coffee? That seems to be a challenge with reusable shopping bags.
Posted by: Rachel Hutton at May 6, 2008 5:25 PM
Couldn't make it for the show, but don't forget Plain Joe Coffee.
Posted by: Gerard McLean at May 6, 2008 6:56 PM
I leave reusable shopping bags in the back of my car. That way I have them when I get groceries. The hardest part is remembering to put them back after I bring the food in my house.
Posted by: juan at May 6, 2008 9:23 PM
I do the same thing as Juan, leave the bags in my car. And I also typically forget to put them there after toting in my groceries. That keeps me stocked up on paper bags to use for sorting my recycling...which makes me wonder if there's a better way to do that.
Posted by: Mo Dub at May 7, 2008 7:19 AM
This is starting to turn into all the things I don't like about the coffee industry.
Posted by: Greg at May 7, 2008 8:50 PM
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