CoffeeCon Chicago, April 12 - Call for Baristas

Talk about your favorite cafes, local barista events, or plan your own get-together.
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another_jim
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#1: Post by another_jim »

Apologies for the short notice: How would you like to pull shots for about 50 people while I talk about home espresso?

CoffeeCon is an annual convention for non-professional, non-amateur regular people who want to improve their home coffee. There will be classes on home roasting and brewing, product demos, etc, etc. This year its being held in Bridgeport at the Zhou B convention center and museum.

My class is usually in the afternoon, with set up at lunch, and finishing around 5pm. If needed, I can provide room, board, and in town transport. Last year Lin and Terry did a great job; and I hope we can do as well this year.

The biggest sweetener I can offer is the chance to catch George Howell's talk and tasting.

If interested: post, pm or email.
Jim Schulman

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another_jim (original poster)
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#2: Post by another_jim (original poster) »

Sherman is coming. It would be great to have one or two more people.
Jim Schulman

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another_jim (original poster)
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#3: Post by another_jim (original poster) »

I have a second Barista. Thanks Chris. We'll be happy to get other HBers who are attending to come and help out.

We'll be pulling on two Elektra Semis and two K10s. The primary goal is simply for people to get crowd pleasingly tasty straight espresso. The secondary goal is for people to taste the difference in extraction levels in two shots with different grind/dose levels. In a perfect world, people would enjoy both shots; and split 50/50 on which they prefer.
Jim Schulman

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another_jim (original poster)
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#4: Post by another_jim (original poster) »

The schedule is up George Howell is on from 9:15 to 11:15, and there' an extra $10 fee. This lecture is well worth it. I'm on 2 to 4; it's old hat for HBers, but I'll appreciate all who come.
Jim Schulman

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another_jim (original poster)
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#5: Post by another_jim (original poster) »

I made a mistake on the location: The Zhou B Art Center, where the event is being held, is in Bridgeport, not Chinatown, about a mile west of White Sox's Cellular Field, at 35th Street, between Halsted and Racine.
Jim Schulman

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another_jim (original poster)
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#6: Post by another_jim (original poster) »

My thanks to Chris (catherwood) and Sherman for doing the barista honors in completely spectacular fashion. My home espresso talk was attended by about 40 people, and they served each person a pair of comparison shots, one high dose/coarse grind, one low dose/fine grind. The shots were consistent and distinct, with all the attendees enjoying and being able to clearly distinguish both shots. Pulling off a comparison like this for a large group is epic.

The high dose shots won 20 to 10, with about 10 people liking them equally. I had roasted my own coffee; but it was still too raw to use, so I picked up a couple of pounds of Black Cat Classic. As you can tell from the split, it has mellowed. The current Brazil/Colombia combo tastes of raisins and chocolate, very clean and soft. The higher dose shot gave it a bit of structure, but wasn't quite as sweet.

I spoke again about the appreciation of coffee, foods and other edibles being less about having a mysterious tasting gift and more about understanding the appreciated thing with ever greater depth. On a show of hands it turns out that only ten of the attendees were already interested in coffee or espresso; but that all of them had some food related hobby, gong from fancy cooking to beer brewing. For you marketing types: I think you might want to consider this a growing niche.
Jim Schulman

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Boldjava
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#7: Post by Boldjava »

another_jim wrote:...On a show of hands it turns out that only ten of the attendees were already interested in coffee or espresso; but that all of them had some food related hobby, gong from fancy cooking to beer brewing. For you marketing types: I think you might want to consider this a growing niche.
My anecdotal experience would support this.

One of our daughters is a foodie. She and her friends:
  • Have monthly get-togethers with everyone preparing a dish around a theme at one person's home,
    all support community sponsored ag or share a portion of a grazed animal,
    shop at farmers' markets/organics,
    cruise the latest new restaurants,
    take professional cooking courses.
None is a coffee freak by any stretch of the imagination, but to a person, they are sincerely interested in my coffee ventures. They can't get enough information and background on the coffee end of things. They are captivated by high touch, artisan efforts , high-end product, "home-made" with care.
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