HB will be reporting this week from the Specialty Coffee of America (SCAA) conference in Boston. Brewing competition, training sessions, and of course the showroom floor filled with the latest espresso gear! So watch this space for updates! If you can't wait, I'm tweeting coverage as I volunteer at the Brewer's Cup.

PS: Also see SCAA 2013 Reports: People for more coverage.

I caught a tweet about the new MODBAR system for steam, espresso, and pour-over with under-counter guts.

Update: Good Sprudge article: First Look At The Modbar Modular Espresso System » Sprudge.com

Thursday 11 April

It's setup day at the SCAA, no booths to visit, but watch out for forklifts:



But the USBC is already underway:



As is the brewing competition, my story for the day. Sherman and I did a volunteer gig that gave us lots of time to observe the action:

Yep, we spent the afternoon doing reflectometer TDS measurements on all the brewed cups. Not a word, if you please, on my past reflectometer history, just a silent acknowledgement of divine irony! In any case, the readings are only used to disqualify brews higher than 2%, rather than as a factor in the scoring.

Here's one of the competitors, young working baristas, highly competent and very passionate. The coffees thet brewed were all objects of cupper desire -- enologist fermented Costa Ricans, dry processed Bucafe from Rwanda, auction lot Kenyas, and a procession of Geishas, both dry and wet processed, from Panama, Colombia.


No scores yet; but the competition is a keeper


Setups ranged from Clever Drippers and Aeropresses to Chemexes and Hario V60s; here's a Chemex:



One barista made a ballet out of the pour; the picture doesn't do it justice.



There's three judges, who do a cupping derived protocol to score the brews

My turn. As Jim mentioned, we both volunteered at the Brewer's Cup competition. There were two sets, morning and afternoon. Each set featured nineteen competitors, and our job during that time was to take TDS measurements using a VST Refractometer to qualify brews as coffee (<=2.00).

Working view of qualification station:


For the competition, there are 2 identical stations. Each station consists of a Curtis hot water heater, multiple outlets for competitors who choose to bring their own equipment, 3 judges, and a qualification station. For the afternoon session, Jim and I volunteered for the qualification stations.

Judges for Station 1:


Among the competitors, one stood out as exceptional in technique. Tommy Kim's 3-stage pouring was a nice change of pace. For members with multiple pourover stations, this might be a good test.

Stage 2 of 3 pourover:

This is pretty cool!

Jim, that first barista you posted a photo of is Cole McBride of Visions Espresso in Seattle. He is one of the best professionals in the industry, a helluva nice guy, and I'm honored to call him a friend.

Thanks for adding the info -- I wasn't taking proper notes

Two highlights so far:

1) fantastic form on leaf rust and how specialty coffee and some Central American Americano producers are responding.

2) Stopped by the notneutral booth and talked with Julie Smith-Clementi. They're rolling out a handle-less demitasse that feels gorgeous, and a soon-to-be-revealed high end line in bone China. pics coming tonight.

That will be great to see. I switched to all NotNeutral Cups a while back and quite like them. Not sure if omitting the handles would defeat their ergonomic purpose though.

Whew! A long day of walking the floor, attending some incredibly informative sessions and talking to vendors. I'll post more in the morning, but wanted to get some of the highlights out:

- The Breville dual boiler + grinder is the real deal. Walk up with no skill and bam, perfectly acceptable shot. The trick steam wand is a neat trick, able to dial in different temp and texture.

- Jason Prefontaine of Slayer is preparing to release the "BabySlayer", the single group Slayer, within the next 6 months.

- LM Linea PB. No, it doesn't stand for "Peanut Butter".

- Baratza's Forte is a Vario-W on steroids. Solid, solid machine with a 50% duty cycle.

- A very special dinner with Kees Van der Westen. Jim and Dan will vouch for the realness of meeting Kees and his lovely wife.